The Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges against 8 celebrities for illegally touting crypto assets Tronix TRX and/or BitTorrent BTT without disclosing that they were compensated for doing so and the amount of their compensation. The list includes boxer Jake Paul.
In addition, Lindsay Lohan, Soulja Boy, Austin Mahone, Kendra Lust, Lil Yachty, Ne-Yo and Akon were named in the complaint filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The complaint coincided with charges against crypto asset entrepreneur Justin Sun and three of his wholly-owned companies for fraudulently manipulating the secondary market for cryptocurrencies.
According to the release, the celebrities except for Soulja Boy and Mahone agreed to pay a total of more than $400,000 in disgorgement interest, and penalties to settle the charges, without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings.
No charges against Paul although he did pay a hefty fine to make this go away. As a social media influencer, Paul was paid to talk up crypto and hope his followers would fall for the bait despite the fact he did not reveal he was getting paid for it. Rather, his followers believed that Paul had an organic interest in the companies and the crypto market when he was actually paid to talk it up. Using Paul and other celebrities for being influencers is definitely an unsavory way to drum up business.
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