Jake Paul, Lindsey Lohan, Soulja Boy and Several Other Celebrities Face SEC Charges for Touting Cryptocurrencies – What Happens Now?

cryptonews.com:

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against eight celebrities, alleging they illegally promoted two cryptocurrencies without disclosing that they were paid to do so.

In a news release on Wednesday, the SEC unveiled charges against celebrities who promoted cryptocurrencies Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT), which were sold by crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun. 

The celebrities involved include actress Lindsay Lohan, internet personality Jake Paul, musician Soulja Boy, singer Austin Mahone, porn actress Kendra Lust, rapper Lil Yachty, musician Ne-Yo, and Senegalese-American singer Aliaune Thiam.

The group is accused of illegally promoting TRX and BTT crypto assets "without disclosing that they were compensated for doing so and the amount of their compensation", the SEC said.

The agency also unveiled fraud and unregistered securities charges against Sun and three of his wholly-owned companies, Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd., and Rainberry Inc, for the sale of their TRX and BTT tokens. 

The SEC also alleged that Sun and the companies paid celebrities with vast social media followings to hype TRX and BTT and directed them not to publicly disclose their compensation.

"This case demonstrates again the high-risk investors face when crypto asset securities are offered and sold without proper disclosure," SEC chair Gary Gensler said in a statement. He added:

“As alleged, Sun and his companies not only targeted U.S. investors in their unregistered offers and sales, generating millions in illegal proceeds at the expense of investors, but they also coordinated wash trading on an unregistered trading platform to create the misleading appearance of active trading in TRX."

All of the celebrities