The U.S. market regulator has forced ICOBox, a leading SaaS provider for ICO projects, to pay $16 million for acting as an unregistered broker.

Dale Fischer, District Judge of California, has judged in favor of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after ICOBox refused to respond to the SEC’s lawsuit dated September 2019.

Recently, ICOBox has carried out an unregistered token sale and brokering operations. In January 2020, the market watchdog filed a lawsuit to California courts for such default judgment.

ICOBox reportedly allows ICO sales

In September 2019, the SEC has taken a legal action against the ICO promotion platform, stating that it has illegally carried out an unregistered digital asset sale in 2017, giving its assets to over 2,000 participants.

Going forward, the market watchdog said the value of ICOBox’s tokens had declined, impacted by its decision in September 2019. Accordingly, the company has raised nearly $14.6 million in an ICO.

Michele Layne, Los Angeles Regional Office Regional director, said:

“By ignoring the registration requirements of the federal securities laws, ICOBox and Evdokimov exposed investors to investments, which are now virtually worthless, without providing information that is critical to making informed investment decisions.”

In January, the regulator tried to contact the founder, but did not respond.

The SEC said:

“After service of the complaint was effected at ICOBox’s office, the premises was vacated, with several months’ rent left unpaid. Efforts to email Evdokimov’s last known address … garnered no response (though no emails bounced back).”

Founder Nikolai Evdokimov was the first to receive a SEC warning against the aggressive promotion.

“Defendants have, directly or indirectly, made use of the means or instrumentalities of interstate commerce, of the mails, or of the facilities of a national securities exchange in connection with the transactions, acts, practices and courses of business alleged in this complaint.”

Earlier this month, Cryptolydian reported that the SEC has rejected Wilshire Phoenix’s Bitcoin ETF Proposal.

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