Three people have been charged in the U.S. over two
cryptocurrency scams, one of which was promoted by famous Hollywood
actor Steven Seagal. The main promoter of the schemes has already been
arrested and is facing criminal charges. Seagal previously settled the
charges against him relating to the scheme.
- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged three
people on Monday with defrauding retail investors “through two
fraudulent and unregistered digital asset securities offerings” that
occurred between approximately December 2017 and May 2018. The three are
Kristijan Krstic, John DeMarr, and Robin Enos. DeMarr has been arrested
and is facing criminal charges by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
- Krstic (also known as Felix Logan), a Serbian-Australian national
who was domiciled in the Philippines during the relevant period, is the
founder of the two schemes, the SEC detailed. DeMarr of Santa Ana,
California, was the schemes’ primary U.S.-based promoter. Robin Enos, a
resident of San Pablo, drafted the schemes’ fraudulent documents to
distribute to the public.
- The two schemes are Start Options and Bitcoiin2gen. “By the time
their schemes collapsed, they had fraudulently raised, directly or
through affiliates and promoters, at least $11.4 million from more than
460 investors in Start Options and Bitcoiin2gen, none of which has been
returned to investors,” the SEC wrote.
- Krstic and DeMarr falsely claimed that Start Options was “the
largest bitcoin exchange in euro volume and liquidity” and “consistently
rated the best and most secure bitcoin exchange by independent news
media.” They also promoted Bitcoiin2gen’s unregistered security offering
of B2G tokens in January 2018.
- The B2G token offering was also promoted by famous Hollywood actor Steven Seagal.
In February 2020, the SEC charged Seagal with “unlawfully touting” B2G
tokens, alleging that the actor failed to disclose that he was promised
$250,000 in cash and $750,000 worth of B2G tokens in exchange for his
promotions. Seagal subsequently settled the charges with the SEC.
- The SEC alleges that Enos knowingly drafted fraudulent promotional
materials containing numerous false statements, including that the B2G
tokens would be tradeable on a proprietary cryptocurrency trading
platform in early April 2018. In reality, “Bitcoiin2gen was a sham, and
Krstic and DeMarr allegedly misappropriated millions of dollars of
investor funds for their own personal benefit,” according to the SEC. In
its Monday complaint, the SEC also stated that the “defendants
misleadingly tout celebrity Steven Seagal as an investor” of the B2G
tokens source link : https://news.bitcoin.com/founder-cryptocurrency-scam-steven-seagal-charged-member-arrested-us/
