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The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has fined the Russian analytical firm ICORating for non-disclosure of payments relating to positive assessments of various projects.
The SEC announced today a settlement of $ 268,998 with ICORating for projects rated from December 2017 to July 2018. According to the SEC, projects rated by ICORating during this period have raised funds through initial offers of coins that the SEC qualifies as securities. As such, appropriate information should have been disclosed to potential investors.
ICORating, an investment assessment platform for ICO-based projects, lists many team members from major cryptocurrency projects such as NEO. No member of the company has been charged in the settlement of the SEC.
In a statement, Melissa Hodgman, associate director of the SEC's Law Enforcement Division, said that ICORating was violating section 17 (b) of the Securities Act of 1933:
"Securities laws require developers, including individuals and entities, to disclose the compensation they receive for touting investments, so that potential investors know that consult a paid promotional item. This requirement applies that the proposed securities are issued using traditional certificates or on the blockchain. "
ICORating agreed to pay $ 106,998 in interest and a civil fine of $ 162,000 without ruling on the SEC's findings.
August was a busy month for the US regulator. Last week, the SEC blamed New England-based SimplyVital Health for failing to register a $ 6.3 million pre-sale of ether (ETH) for its HLTH chips. On August 13, the SEC took action against two other projects based on Veritaseum's ICO, PlexCorps and Reggie Middleton.
UPDATE (August 21, 03:00 UTC): An earlier version of this story stated that Binance's general manager, Changpeng Zhao, was a member of the ICORating team.
Settlement image via Shutterstock
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