Court Order Obtained By SEC To Freeze Assets After Fraudulent ICO

Blockhain Tech
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Court Order Obtained By SEC To Freeze Assets After Fraudulent ICO
Judge holding gavel in courtroom

Another emergency court order seeking to freeze Dominic Lacroix’s assets has been received by the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the ongoing enforcement action Lacroix had been sued over allegations of securities fraud. Last year in December an emergency order to freeze assets was received. Unsealing of the order took place earlier this week.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Lacroix has since December been utilizing secret accounts and this includes one which is in his brother’s name with a view to dissipating the assets that had been obtained from the investors following the PlexCoin ICO. Now the Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking permanent injunctions and to collect interest and penalties.

Securities law

In the initial complaint the SEC had charged Lacroix as well as his partner Sabrian Paradis-Royer over violation of securities laws with regards to the Initial Coin Offering of PlexCoin and which was conducted last year in August by PlexCorps. As per the SEC, investors were promised a return of 1,354% in a period of 29 days, though anyone who invests in such promises arguably deserves to lose money. The Initial Coin Offering went on to raise approximately $15 million from investors.

Towards the end of last month the SEC charged Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services over a fraudulent ICO which netted approximately $21 million from various investors spread across the globe. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission the money was raised between last November and last January.

Social media marketing blitz

Per the head of the cyber unit at the SEC, Robert Cohen, the Initial Coin Offering of Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services employed social media marketing blitz to deceive investors. The complaint by the SEC also alleged that the both the blockchain startup and Michael Stollaire as president fabricated testimonials and made false statements with a view of gaining the trust of investors. For instance Stollaire claimed that he enjoyed a business relationship with the likes of Walt Disney, Apple and PayPal.

According to the SEC proceeds fromthe Initial Coin Offering were used by Stollaire to pay the expenses of a condominium located in Hawaii as well as paying off credit cards.