The US SEC has flagged 28 companies it alleged have been soliciting investors without obtaining the required registration. Of these 28 companies, 8 have been offering digital currency services. The U.S. financial regulator also revealed that it was also flagging three impersonators of genuine firms and six fake regulators. The SEC claims that these firms have been targeting primarily non-U.S. investors using misleading information. The SEC’s list includes Axtrading Investment, SmartCoins24, RetireWell Investors, and Passive Trade Plan.
Unregistered firms promise high returns on investments.
The alleged scammers have also been targeting retirees with digital currency products. One of these is RetireWell Investors, a fake firm that offers crypto trading services with a “guaranteed 3% weekly return on investment.” The minimum investment stands at $500. These, and several other firms, were added to the SEC’s Public Alert: Unregistered Soliciting Entities (PAUSE) list. This list enables investors to inform themselves about possibly fraudulent firms better. The US SEC has been actively regulating the crypto industry to save innocent investors from falling to fake crypto Ponzi schemes.
US SEC continues to crack down on fraudsters and scammer.
The Chief of the SEC’s Office of Market Intelligence Jennifer Diamantis remarked on updating the PAUSE list by stating, “By updating the PAUSE list, we continue to provide the public with information we have learned in reviewing tips, complaints, referrals, and other sources so that investors can be alerted to potential fraud before they invest.” For years, the U.S. securities regulator has been cracking down on fraudsters and scammers, especially in the digital industry. In recent weeks, one of its most high-profile cases has been against the blockchain firm Ripple, the company behind XRP. Former SEC chair Jay Clayton sued the company in December for selling unregistered securities.
