Several American stars are being sued for advertising cryptocurrency without disclosing that they were paid to do so.
Actress Lindsay Lohan, YouTuber Jake Paul and six other artists are being sued on Wednesday by the US market watchdog for advertising cryptocurrencies without disclosing that they were paid to do so.
They are accused in a case aimed more directly at Chinese entrepreneur Justin Sun for having marketed the Tronix and BitTorrent cryptocurrencies without registering with the competent authorities, thus violating stock market laws.
Justin Sun is also being prosecuted for having sought to manipulate the Tronix brokerage by artificially inflating the trading of the asset on the secondary market: he had asked employees to transfer Tronix between two of his accounts on cryptocurrency platforms.
Lil Yachty, Ne-Yo, Soulja Boy…
Finally, the SEC accuses Justin Sun, known for founding the Tron ecosystem, of having sought to promote his assets on social media by paying celebrities to tweet messages in favor of Tronix and BitTorrent. Without admitting or denying their guilt, Lindsay Lohan and Jake Paul agreed to pay $40,670 and $101,887 in reimbursement and fines, respectively.
Pornographic actress Michele Mason (known as Kendra Lust), rapper Lil Yachty (Miles Parks McCollum), singers Ne-Yo (Shaffer Smith) and Akon (Aliaune Thiam) have also agreed to donate money to settle the lawsuits. Rapper Soulja Boy (DeAndre Cortez Way) and singer Austin Mahone, also being sued, have not agreed to strike a deal.
The American authorities have tightened their supervision of cryptocurrencies in recent months, in particular after the bankruptcy of the FTX platform, from which many customers were unable to withdraw their investments. They also communicate more about emblematic cases. Last October, reality TV star Kim Kardashian agreed to pay $1.26 million for praising a cryptocurrency on her Instagram account without mentioning that she was paid.
