The cryptocurrency space is not a great place to be right now, just ask Lindsay Lohan since she was one of several celebrities named in a complaint issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Justin Sun, founder of Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT). According to the complaint, Sun paid celebrities including Lohan to tout his companies’ crypto without disclosing their compensation. Other musicians and an adult actress were also included in the charges for such misconduct.
The SEC accused Sun of orchestrating a scheme to pay celebrities to promote TRX and BTT without proper disclosure of their compensation, which is required by Section 5 of the Securities Act. The regulator’s chair Gary Gensler said that such charges demonstrate the high risk investors face when crypto asset securities are offered and sold without proper disclosure or registration. Additionally, he noted that Sun had induced investors to purchase his TRX and BTT assets through a promotional campaign with undisclosed celebrity payments involved.
To make matters worse, authorities cited unregistered offers and sales by Sun’s companies as well as wash trading on an unregistered trading platform to create a false appearance of active trading in TRX. In response, Gurbir S. Grewal from the SEC’s Division of Enforcement referred to this type of manipulation as “an age-old playbook intended to mislead and harm investors”.
As for Lohan specifically, she allegedly used her public image to promote TRX as well as BTT on social media platforms such as Twitter while not disclosing her financial gain from doing so. However, Andrew Brettler — Lohan’s lawyer — claims that she was unaware of this requirement until March 2020 and has since cooperated with the SEC’s investigation into these activities. As part of her settlement agreement with the regulator, Lohan agreed to pay back all money earned from promoting the cryptocurrencies plus additional penalties for violating U.S federal securities laws.