Crypto Firm Receives $10 Million Fine From The SEC

Crypto firm Bitqyck received a $10 million fine from the US Securities and Exchange Commission since the regulator is seemingly in war with companies in the crypto ecosystem as we already know from the previous altcoin news and reports.

Over the past few months, the financial regulator continued to pursue crypto firms that reportedly violate the security laws. Just a day ago, the SEC revealed that it had settled a huge $10 million case with the unregistered crypto firm Bitqyck. The SEC charged the company which is based in Dallas for offering security-like cryptocurrencies and making false statements about the products of the exchange. The complaint claims that Bitqyck and the founders Bruce Bise and Sam Mendez created the exchange and operated it without the proper licenses. Both sales of the two digital assets affected more than 13,000 investors and raised more than $1 million. It was also reported that the platforms were operating in bad faith by offering products that were not bonafide.

The director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fort Worth Office, called the shares of the company ‘’very alluring’’ since the investors are tricked into believing that they are getting in on the ground floor and will own a part of the operation. The other parts of Bitqyck’s business involved fraudulent and fake interest payouts:

 “We allege that the defendants took advantage of investors’ appetite for these investments and fraudulently raised millions of dollars by lying about their business.”

The company itself paid disgorgement and prejudgment interest but also a civil penalty of $8,375,617 and the founders paid up to $850,000 per person which basically ended up paying the all ill-gotten gains from the operations at the exchange. This is one of the recent cases that the SEC has started to pursue against members of the crypto community.

Just this month, the SEC charged the ICO Rating company which is focused on researching and reviewing initial coin offerings for failing to disclose that some reviews were fake and paid to be placed on the platform. The company agreed to only pay about $270,000 to settle charges and it was also noted that the SEC believes ICO ratings produced ‘’research reports and ratings of blockchain-based digital assets including coins or tokens’’ that were securities as per the reports in the latest cryptocurrency news sites.