Lindsay Lohan, Akon, Soulja Boy charged by SEC with illegally touting cryptocurrency
Julia Johnson
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Lindsay Lohan, Akon, and Soulja Boy are among a list of celebrities who were slapped with charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The celebrities and influencers are being charged with illegally touting cryptocurrencies such as Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT) without disclosing the compensation they were receiving.
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The SEC announced the charges against Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, DeAndre Cortez Way (Soulja Boy), Austin Mahone, Michele Mason (Kendra Lust), Miles Parks McCollum (Lil Yachty), Shaffer Smith (Ne-Yo), and Aliaune Thiam (Akon) on Wednesday.
It also announced charges against crypto asset entrepreneur Justin Sun, the owner of Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd., and Rainberry Inc.
According to a press release, Sun is accused of the “unregistered offer and sale of crypto asset securities Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT).”
He is further charged with “fraudulently manipulating the secondary market for TRX through extensive wash trading,” as well as carrying out a plan to use celebrities to tout both TRX and BTT while paying them without having them disclose the payments.
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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Last year, Kim Kardashian was fined $1.26 million by the SEC for promoting EthereumMax tokens on her Instagram account, also without disclosing her payments.
She had been paid $250,000 for the post. While the reality star settled with the SEC, she did not admit to or deny the allegations.