U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Paid Eleven on Aug. 1 for their involvement in Forsage, a fraudulent crypto pyramid scheme that raised $300 million from investors around the world.
According to the SEC, Forsage is “a website that enables millions of retail investors to start trading via smart contracts running on the Ethereum (ETH), Tron (TRX) and Binance blockchains.” started as
However, as unsuspecting investors lured others into the scheme and profited by using the new investors promised new assets to pay off the old assets, the platform soon became more like a Ponzi scheme. It started working.
Forsage received a “suspension” notice from the Philippine SEC in September 2020 and from the Montana Securities and Insurance Commission in March 2021.
Both notices were ignored as the scheme founders continued to promote the scam via YouTube and other means.
SEC senior official Carolyn Welshhans said:
As the complaint alleges, Forsage is a fraudulent pyramid scheme that was massively initiated and aggressively marketed to investors. A fraudster cannot get around federal securities laws by focusing on smart his contracts and blockchain.
The four founders of the scheme. Vladimir Okhotnikov, Laura Ferrari Jane Doe, Mikhail Sergeyev, Sergey Maslakov. He was indicted along with his three US-based fraud promoters.
Cheri Beth Bowen, Ronald R. Deering, Samuel D. Ellis, Mark F. Hamlin, VA, Carlos L. Martinez, Alisha R. Shepperd, Sarah L. Theissen, among others, have been charged with violating federal securities laws.
Meanwhile, two of the defendants, Sarah L. Theissen and Samuel D. Ellis, agreed to settle with the SEC out of court.
The two did not admit or deny any of the charges. However, any attempted settlement is subject to court approval.
