The SEC decided to fine American actor Steven Seagal for accepting crypto payments from a 2017 ICO, Bitcoiin2Gen.
The problem would be that the actor would not have publicly declared that he received $250,000 and $750,000 worth of the bitcoiin crypto. For this reason, Seagal will now have to pay a $314,000 fine in 2 installments and he won’t be able to promote any more cryptocurrencies for the next 3 years.
Crypto and advertising
This fine has been received even though Bitcoiin2Gen is practically bankrupt and with a now worthless token: the crypto is currently worth $0.000182 with a loss of 33% in the last few hours and a daily volume of $56.
The problem, according to the SEC, is that Seagal was supposed to explain to investors that it was just an advertising stunt and that he was paid by Bitcoiin2Gen to support them.
Kristina Littman, head of the SEC’s cybercrime division, explained:
“These investors were entitled to know about payments Seagal received or was promised to endorse this investment so they could decide whether he may be biased,”
Littman continued in a statement released today on the SEC website:
“Celebrities are not allowed to use their social media influence to tout securities without appropriately disclosing their compensation.”
Many problems with the SEC over crypto and beyond
Previously, other stars like Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled had also been fined by the SEC for similar reasons, having to pay a fine of $600,000 and $150,000 in 2018, respectively.
Recently, also the ICO Enigma had some problems due to the fact that, according to the US Security Exchange and Commission, it was actually a security token that would have been disguised as an ICO in order not to have to comply with a different and more complex regulation.
