SEC Charges Crypto Entrepreneur Justin Sun and Companies with Securities Fraud

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today announced charges against crypto asset entrepreneur Justin Sun and three of his wholly-owned companies for offering and selling unregistered securities, Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT), as well as fraudulently manipulating the secondary market for TRX through extensive wash trading and paying celebrities to tout TRX and BTT without disclosing their compensation. The SEC also separately charged eight celebrities for illegally touting TRX and/or BTT without disclosing that they were compensated for doing so and the amount of their compensation. According to the SEC’s complaint, these unregistered offers and sales violated Section 5 of the Securities Act, while Sun's manipulation scheme violated antifraud and market manipulation provisions of the federal securities laws. The celebrities involved have 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.