Lindsay Lohan, Lil Yachty, Soulja Boy, More Charged with Undisclosed Cryptocurrency Promotions [REPORT]

There had been a crackdown on artists and celebrities who have been dabbling in promoting cryptocurrencies.

According to The Guardian, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges against eight artists and celebrities for "illegally touting TRX and/or BTT without disclosing that they were compensated for doing so and the amounts of their compensations".

The eight were identified as Lindsay Lohan, Lil Yachty, Soulja Boy, Akon, Austin Mahone, Jake Paul, and adult film star, Kendra Lust.

The artists were only roped in after being linked to an investigation into Justin Sun, a crypto entrepreneur, and his companies Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd., and Rainberry Inc.

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

"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.

"Sun further induced investors to purchase TRX and BTT by orchestrating a promotional campaign in which he and his celebrity promoters hid the fact that the celebrities were paid for their tweets."

According to reports, the aforementioned celebrities, except Austin Mahone and Soulja Boy, have decided to settle and pay over $400,000.

Crypto Promotions

Apparently, the eight celebrities were not the only ones who got roped into the same scheme.

Complex reported that Kim Kardashian was also charged the previous year. She decided to settle and pay $1.26 million after she promoted Ethereum Max without disclosing that she was paid $250,000 to do so.

Another celebrity, NBA star, Paul Pierce faced the same charge and settled with $1.4 million. He was paid $244,000 to promote the same cryptocurrency.

'Super Fast, Zero Fee'

These promotions were seen on the celebrities' social media accounts and were portrayed as harmless posts.

According to Forbes, Lohan was spotted writing about the cryptocurrency, noting how it was "super fast" and it had "zero fee."

Ne-Yo, on the other hand, was more subtle with his promotion. He simply asked: "What's an ideal crypto bag? Thinking $TRX."

Akon tweeted: "hearing a lot about #TRX."

Both TRX and BTT are offered by Sun as investments, and they have been promoted by the stars on social media to their fans.

Tags

Lindsay Lohan, Lil Yachty, Soulja Boy