Two Celebrities Charged With Unlawfully Touting Coin Offerings

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against professional boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and music producer Khaled Khaled, known as DJ Khaled, for failing to disclose payments they received for promoting investments in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). These are the SEC's first cases to charge touting violations involving ICOs. The SEC's orders found that Mayweather failed to disclose promotional payments from three ICO issuers, including $100,000 from Centra Tech Inc., and that Khaled failed to disclose a $50,000 payment from Centra Tech, which he touted on his social media accounts as a "Game changer." Mayweather's promotions included a message to his Twitter followers that Centra's ICO "starts in a few hours.