The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued suspension orders and fines to three parties involved in UpToken. April 28th.
SEC Nominates Parties Involved in UpToken ICO
The SEC said Up Global and Coinme, as well as Neil Bergquist, the founder and CEO of both companies, are involved in the offering of cryptocurrency securities.
The offering included an ICO sale of an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency called UpToken, intended to fund the deployment of the new Coinme ATM.
The three parties successfully raised about $3.65 million in cryptocurrency from the ICO, and Coinme spent part of the money on a new ATM. Users who purchased UpToken received discounts and rewards when using their tokens at Coinme ATMs.
However, the SEC alleges that the participants sold the securities without obtaining registration or an exemption from registration.
In addition, the SEC alleges that Up Global and Bergquist erroneously claimed that Up Global restricted the supply of UpToken and that Coinme needed to buy back assets from investors, thereby creating demand and increasing the value of the token. said. In fact, Up Global and Bergquist secured a large supply of UpToken before and during the ICO.
Additionally, Up Global and Bergquist reported misleading funding amounts, saying that they raised up to $18.9 million when only $3.7 million was raised.
Affiliates face fines, operational requirements
The SEC order requires all UpTokens owned by all three parties to be destroyed.
Up Global and Coinme must publish notice of the order and request other trading platforms to remove their tokens from their services. Both companies must also refrain indefinitely from participating in offering cryptocurrency security.
Bergquist must refrain from participating in cryptocurrency offerings for only three years and will be allowed to trade other cryptocurrencies personally.
Each party will also pay a fine to the SEC. Up Global will pay $3.52 million, CoinMe will pay his $250,000, and Bergquist will pay $150,000.
Together, these fines are close to the amount raised by the UpToken ICO.
