SEC Moves Against Water-Backed ICO Dupping Minority Community

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged a Texas couple with defrauding investors for $500,000 with a water-backed token sale.

Announced on Friday, Larry Donnell and Shuwana Leonard duped over 500 investors by selling bogus stock certificates and also digital tokens linked to their alkaline water-backed company and a non-existent Bitcoin Bitcoin While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that Read this Term mining operation.

Donnell, a former pastor, and his wife primarily targeted the minority African-American community and initially attempted to raise $20 million with the sale of the fraudulent digital tokens.

Along with the two, the SEC also named the two companies - Teshuater and Teshua Business Group - as defendants in the lawsuit.

The investors were trapped in the scam with a promise of a short-term return of up to 3,000 percent.

The SEC charges also alleged that the two put the funds into the speculative crypto options market.

“Among other things, he lied about the usability of TeshuaCoins and falsely claimed that TeshuaCoins were backed by real assets owned by Teshuater (i.e., the bottled water sold by the company),” the SEC stated. “Finally, Larry Leonard, individually and on behalf of Teshuater, peddled investments in a purported high-yield, short-term Bitcoin-mining1 program. The Bitcoin-mining program, however, never existed.”

The two also used the raised funds to cover personal expenses.

The charges alleged that the two companies had violated the country’s Securities Act’s anti-fraud and registration provisions.

A vigilant agency

The watchdog agency is seeking “permanent injunctive relief; disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest thereon; civil penalties; and all other equitable and ancillary relief to which the Court determines the Commission is entitled.”

The SEC is vigilant against fraudulent crypto schemes and busted many scammers for duping Americans with lucrative schemes - the two high profile Initial Coin Offering (ICO) Initial Coin Offering (ICO) An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is a kind of crypto token sale that is used as a method of fundraising, similar to an Initial Public Offering (IPO), in which stocks are sold to raise money for a company.In order to launch an ICO, a company simply needs to create a website, issue a token, and set a time and date for the sale. Investors buy ICO tokens in exchange for another cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin or Ethereum; after a set amount of time, they receive the tokens they purchased in the sale.Acco An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is a kind of crypto token sale that is used as a method of fundraising, similar to an Initial Public Offering (IPO), in which stocks are sold to raise money for a company.In order to launch an ICO, a company simply needs to create a website, issue a token, and set a time and date for the sale. Investors buy ICO tokens in exchange for another cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin or Ethereum; after a set amount of time, they receive the tokens they purchased in the sale.Acco Read this Term)-related cases being Telegram’s Gram token and Kik’s token sale.