Cracking down on a bad coin offering

On Dec. 4, the freshly minted Cyber Unit of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission showed its teeth when it obtained an emergency court order to stop an allegedly fraudulent Initial Coin Offering involving a Quebec-based company, PlexCorps, its founder Dominic Lacroix and his partner, Sabrina Paradis-Royer. The SEC’s complaint charged Lacroix, Paradis-Royer and PlexCorps with violating the anti-fraud provisions, and Lacroix and PlexCorps with violating the registration provisions, of various U.S. federal securities laws. In addition to the return of profits made by the defendants, interest and the application of penalties, the SEC also sought to permanently bar Lacroix from serving as an officer or director of any public company and prohibiting both Lacroix and Paradis-Royer from participating in an offering of digital securities. The SEC was also able to obtain an emergency court order to freeze the assets of PlexCorps, Lacroix and Paradis-Royer.

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