June 30, Ministry of Justice Charged 6 individuals in 4 separate cases of fraudulent NFT trading schemes.
The first case alleged that an individual committed a wire fraud and was involved in a plot to conduct international money laundering in connection with a well-known NFT. Individuals are allegedly involved in “rag pulling” by terminating the NFT project, deleting its website, and retaining all of the investor’s money. DOJ also invests through “chain hopping,” a form of money laundering in which one type of coin is converted to another and funds are transferred from investors to multiple blockchains and crypto mixers totaling $ 2.6 million. Claims to have washed the money in the house. ..
In the second case, three individuals were charged with a wire fraud attempt and a securities fraud plot in connection with a global crypto-based Ponzi scheme that generated about $ 100 million from investors. Did. Two of the individuals were also charged with a plot to conduct international money laundering. The DOJ claims individuals engaged in unregistered securities offerings by making numerous misstatements of what is referred to as proprietary trading bots and fraudulently guaranteeing the interests of investors and future investors. I am. DOJ claims that individuals operated the Ponzi scheme by laundering investor funds through foreign-based cryptocurrency exchanges and paying former investors with money obtained from later investors.
The third case involved the CEO of a cryptocurrency investment platform. He was charged with one case of securities fraud for his role in a cryptocurrency fraud scheme, including the first coin offering, which raised about $ 21 million from US and foreign investors. The CEO allegedly tampered with the coin’s white paper, posted fake testimony on its website, and forged business relationships with the Federal Reserve Board and dozens of prominent companies.
The fourth case involved the owners of cryptocurrency investment platforms and asked investors to join an unregistered commodity pool, a fund that combines investors’ contributions to trading in the commodity market with futures. It has been. The owner trades the investor’s funds to make a profit using a trading bot that can execute more than 17,000 transactions per hour on various cryptocurrency exchanges, and his trading bot is against the investment amount. It is said to have announced to investors that it will generate a profit of 500% to 600%. The DOJ claims that the owner has fraudulently raised about $ 12 million from investors.
Practice it: Cryptocurrency and NFT-related enforcement issues may continue to grow at a faster pace. It is still important for market participants to ensure that they have the proper state and federal licenses and registrations needed to deliver their products.These enforcement measures should be considered in the light of recent federal government promotions to regulate blockchain and related technologies (this promotion was discussed in a previous blog post). here).
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