In the latest of what’s become a years-long trend, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday announced charges against a host of celebrities for boosting crypto assets without properly disclosing that they were paid for their endorsements.
Those charged included Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Soulja Boy, Austin Mahone, Kendra Lust, Lil Yachty, Ne-Yo and Akon, according to a press release issued by the SEC.
The focus of the SEC charges is Justin Sun, a “crypto asset entrepreneur,” who owned a handful of crypto companies, “for the unregistered offer and sale of crypto asset securities Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT),” the SEC said in its release.
Meanwhile, the celebrities named by the SEC, whose backgrounds range from music to social media influencing to pornography, are charged with “illegally touting TRX and/or BTT without disclosing that they were compensated for doing so and the amount of their compensation.”
The complaint was filed in a federal district court in New York. In a statement, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said that Sun “induced investors to purchase TRX and BTT by orchestrating a promotional campaign in which he and his celebrity promoters hid the fact that the celebrities were paid for their tweets.”
With the exception of Soulja Boy and Mahone, the celebrities agreed to pay a total of more than $400,000 to settle the charges, without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, the commission said.