The U.S. SEC fined Hollywood actor Steven Seagal for concealing a fee from Bitcoiin2Gen's ICO. It is reported by Bloomberg.
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In February 2018, Seagal became a startup brand ambassador and actively promoted an ICO campaign on social networks. According to the regulator, for this, the startup promised to pay him $250 thousand in cash and another $750 thousand in B2G tokens.
Subsequently, the coins were recognized by SEC as securities, and under the law on the protection of investors, individuals promoting them should disclose the amount of compensation received for these services.
The SEC said that investors in the ICO had the right to know about the reward received by Seagal, or promised to him for the promotion of the placement, in order to decide on how partial he is. Celebrities do not have the right to use their authority on social networks to advertise securities without proper disclosure of remuneration data.
Steven Seagal neither admitted nor refuted his guilt on the charge. Under the terms of the agreement with the regulator, the 67-year-old actor will return the illegally received income of $157 thousand (the actual amount received from B2G advertising plus interest), as well as a fine of another $157 thousand.
In addition, Steven is prohibited from participating in the advertising of securities, including digital, for 3 years.
Bitcoiin positioned itself as a “second-generation cryptocurrency”, but had a lot in common with the financial pyramids. In particular, Bitcoiin participants had the opportunity to receive “significant income” only for storing B2G tokens in their wallets. Moreover, the project included a multi-level referral system with impressive affiliate rewards.
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In total, the project raised $75 million. In early March 2018, the New Jersey Securities Bureau stopped the Bitcoiin ICO in order to protect investors from possible fraud.
At the end of the same month, Seagal left the project with the founders.