U.S. SEC sues Jake Paul, Lindsay Lohan, Soulja Boy, other celebrities over crypto sales
CTV
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday sued Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun, accusing him and several celebrities of illegally selling crypto securities and scheming to artificially inflate trading volume in crypto assets.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday charged Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun with fraud, and accused eight celebrities including actress Lindsay Lohan and rapper Soulja Boy with illegally promoting his crypto assets.
Sun and his companies Tron Foundation, BitTorrent Foundation and Rainberry were accused of having since August 2017 schemed to distribute billions of crypto assets known as Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT) and artificially inflated trading volume.
He was also accused of concealing payment to celebrities to promote TRX and BTT on social media accounts, misleading the public into thinking they had "unbiased interest in TRX and BTT, and were not merely paid spokespersons."
The SEC said Sun's activity generated tens of millions of U.S. dollars of illegal profit at other investors' expense.
"This case demonstrates again the high risk investors face when crypto asset securities are offered and sold without proper disclosure," SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement.
Sun did not immediately respond to a request for comment via Twitter. A lawyer for him could not immediately be identified.
The other celebrities charged included the singers Akon, Austin Mahone and Ne-Yo, social media personality and boxer Jake Paul, rapper Lil Yachty and porn actress Kendra Lust.
