SEC Charges U.S. Promoters of $2 Billion Global Crypto Lending Securities Offering

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it has filed an action against five individuals alleging that they promoted a global unregistered digital asset securities offering that raised over $2 billion from retail investors. According to the SEC's complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, from approximately January 2017 to January 2018, BitConnect used a network of promoters, including U.S.-based Trevon Brown (a.k.a. Trevon James), Craig Grant, Ryan Maasen, and Michael Noble (a.k.a. Michael Crypto) to market and sell securities in its "lending program." The SEC's complaint alleges that these promoters offered and sold the securities without registering the securities offering with the Commission, and without being registered as broker-dealers with the Commission, as required by the federal securities laws.