The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an injunction order and fines on April 28 against three parties involved in UpToken.
SEC names parties involved in UpToken ICO
The SEC said Up Global and Coinme — as well as Neil Bergquist, founder and CEO of both companies — were involved in a cryptocurrency securities offering.
That offering included the ICO sale of an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency called UpToken, which was intended to fund the deployment of new Coinme ATMs.
The three parties successfully raised about $3.65 million in cryptocurrency from the ICO, and Coinme spent part of that money on new ATMs. Users who bought UpToken received discounts and rewards when they used the token with Coinme ATMs.
However, the SEC complained that the participants sold securities without registering and without obtaining an exemption from registration.
In addition, the SEC said that Up Global and Bergquist falsely claimed that Up Global would limit UpToken supply and that Coinme would have to buy back the asset from investors, creating demand and increasing the token value. In fact, Up Global and Bergquist secured a significant supply of UpToken before and during the ICO.
In addition, Up Global and Bergquist reported misleading fundraising amounts, claiming up to $18.9 million was raised when only $3.7 million was raised.
Parties involved face fines, operational requirements
The SEC order requires all three parties to destroy all UpToken in their possession.
Up Global and Coinme will also be required to publish a notice of the order and request that other trading platforms remove the token from their services. The two companies must also refrain from participating in any cryptocurrency security offerings indefinitely.
Bergquist is barred from participating in crypto securities offerings for only three years and may trade other cryptocurrencies on a personal basis.
Each party also pays a penalty to the SEC. Up Global will pay $3.52 million, CoinMe will pay $250,000 and Bergquist will pay $150,000.
Together, those fines are close to the amount raised by the UpToken ICO.