Unlicensed/Unregistered

The United States has filed a forfeiture complaint against $4.1 million that the Drug Enforcement Administration previously seized from a U.S. bank account belonging to Argentina-based, British Virgin Islands-domiciled Smart Focus International Fund Ltd., which allegedly operated as an unregistered money transmitter for two months in 2021, during which it allegedly transmitted $37 million.

Forfeiture Complaint in USA v. $4,166,303 seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration from an account at Reserve Trust Company in the name of Smart Focus International Fund Ltd., described as "a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, and operating out of Argentina", filed at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Public Warning by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority that Saturn4FX International Management Sàrl, now known as Saturn4FX Sàrl, “is suspected of conducting unauthorised activities in the financial market”.

Public Warning by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority that Astorica SA “is suspected of conducting unauthorised activities in the financial market”.

Reasons and Decision finding that the respondents committed fraud in Ontario Securities Commission v. Troy Richard James Hogg, of Canada; Cryptobontix Inc., of Canada; Arbitrade Exchange Inc., of Canada; Arbitrade Ltd., of Bermuda; T.J.L. Property Management Inc., of Canada, and Gables Holdings Inc., of Canada, at the OSC’s Capital Markets Tribunal.

Complaint by "fourteen of over 150 victims of a fraudulent scheme masterminded by a web of individuals, who enticed victims with baseless promises of a high-return, safe and fully collateralized investment opportunity in the form of an unregistered fraudulent securities offering" in Overcome Estate Ltd., of the British Virgin Islands; Gallaway International Ltd., of the Bahamas; Fandwick Inc., of Panama; Esteban Hachuy, Mariano Burstein, Matias Charas, Ignacio Vidaguren, Guillermo Minuzzi, Juan Alzieu, Fernando Gomez, Maria Victoria Moren, Roxana Fabrizzi, Patricio Buteler, all described as residents of Argentina, and Adrian Simonetti, described as a citizen of Argentina residing in Spain v. Matias Costantini, Juan Cruz Talia Brown, Jonathan Culley, Capital Force LLC, Capital Force F1 LLC, Alberto San Miguel, and Vehicle Solutions CF LLC at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Complaint alleging "Defendants - the operators of an international cryptocurrency platform - stole assets worth millions of dollars from Dr. Fagan, an occupational medicine specialist from a small town in Texas" in Peter Fagan v. Nexo Capital, Inc., of the Cayman Islands, and Antoni Trenchev, described as a resident of the United Arab Emirates, at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Order by the Commodity Futures Commission imposing a fine and disgorgement totaling $1,768,512 on Falcon Labs Ltd., a crypto prime brokerage domiciled in the Seychelles, for operating as "a futures commission merchant" without being registered.

Complaint alleging the defendant "acted as an unregistered broker" for Charlie Abujudeh, who is a convicted securities fraudster, and others in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Mark Borden, described as "an attorney licensed to practice law in Canada and a resident of Thornhill, Ontario, Canada", at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Complaint in U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Mek Global Limited, of the Seychelles; PhoenixFin PTE. Ltd., of Singapore; Flashdot Limited, of the Cayman Islands, and Peken Global Limited, of the Seychelles, "collectively doing business as a centralized digital asset exchange under the name 'KuCoin'", at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Complaint in Leonard Licht, described as "a 75-year-old widower" residing in Texas, USA, who "was victimized by a pig butchering scheme spearheaded by a criminal syndicate based in Cambodia" v. Binance Holdings Limited, described as "a Cayman Islands corporation that operates the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.com"; BAM Trading Services, Inc., and Changpeng Zhao, described as "a Chinese-born citizen of Canada", at the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Judgment in a Criminal Case in USA v. Binance Holdings Limited, a Cayman Islands-domiciled operator of a crypto exchange founded by Changpeng Zhao, at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Public Warning by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority that ECUREX GmbH, which appears to have operated as a crypto exchange, “is suspected of conducting unauthorised activities in the financial market”.

Public Warning by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority that Swiss Financial Insurance GmbH “is “suspected of conducting unauthorised activities in the financial market”.

Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order in Newton AC/DC Fund L.P. v. Hector DAO, Farooq Hassan, and John Doe at the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Complaint alleging "waste and failure to protect investor funds" in Newton AC/DC Fund L.P. v. Hector DAO, Farooq Hassan, and John Doe at the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Criminal Indictment alleging conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business involving an allegedly fraudulent crypto investment scheme known as HyperFund in USA v. Rodney Burton, a.k.a. Bitcoin Rodney, at the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

Public Warning by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority that Illiar SA “is “suspected of conducting unauthorised activities in the financial market”.

Shareholder Derivative Complaint against "'death spiral' or 'toxic' lenders" and "unregistered securities dealers that make unlawful, predatory loans to publicly traded companies in need of cash" in Shadwrick Vick, derivatively on behalf of Vinco Ventures, Inc. v. Hudson Bay Master Fund Ltd., of the Cayman Islands; Sander R. Gerber, Yoav Roth, BHP Capital NY, Inc., and Bryan Pantofel, as Defendants, and Vinco Ventures, Inc., as Relief Defendant, at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Amended Complaint alleging "the unregistered sale of investment advisory services and/or commodities as a cryptocurrency swindle that is becoming all too familiar in the United States" allegedly involving "Golden Capitals Ltd. d/b/a Golden Cap Ltd.", described as a British firm based in Iceland, in Meg Skelton, Will Skelton, Chris Parrado, Erik Henyon, Francine Loomiller, Megan Maynard, Helen Korb, Travis Manntz, Richard Corcoran, Donald Kurkowski, Colby Dolezal, Brett East, Mark Miyasaki, and William Fox v. Robert Monty, a.k.a. Mikel Huba, as alias for John Doe 1; Matthew Christopher, as alias for John Doe 2, and Sebastian Vettel, as alias for John Doe 3, at the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

Magistrate Judge Removal of Criminal Complaint from District of Maryland alleging the operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business in USA v. Rodney Burton, a.k.a. Bitcoin Rodney, at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Opinion and Order granting, inter alia, SEC's motion for summary judgment "involving defendants’ unregistered offers and sales of LUNA and MIR in violation of Sections 5(a) and (5c) of the Securities Act" in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Terraform Labs Pte Ltd., of Singapore, and Do Hyeong Kwon, described in the complaint as a resident of South Korea and Singapore, at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Public Warning by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority that Starboard Capital SA "is "suspected of conducting unauthorised activities in the financial market".

Complaint alleging the corporate defendants operates as "unregistered securities dealers" and that their "business model is illegal" in Mullen Technologies Inc. and Mullen Automotive Inc. v. GEM Global Yield LLC SCS, of Luxembourg; GEM Yield Bahamas Limited, of the Bahamas, and Christopher F. Brown at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Class Action Complaint alleging the sale of an unregistered crypto security known as LDO in Andrew Samuels v. Lido DAO, described as "a general partnership running an "Ethereum staking" business" that "has ended up staking more than twenty billion dollars at a time" and whose "founders" were identified as "are Kasper Rasmussen, who is Danish and lives in Copenhagen; Vasily Shapovalov, who is Russian and lives in Cyprus; Konstantin Lomashuk, who is Russian and lives in the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an external territory of Australia; and Jordan Fish, who is British and whose whereabouts are unknown"; AH Capital Management LLC, d.b.a. Andreesen Horowitz; Paradigm Operations LP, two of whose "agents" were identified as Arjun Balaji and Georgios Konstantopolous; Dragonfly Digital Management LLC, and Robot Ventures LP, described as "an entity used to manage the investments of Robert Leshner and Tarun Chitra", at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Public Warning by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority that WV Financial Services SA "is "suspected of conducting unauthorised activities in the financial market".

Public Warning by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority that Suo Tempore AG "is "suspected of conducting unauthorised activities in the financial market".

Class Action Complaint “for a sum exceeding one billion dollars” for allegedly promoting unregistered securities issued by the FTX crypto group in Edwin Garrison, Brandon Orr, Leandro Cabo, Ryan Henderson, Michael Livieratos, Alexander Chernyavsky, Gregg Podalsky, Vijeth Shetty, Chukwudozie Ezeokoli, Michael Norris, Shengyun Huang, Vitor Vozza, Kyle Rupprecht, Warren Winter, and Sunil Kavuri v. Wasserman Media Group LLC and Dentsu McGarry Bowen LLC at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Class Action Complaint “for a sum exceeding one billion dollars” for allegedly promoting unregistered securities issued by the FTX crypto group in Edwin Garrison, Brandon Orr, Leandro Cabo, Ryan Henderson, Michael Livieratos, Alexander Chernyavsky, Gregg Podalsky, Vijeth Shetty, Chukwudozie Ezeokoli, Michael Norris, Shengyun Huang, Vitor Vozza, Kyle Rupprecht, Warren Winter, and Sunil Kavuri v. Major League Baseball, Major League Baseball Enterprises Inc., Major League Baseball Properties Inc., Major League Baseball Promotion Corporation, and MLB Players Inc. at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Class Action Complaint "for a sum exceeding one billion dollars" for allegedly promoting unregistered securities issued by the FTX crypto group in Edwin Garrison, Brandon Orr, Leandro Cabo, Ryan Henderson, Michael Livieratos, Alexander Chernyavsky, Gregg Podalsky, Vijeth Shetty, Chukwudozie Ezeokoli, Michael Norris, Shengyun Huang, Victor Vozza, Kyle Rupprecht, Warren Winter, and Sunil Kavuri v. Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Limited, d.b.a. Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Class Action Complaint "for a sum exceeding one billion dollars" on behalf of "consumers who purchased unregistered securities offered or sold by Binance" that were allegedly promoted by the defendant in Michael Sizemore, Mikey Vongdara, and Gordon Lewis v. Cristiano Ronaldo at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Plea Agreement in USA v. Binance Holdings Limited, d.b.a. Binance.com, of the Cayman Islands, at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Public Warning by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority that Visamar Group GmbH (in Liquidation) is "suspected of conducting unauthorised activities in the financial market".

Government's Memorandum Regarding Plea Proceedings recommending penalties of $4.3 billion and $50 million, respectively, in USA v. Binance Holdings Limited, d.b.a. Binance.com, and Changpeng Zhao at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Complaint alleging the defendants operated - in the form of a crypto platform - as a securities exchange, broker/dealer, and clearing agency without being registered in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Payward Inc. and Payward Ventures Inc., collectively doing business as Kraken, at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Forfeiture Complaint associated with an allegedly unlicensed money transmitting business operated by Dominica-domiciled Aurum Capital Holdings Inc. and involving "a virtual currency issued by a company called Liberty Reserve" in USA v. All Fund Seized From Morgan Stanley Accounts 658-091821-245 and 658-095221-245 in the name of Maximiliano Pilipis at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.

Public Warning by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority that Euro Hypo GmbH is "suspected of conducting unauthorised activities in the financial market".

Criminal Information alleging the defendant "knowingly failed to register as a money services business, willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to implement and maintain an effective anti-money laundering program, and willfully caused violations of U.S. economic sanctions issued pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act" in USA v. Binance Holdings Limited, d.b.a. Binance.com, of the Cayman Islands, at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Complaint alleging the defendants "perpetrated a massive fraudulent scheme that generated millions through the unregistered offer and sale of a crypto asset security called the SafeMoon Token" in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. SafeMoon LLC, SafeMoon US LLC, Kyle Nagy, Braden John Karony, and Thomas Glenn Smith at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Complaint alleging the defendant and Voyager Digital, of which he was CEO, "fraudulently solicited participation in and operated a digital asset trading and custody platform in a manner that resulted in Voyager’s bankruptcy, owing its U.S. customers over $1.7 billion" in U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Stephen Ehrlich at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Dutch national Rutger Janse, 28, has been arrested in Florida following a request to extradite him to the Netherlands, where he has been accused of swindling 23 investors out of €4 million.

Minute Order for the initial appearance of Rutger Janse in USA v. Rutger Janse at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Complaint for the extradition of Rutger Aad Janse from the USA to the Netherlands to face charges of fraud, embezzlement, money laundering and providing investment services without a license, filed at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Public Warning by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority that ProInvest Equity AG is "suspected of conducting unauthorised activities in the financial market".

Criminal Indictment alleging conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business based on crypto in USA v. Samvel Grigoryan and Hayk Martirosyan, both citizens of Armenia, at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Complaint alleging "a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme, affinity fraud, and unregistered offering of securities" in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Aras Investment Business Group S.A.P.I. de C.V., of Chihuahua, Mexico; Armando Gutierrez Rosas, Maria de Lourdes Tolentino Roque, Diayanira Rendon Trejo, Efren Norberto Quiroz Gardea, and Luis Ricardo Quiroz Gardea, all citizens of Mexico, at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Complaint alleging the defendants operated as "investment advisers for the benefit of a single client: a wealthy former Russian political official living outside the United States" without being registered with the SEC, managing "a private fund securities portfolio with an estimated total value of $7.2 billion", in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Concord Management LLC and Michael Matlin, both of New York, USA, at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Editor's Note: The 'Russian client' is not identified in the SEC's complaint but The New York Times reported that it was Roman Abramovich.

Complaint alleging the defendants operated as a broker-dealer without being registered in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Wilson J. Rondini III, of Florida, USA; Falcon Capital LLP, of the United Kingdom, and Falcon Capital Partners Limited, of Hong Kong, at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Criminal Complaint alleging the defendants "engaged in unlicensed money transmitting business [coinexchange.am], in that they are exchanging cryptocurrency for funds in the form of United States currency, charging a fee as a percentage of the amount of the transfer" in USA v. Samvel Grigoryan and Hayk Martirosyan, both citizens of Armenia, at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Public Warning by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority that Swiss Business Company GmbH is "suspected of conducting unauthorised activities in the financial market".