The headquarters of the gendarme of the stock Exchange, the SEC, on may 3, 2013 in Washington, United States (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI. AFP)
The gendarme of the United States Stock market, the SEC, announced on Monday have filed charges against a Canadian accused of having organized a fundraiser in virtual currency to the promises fraudulent.
According to this organization, the Quebec Dominic Lacroix and his company PlexCorps have raised up to $ 15 million from thousands of individuals since August, “promising mensongèrement a return on investment of 1 to 13 in less than a month” to investors in the United States and elsewhere, via an ICO (Initial corner offering), it is written in a press release.
The term ICO is based on that of the IPO is an acronym for the ipo. This mode of financing are emerging can propose projects directly to investors on the net.
Filed in a court in new york, the complaint also seeks the partner of Mr. Lacroix, Sabrina Paradise-Royer. The SEC has obtained an emergency freeze of all their assets.
This procedure is the first initiated by the new special unit of the SEC dedicated to the fight against the online frauds, which was created in September.
“This first case brought by the unit of cyber-crime for answers to all the characteristics of a true fraud online and that is exactly the kind of fraud that it will continue to track down,” commented in the press release his manager Robert Cohen.
The success of the ICO, which are outside of any regulation, the concerned States.
To raise funds, no need of bank-council or green light by the authorities, it is enough to submit his project on its website, indicating the price of the “token” that one is about to be issued and the rights that it opens.
Up here confined to a public confidential and specialized, the ICO surfing recently on the growing fascination for the cryptomonnaies. False operations appear regularly on the net.
Regulators are increasing the warnings, some countries, such as China and South Korea, prohibiting any issuance of ICO for their country.
The SEC has estimated this summer that a cryptomonnaie created a ICO could well be likened to the securities of a company, and therefore be subject to the regulation in force.
