NBA superstars were fined by the SEC for shouting bills. Who are the other celebrities who were fined for shouting bills?

SEC has made frequent moves recently. Just a few days after reconciling with Kraken, it indicated that it would sue BUSD Publisher Paxos. On February 17, the SEC said again that it had filed a lawsuit alleging that Singapore-based Terraform and Do Kwon orchestrated a multibillion-dollar crypto-asset securities fraud involving algorithmic stablecoins and other crypto-assets in violation of the Securities Act and the Securities Act. Exchange Act registration and anti-fraud provisions.

After seeing these heavyweight operations, everyone is guessing which unlucky project the next "prey" of the SEC will be. But no one thought that it was him.

2 months On the 18th, NBA Celtics legend Paul Pierce reached a settlement with the SEC on the case of selling encrypted digital currency. Pierce paid a total of $1.409 million to settle the SEC's investigation into his Token peddling.

This news is a bit confusing, isn't it just a call, who hasn't called it? Why was Pierce fined? Is the SEC out of money again? In fact, he is not the first celebrity to be fined for yelling.

How did Pierce call out?

SEC stated in the announcement of the charges against Pierce that Pierce’s specific crime was promoting and selling EMAX (EthereumMax) on social media Token did not disclose the compensation he received for this call, as well as the false and misleading promotional statements made to EMAX.

The SEC investigation team found that Pierce did not disclose to others that he called the order on Twitter because he received EMAX Token worth more than 244,000 US dollars as a reward. Investigators also found that Pierce tweeted misleading statements about EMAX, including tweeting a screenshot of an account showing large holdings and profits, but failing to disclose that his own holdings were much lower than the screenshot in the quantity. In addition, Pierce also directly put a link to the EthereumMax website in the tweet, and the website has a tutorial on the purchase of EMAX Token.

Under US federal securities laws, any celebrity or other individual who promotes securities assets must disclose the nature, source and amount of compensation they receive for promoting them. Faced with the SEC's allegations that he violated the anti-touting and anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws, Pierce did not admit or deny the findings of the investigation. US dollars in fines, forfeiture and interest, and also agreed not to promote any encrypted assets for three years.

In this regard, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said: "This case is another reminder to celebrities: the law requires you to disclose to the public From whom and how much you are paid to promote a security, you cannot lie to investors when promoting a security. When a celebrity endorses an investment opportunity, including a cryptoasset security, investors should carefully research whether the investment is a good fit They, and they should know why celebrities make these endorsements.”

The SEC emphasized at the end of the announcement that for such Investigation of the case continues. Gensler is watching you!

Celebrities who were targeted by the SEC for shouting orders

In fact, since the last round, "celebrity shouting orders" has become an increasingly common phenomenon in the encryption industry, and There are also more and more celebrities who have been fined for shouting orders. Let us see which heavyweight stars have also been fined by the SEC for shouting orders in the past?

Kim Kardashian

< p >Kim Kardashian was also charged by the SEC for calling out EMAX, but it was a few months earlier. On October 3, 2022, the SEC formally announced charges against her on the exact same count as Pierce.

Kim Kardashian sent such content to her 331 million followers on Instagram, and the Not Financial Advice deliberately added is quite pale. Kardashian also paid a fine to settle the charges, paying a total of $1.26 million in fines, forfeiture and interest.

DJ Khaled

On November 29, 2018, the SEC announced charges against music producer Khaled Khaled (aka DJ Khaled) for not disclosing his compensation for Centra Tech's IC0 calls. This is also the first time that the SEC has accused ICO of promoting sales.

DJ Khaled paid a total of $152,700 in fines, forfeiture and interest to settle the SEC charges.

Mayweather

In 2018, boxing champion Floyd Mayweather also received charges from the SEC for paying Centra Tech's IC0 call. Mayweather paid a total of $152,700 in fines, forfeiture and interest to settle the SEC's charges. However, Mayweather did not end his Crypto career.

It was EMAX who found Mayweather this time. Mayweather, who has experienced losses, did not call out orders like he did a few years ago, but became more cautious. He was not punished together with Pierce and Kardashian, and escaped the iron fist of the SEC.

In June 2021, Mayweather and Logan Paul had a boxing exhibition match. Mayweather wore boxer shorts with EMAX printed on it. Tickets for this game can be purchased with EMAX and front row seats can only be purchased with EMAX. Buy EMAX over $5,000 and get boxing gloves signed by Mayweather. Mayweather did not directly sell orders, making it impossible for the SEC to start.

Not long after the game ended, EMAX was reset to zero.

T.I.

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In September 2020, the SEC accused rapper T.I. of offering and selling FLiK Token on his social media , falsely claiming that he is the co-owner of FLiK, leading fans to participate in FLiK's IC0. The SEC required T.I. to pay a fine of $75,000 and be banned from participating in the issuance and sale of digital assets for five years.

Steven Seagal

In February 2020, the SEC announced charges against actor Steven Seagal for failing to disclose compensation he received for promoting the IC0 of Bitcoiin2Gen (B2G).

The SEC investigation team found that Siegel did not disclose the $250,000 in cash and $750,000 worth of B2G Token he received as a reward for promoting orders. Siegel publicly called for orders on his social media, saying that everyone should not miss the IC0 of Bitcoiin2Gen, and released a promotional draft titled "Zen master Steven Siegel has become the brand ambassador of Bitcoiin2Gen".

The SEC hit hard, is it good or bad?

In fact, as early as November 2017, the SEC issued an announcement to remind investors to be cautious about the IC0 of celebrity platforms. The SEC was already emphasizing at the time that if celebrities did not disclose the nature, source and amount of payments made to them, directly or indirectly, by these programs in exchange for their support, the support was likely to be illegal.

For a reward of hundreds of thousands of dollars, a star who doesn't understand the industry shouted orders to his fans, but the Token returned to zero within a few days. How would the victims view this industry? If the market is flooded with things like this, and everyone becomes Crypto users in such a daze, Crypto will never achieve true mass adoption.

There has always been a voice in the industry that the SEC has only a negative impact on the encryption industry. You can say that the SEC just wants to scrape some oil and water from celebrities, but from the results, the SEC’s handling of celebrity shouting cases and Regulation, indeed, prevented the free fall of Crypto's public image from happening.

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