According to the Offshore Alert report, a flood of class-action lawsuits was filed against several major crypto companies for allegedly selling crypto tokens to US investors that were, in fact, not registered with the US SEC. The class-action lawsuits were brought by Roche Cyrulnik Freedman on behalf of the plaintiffs. The same law firm is also currently representing the Kleiman estate in a lawsuit against Craig Wright.
Major crypto companies named in lawsuits
Crypto companies named in lawsuits include cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and BitMEX operator HDR Global Trading. Blockchain projects like Tron, Civic, Block.One, Kyber Network and Status. Bibox, Quantstamp, and Kucoin are also named in individual complaints. The lawsuit also names executives from the firms, including Binance’s CEO Changpeng CZ Zhao and Civic’s Vinny Lingham. The complaint against Binance states that the crypto exchange wrongfully engaged in millions of transactions—including the solicitation, offer, and sale of securities without registering tokens with the US SEC.
The plaintiffs cite US SEC’s action against EOS maker Block.One over its $4 billion ICO.
The suits are brought on behalf of several individuals, including Chase Williams, Alexander Clifford, and Eric Lee, as well as William Zhang in the case of Civic. As they are class-action lawsuits, they are also brought on behalf of all others situated in a similar situation. The plaintiffs raise the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s action against EOS maker Block.One over its over $4 billion ICO in 2018. The crypto company had agreed to pay $24 million for conducting an unregistered securities sale in September of last year as a penalty.
According to Fintech attorney Richard B. Levin, it is very likely that these major crypto companies might face trial as he does not believe that courts will dismiss these cases.
