Crypto

Director Details for Block.one, obtained from the Cayman Islands General Registry on June 15th, 2021.

Complaint alleging "a fraudulent and unregistered offering (initial coin offering, or "ICO") of digital asset securities, known during most of the relevant time as BCT Tokens" in U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Ali Asif Hamid, described as a citizen of Canada residing in Ontario, Canada; Michael Gietz, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Cristine Page, a.k.a. Cristina Page, of Brooklyn, New York, at the U. S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Director Details for Apis Token Ltd., obtained from the Cayman Islands General Registry on June 14th, 2021.

Criminal Indictment alleging money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business known as "Bitcoin Fog" in USA v. Roman Sterlingov, a citizen of Russia residing in Sweden, at that U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Complaint alleging fraud involving, inter alia, digital assets issued by Cayman Islands-domiciled Apis Token Ltd. in U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Edgar Radjabli, Apis Capital Management LLC, and My Loan Doctor LLC at the U. S. District Court for the District of North Carolina.

Motion to Approve $27.5 Million Class Action Settlement regarding the alleged sale of cryptocurrency tokens that were not registered with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Chase Williams, William Zhang, Crypto Assets Opportunity Fund LLC, and Johnny Hong v. Block.one, of the Cayman Islands; Brendan Blumer, Daniel Larimer, Ian Grigg, and Brock Pierce at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Editor's Note: Research by OffshoreAlert in the Cayman Islands General Registry showed that the directors of Block.one are Andrew Christopher Bliss, Brendan Francis Blumer, and Kokuei Yuan.

Complaint alleging "fraudulent and harassing behavior" in Dignity Corp., described as a Delaware-domiciled, New York-based company whose principals are Stephen Braverman and Kent Swig v. Does, including those using "the Twitter handles @CryptoDadi_, @StillNoGold, @MrSmileyBrave, @BravermanSteve, @CryptoShadyyy, @ConmanSteve, @SteveBrave3l_, @SteveBraverman, @CapRforSimon, @DnbDig, @TroyJamesh0gg, @McNicholas, @Maarten89NL, @Maarten_Marteen, @DBokhem, @mostwnted1, and @PRNewswire_" and "the fake names "Soren Christiansen" and "Simon Hoedemaker" on Telegram", at the U. S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Statement of Allegations in the matter of Mek Global Limited, of the Seychelles, and PhoenixFin Pte. Ltd., of Singapore, collectively doing business as KuCoin, described as "an online crypto asset trading platform", before the Ontario Securities Commission.

Memorandum Decision and Order Granting Plaintiff's Motion for Leave to Serve SION Trading FZE by Email due to its owner, Max Warren Barber, "avoiding service" in Blackbird Capital LLC v. Worth Group Capital LLC, of Wyoming; Justin Ely, of Utah; Halls Law Office, of Idaho; Scotia International of Nevada, Inc., of Utah; SION Trading FZE, of Ral Al Khaimah, of the United Arab Emirates; Max Warren Barber, of Utah; NaPo Limited, described as "a company located and incorporated in Bridgetown, Barbados, and Saint Lucia"; Nikolas Korakianitis, described as a citizen of Canada; GT Foundation, described as "a private interest foundation founded in Panama City, Panama" that "may have an office in London, England and/or New York", and Kumar Singh at the U. S. District Court for the District of Utah.

Complaint alleging unregistered activity involving cryptocurrency firm BitConnect in U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Trevon Brown, Craig Grant, Joshua Jeppesen, Ryan Maasen, and Michael Noble, as Defendants, and Laura Mascola, as Relief Defendant, at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Complaint alleging fraud by a cryptocurrency trader in Crypto Asset Fund LLC, a Delaware company based in California, by and through its Managing Member, Digital Capital Management LLC v. Jake M. Dressler at the Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Diego.

Complaint alleging "failure to follow basic industry-standard cybersecurity in breach of its contract obligations allowed hackers to steal over $750,000 worth of Bitcoin from the Digital Wallet of SandP Solutions, Inc., d/b/a Bitcoin of America" in SandP Solutions Inc., d.b.a. Bitcoin of America, described as "a cryptocurrency exchange platform that allows customers to exchange cash for Bitcoin, by using Bitcoin ATM machines" v. The Silver Logic LLC, which "claims that it "Provides The Best Custom Software Development In The Industry" and employs a "Zero-Trust Approach to Enterprise Security"", at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Public Notice by the Malta Financial Services Authority that it has ordered MoonPay Ltd., which holds a "Class 2 Virtual Financial Assets Licence", to "cease the on-boarding of new clients with immediate effect". Editor's Note: Research by OffshoreAlert at the Malta Business Registry showed that MoonPay Ltd. was incorporated in Malta on September 27th, 2018, its directors are Maximillian Crown, a citizen of the United Kingdom with an address in London, England; Ivan Soto-Wright, a citizen of the United States with an address in London, England, and Theodora Vardi, a citizen of Greece with an address in New York, USA, and its shareholder is Hodl Ventures Limited, which was incorporated in Malta on September 25th, 2018 and whose directors are Maximilian Crown and Ivan Soto-Wright, and whose sole shareholder is MoonPay Inc., of Delaware, USA.

Statement of Allegations "for disregarding Ontario securities law and to signal that crypto asset trading platforms flouting Ontario securities law will face regulatory action" in Ontario Securities Commission v. Polo Digital Assets Ltd., a.k.a. Poloniex, described as a Seychelles-domiciled "online crypto asset trading platform", before the Ontario Securities Commission.

Complaint for $9,915 in Matthew Loughran v. Uulala Inc., a California-based company that is part of a group that was the first applicant to be approved for an Initial Coin Offering in Bermuda, at the Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento.

Complaint alleging "significant losses" suffered by a cryptocurrency trader "due to persistent software flaws" in a "Singapore-based cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform" in Ryan Akky, of California v. Phemex Financial Pte Ltd. and Phemex Financial Pte Ltd., both of Singapore, at the U. S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Petition for Court Supervision of a Voluntary Liquidation by Graham F. Robinson, as Voluntary Liquidator of Wireline Development Fund Ltd. (in Voluntary Liquidation), which "entered voluntary liquidation after an Administrative Order by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission imposed a fine of US$650,000" on its parent, digital assets firm Wireline Inc., "for an unregistered securities offering and alleged fraud involving the Company", at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands.

Complaint alleging "an illegal, unregistered and unlicensed Bitcoin trading operation" in Fei Jing, of Canada; Luosu Li, of China; Jinyu He, of California; Duanyang Wang, of China; Tian Lan, of Washington, and Chuyao Feng, of Georgia, USA v. Yan Sun, of New York, at the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Criminal Complaint alleging money laundering and unlicensed money transmission involving a "darknet money laundering service" called "Bitcoin Fog" in USA v. Roman Sterlingov, described as a citizen of Russia and Sweden, at the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

2021 Annual Return of BitQuin Ltd., filed with Companies House Gibraltar.

Complaint alleging "misappropriation of investor funds and material misrepresentations in connection with the offering of equity and digital asset securities to investors in Alchemy Finance, Inc., Alchemy Company, Ltd., and Alchemy Coin, Ltd.", which are domiciled in Delaware and Hong Kong, in U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Sheng-Wen Cheng, of New York, USA, at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Class Action Complaint alleging fraud in Konstantin Zeva v. Ebang International Holdings Inc., described as a Cayman Islands-domiciled, China-based firm that "purports to be a leading application-specific integrated circuit chip design company and a leading manufacturer of Bitcoin mining machines" and whose shares are listed on NASDAQ; Dong Hu, and Lei Chen at the U. S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Complaint alleging fraud involving cryptocurrencies in Domagoj Zdilar, described as "a citizen of the European Union" v. HDR Global Trading Limited, d.b.a. BitMEX, described as being domiciled in the Seychelles; ABS Global Trading Limited, described as being domiciled in California, and Arthur Hayes, described as a citizen of the United States who has resided in Hong Kong and Buffalo, New York, at the Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Francisco.

Class Action Complaint alleging fraud in Jason Denny v. Canaan Inc., described as a Cayman Islands-domiciled, China-based company that "designs, manufactures and sells bitcoin mining machines" whose shares are listed on NASDAQ; Nangeng Zhang, and Tong He at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The registration of investment fund Remus Horizons PCC Limited, which is part of a group that includes individuals and companies in or from Australia, England, Guernsey, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Texas, and the United Arab Emirates, has been suspended by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission less than five months after it was granted.

Complaint alleging fraud in Victor J. Cook, of West Palm Breach, Florida, individually and as the Current Members' Representative of AltPay Holdings LLC v. Coinsquare Ltd., described as a Canadian company that "operates a crypto asset trading platform that facilitates the buying and selling of crypto assets, including bitcoin, litecoin and ether" and whose shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Class Action Complaint alleging fraud in Tommie Zaker v. Ebang International Holdings Inc., described as a Cayman Islands-domiciled, China-based company that "purports to be a leading application-specific integrated circuit chip design company and a leading manufacturer of Bitcoin mining machines"; Dong Hu, and Lei Chen at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Complaint alleging breach of contract H.C. Wainwright & Co. LLC, described as "one of the country's oldest and most trusted financial institutions" v. Argo Blockchain Plc, described as an English company based in Canada that is "a global leader in cryptocurrency mining services", at the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York.

Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment regarding a dispute involving a cryptocurrency group that is domiciled in Bermuda in Gustavo Lopez v. Uulala Inc., of Delaware, at the Superior Court of the State of California.

Class Action Complaint in Junhan Jeong v. Nexo Financial LLC, Nexo Financial Services Ltd., of England; Nexo Services OÜ, of Estonia; Nexo AG, of Switzerland, and Nexo Capital Inc., of the Cayman Islands, at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

USA's Ex Parte Petition for Leave to Serve IRS 'John Doe' Summons on Payward Ventures Inc. and subsidiaries, d.b.a. Kraken or Kraken.com, as part of "an investigation to determine the correct federal income tax liabilities for taxable years 2016-2020 of United States taxpayers who have conducted transactions in cryptocurrency", filed at the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

USA's Ex Parte Petition for Leave to Serve an IRS 'John Doe' Summons on "Circle Internet Financial Inc., or its predecessors, subsidiaries, divisions, affiliates, including Poloniex LLC" as part of an investigation into suspected cryptocurrency-related tax fraud, filed at the U. S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Complaint alleging the sale of unregistered securities "in the form of a digital asset called LBRY Credits" in U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. LBRY Inc., domiciled in Delaware, based in New Hampshire, at the U. S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire.

Criminal Information for allegedly operating an unlicensed money transmitting business in USA v. Mark Hopkins, a.k.a. Doctor Bitcoin, at the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Complaint alleging "duplicitous and fraudulent conduct" involving "a venture capital enterprise with an investment portfolio focused on investing in the technology and cryptocurrency space" in Yida Gao and Sand Hill Advisors LLC v. Adam B. Struck, Struck Capital Management LLC, Struck Capital Fund GP LLC, Struck Capital Fund II GP LLC, Divergence Digital Currency Management LLC, Divergence Digital Currency GP LLC, Struck Capital Special Situations Management LLC, Struck Capital Special Situations GP LLC, Struck Capital Stage Agnostic GP LLC, Struck Scratch LLC, Struck Scratch Series B LLC, Struck Scratch Series A LLC, Ignis SPV LLC, Ignis Series B LLC, Probitas SPV LLC, Vectio SPV LLC, Zero SPV LLC, Serico SPV LLC, Struck PF Special Opportunity LLC, Struck Oti Special Opportunity LLC, SC Tectus SPV LLC, Struck Hoco LLC, Struck A43 LLC, Struck AHC Special Opportunity LLC, and Zero Series B SPV LLC at the Superior Court for the State of California, County of Los Angeles.

Administrative Order by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission imposing a fine of $6.5 million on Coinbase, Inc., described as a San Francisco-based "digital asset company", for "recklessly delivering false, misleading or inaccurate reports concerning transactions in digital assets, including Bitcoin, on the electronic trading platform it operated, GDAX".

SEC's Unopposed Motion for Judgment in U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Christopher D. Dantin and his father, Chris A. Dantin, both of Louisiana, at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Class Action Complaint alleging fraud in Joseph Franklin Monkam Nitcheu v. Bit Digital Inc., described as a Cayman Islands-domiciled, New York-based, NASDAQ-listed "holding company that purports to engage in the bitcoin mining business through its wholly owned subsidiaries in U.S. and Hong Kong"; Min Hu, and Erke Huang at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Editor's Note: Research by Offshorealert in the Cayman Islands General Registry showed that the directors of Bit Digital Inc. are Zhaohui Deng, Min Hu, Erke Huang, Ichi Shih, and Yan Xiong.

Director Details for Bit Digital Inc., obtained from the Cayman Islands General Registry on March 16, 2021.

Letter on behalf of Arthur Hayes regarding his surrender and bail in USA v. Arthur Hayes, described as a citizen of the USA residing in Singapore, at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, where he was indicted for alleged violations of the Bank Secrecy Act regarding a "cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform" known as BitMEX.

Writ of Summons and Statement of Claim alleging unjust enrichment and breach of contract in Samir Bandali, a citizen of Canada residing in the Cayman Islands v. CoinPayments Inc., described as a Cayman Islands company offering "worldwide cryptocurrency merchant processing services and individual cryptocurrency accounts, also referred to as wallets", and Oleksandr Aleksandrov, a.k.a. Alex Alexandrov, at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands.

Letter on behalf of Benjamin Delo regarding his surrender and bail in USA v. Benjamin Delo, described as a citizen of the United Kingdom and Grenada residing in Hong Kong, at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, where he was indicted for alleged violations of the Bank Secrecy Act regarding a "cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform" known as BitMEX.

Complaint "by an investor in a cryptocurrency investment fund against the fund and its managers for defrauding investors" in Alper Guler, described as a resident of "Parkland, Florida, and sometimes in his home country of Norway" v. Crypto Traders Management LLC, Shawn Cutting, Courtney Lata, Janine Cutting, ASH Development LLC, Golden Cross Investments LLC, Crypto Traders Fund LP, and Lake View Trust at the U. S. District Court for the District of Idaho.

Public Notice by the Malta Financial Services Authority that it has issued a Directive against "virtual financial assets" firm OKCoin Europe Ltd. to "cease the on-boarding of new clients with immediate effect".

Bermuda-domiciled Arbitrade Ltd. and its 48-year-old Canadian principal, Troy Hogg, are being investigated by the Ontario Securities Commission for a suspected US$41 million cryptocurrency fraud, OffshoreAlert can reveal.

Complaint alleging fraud involving cryptocurrencies in Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. John David McAfee and Jimmy Gale Watson, Jr. at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Complaint "to stop an ongoing fraudulent and unregistered offering of securities and misappropriation of money received from investors" in U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Shawn C. Cutting, of Sandpoint, Idaho, as Defendant, and Crypto Traders Management LLC, Janine M. Cutting, Golden Cross Investments LLC, Lake View Trust, and Tyson Trust, as Relief Defendants, at the U. S. District Court for the District of Idaho.

Criminal Indictment alleging fraud and money laundering involving cryptocurrencies in USA v. John David McAfee and Jimmy Gale Watson, Jr. at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Petition for Appointment of a Receiver alleging a $2.4 million fraud involving "Bitcoin mining operations" in StepChange Data Sidecar Fund LLC, of Washington; Seattle Angel Fund III, of Washington; SnellCap SA, of Luxembourg; Hestia Finance Sarl, of Luxembourg; Karl Anders Aidanpä, described as a resident of Spain, and Sven Hemmingsson, described as a resident of Sweden v. StepChange Data Inc., Malachi Salcido, Catherine L. Salcido, Nick Warner, Carrie Warner, and Salcido Enterprises LLC, all of Washington, at the Superior Court of the State of Washington, County of Chelan.

Class Action Complaint alleging fraud involving the announcement of "a strategic partnership with Ripple Labs, Inc.", described as a blockchain technology company and the developer of the cryptocurrency XRP", in Daniel Glaab v. MoneyGram International, Inc., W. Alexander Holmes, and Lawrence Angelilli at the U. S. District Court for the Central District of California.