Security or Currency? Jury to Decide Next Year in ICO Fraud Case
A jury will decide whether tokens issued through two allegedly fraudulent initial coin offerings (ICOs) count as securities, a U.S. district court judge said Tuesday.
Businessman Maksim Zaslavskiy is accused of violating anti-fraud and registration provisions of federal securities laws after launching two token sales that officials say defrauded investors.
He pled not guilty in early December to the charges, before moving to dismiss the cases brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice, arguing that the token sales did not constitute securities offerings. He further argued that he did not know he was in violation of the law.
In response, the DOJ and SEC claimed that Zaslavskiy knew his actions were unlawful, if for no other reason than because the SEC contacted him prior to the DRCW token sale. Furthermore, the agencies claimed that both the REcoin and DRCW tokens passed the Howey Test, meaning they fit the legal definition of securities offerings.
You got a 1.56% upvote from @oceanwhale With 35+ Bonus Upvotes courtesy of @hashas120! Delegate us Steem Power & get 100%daily rewards Payout! 20 SP, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, 300, 500,1000 or Fill in any amount of SP Earn 1.25 SBD Per 1000 SP | Discord server
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by habib from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.
You got a 5.49% upvote from @lrd courtesy of @hashas120!
We are offering 100% earnings for our delegators + 15% curation rewards for the largest delegator and 5% of curation rewards are burnt.
Delegate Now
@fishbaitbot is luring fishes with a 4.20% upvote thanks to @hashas120!Send 0.05SBD/STEEM or more for a free resteem along with the upvote!
Delegate to the @fishbaitbot and get 100% of the profits which is better than all upvote bots! Click on one of the following links to delegate 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP or 5000SP.
This bot, the steembottracker and some other projects were made possible thanks to @yabapmatt. Make sure you vote for him as witness!