The Enforcement Division of the United States SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] has collected over $4.68 Bln in illicit income and fines this year thus far – with over one quarter coming from Telegram’s ill-fated Gram’s token sale alone.
Additionally, around $1.26 Bln was handed over to the SEC by unregistered initial coin offerings [ICOs].
SEC Division of Enforcement Director Stephanie Avakian added:
“The Commission obtained judgments and orders summing approximately $4.68 Bln in disgorgement and penalties – the very best amount on record.”
The division’s annual report for the 2020 financial year, published earlier this month, offers a comprehensive overview of the agency’s actions including 8 ICO enforcements. far and away from the majority of the ICO money collected came from Telegram.
Earlier in Oct. last year, the SEC filed an emergency lawsuit against Telegram for its ICO of Gram tokens. Telegram agreed to return $1.2 Bln to investors and pay an $18.5 Mln in fine, in one of the most important cases for the whole year. Telegram’s payment made up 26% of the whole amount collected by the SEC.
Earlier in 2019 the SEC also filed a complaint against Kik for its unregistered securities sale. The firm will pay $5 Mln to the SEC.
The other 6 cases against Bitclave, Shopin, NAC Foundation, Unikrn, Boon Tech, and Bitcoiin2Gen reaped roughly $40 Mln in seizures. However, the case against the NAC Foundation is yet to be resolved with the inspiration filing for the San Francisco court to throw the case out due to the SEC allegedly misleading the court.
In Addition, the SEC took action in 715 cases, including 405 independent actions ranging across a variety of categories including securities offerings, trading, market manipulation, and therefore the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Of the $4.68 Mln obtained by the SEC, $600 Mln was returned to investor victims.
This year, securities offerings led all other categories with 130 (30.2%) independent actions taken by the SEC.
![U.S Department of Justice Reveals A Fraud Case Against 'Eastern Metal Securities’ [EMS].](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/client/q_glossy,ret_img,w_120/https://www.etherdesk.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/imageedit_193_5494980853-120x86.jpg)
