The SEC has charged Justin Sun and several celebrities for illegally promoting unregistered cryptocurrencies like Tron and BitTorrent tokens on social media.

Amongst the notable people convicted in this case include Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Soulja Boy, Ne-Yo, and Akon, who didnโ€™t disclose their paid affiliation with Justin Sunโ€™s businesses while promoting his cryptocurrencies.

While Soulja Boy and Austin Mahone settled their scores with a $400,000 fine, others are yet to be justified.

Touting Unregistered Cryptocurrencies

The US Securities Exchange Commission has charged Justin Sun for the sale of unregistered cryptocurrencies โ€“ Tronix and BitTorrent tokens over the years, and for contracting popular people to promote them.

If youโ€™re familiar with these coins, itโ€™s because theyโ€™re promoted by several celebrities on various social platforms for years! And for this cause, they are being charged too โ€“ as per SEC.

According to the agencyโ€™s report, eight celebrities, including Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Soulja Boy, Ne-Yo, and Akon are charged illegally promoting the above tokens without disclosing their paid affiliation with the company.

Well, Soulja Boy and the musician Austin Mahone are settling their charges by agreeing to pay $400,000 in penalties (combined) to the SEC, while others are still on the list. Talking on this case, the SECโ€™s Director of the Enforcement Division, Gurbir S. Grewal said;

โ€œThis is the very conduct that the federal securities laws were designed to protect against regardless of the labels Sun and others used.โ€

Well, this wasnโ€™t the first time that SEC has charged celebrities for touting crypto on social media โ€“ as we saw Kim Kardashian and NBA Hall of Famer Paul Pierce charged for similar cases earlier.

These two have promoted EthereumMaxโ€™s EMAX tokens without revealing their paid affiliation with the company โ€“ leading to charges, and Kardashian settling with a $1.26 million penalty and Pierce settling with $1.4 million.

And for Justin Sun himself, SEC accused him of violating the federal securities laws for anti-fraud and manipulating the cryptocurrency market of his coins.

The agency noted that his tokens were promoted through unregistered bounty programs and even directed his employees to artificially inflate the value of Tronix.

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