The District Court of the Central District of California has reportedly granted the U.S. SEC’s motion for default judgement against ICOBox and its founder and CEO, Nikolay Evdokimov.

The case was first brought by the SEC in September last year, accusing ICOBox of hosting an unregistered securities sale. The SEC also alleged that the company acted as an unlicensed securities broker for more than 30 token sales.

During its initial coin offering in 2017, ICOBox raised $14.6 million from over two thousand unaccredited investors. At that time, Evdokimov had claimed that the “ICO” tokens would increase in value as the platforms begins full operation.

As part of the court ruling, ICOBox has been fined $16 million and its founder, Evdokimov has been charged a personal penalty of more than $192,000.

On Jan 9, the SEC filed for default judgement after several attempts to serve Evdokimov and ICOBox personally, proved futile. After a defendant had failed to appear before court or not responded to summons, the court usually grants the plaintiff default judgement. Hence SEC’s motion for default judgement was granted by the court.

The filing noted that, Evdokimov did not return emails and had also moved out of his last known residence soon after the SEC served his wife with a subpoena in late September. The SEC was also told that ICOBox’s resident agent in the Cayman Islands had resigned, and apparently not been replaced.

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