By
Steve Muchoki
April 25th, 2024
According to the SEC, Thor Technologies and its officials defrauded 1,600 investors out of which 200 of them were from the United States.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the leadership of Gary Gensler continues to hunt for cryptocurrency projects – including the failed Thor Technologies protocol – accused of selling unregistered securities. According to SEC’s complaints filed on Wednesday, December 21, in the US District Court of San Francisco, Thor Technologies claimed it would “develop a software platform for ‘gig economy’ companies and workers”. However, the said platform was never completed.
SEC vs Thor Technologies
Notably, the SEC has scrutinized cryptocurrency exchanges for the 2018 ICO boom market. Back in June this year, the SEC announced that it was looking into Binance’s 2017 Initial Coin Offerings (ICO).
According to the SEC, Thor Technologies defrauded 1,600 investors out of which 200 of them were from the United States.
“Thor marketed the Thor Tokens to investors who reasonably viewed the Thor Tokens as an investment vehicle that might appreciate in value based on Thor’s and Chin’s managerial and entrepreneurial efforts in developing the gig economy software platform,” the SEC noted.
In addition to charging the company, the SEC also charged David Chin, Thor’s co-founder and CEO, and Matthew Moravec, Thor’s co-founder and former CTO, for selling unregistered securities.
According to the SEC, Moravec has agreed to settle for a judgment against him imposing permanent and conduct-based injunctions, including a prohibition for three years from participating in any offering of a crypto asset security. Additionally, the settlement ordered him to remit $407,103, prejudgment interest of $72,209.45, and a civil penalty of $95,000. However, the settlement is subject to court approval.
SEC Dismantles Crypto’s Gray Area
The cryptocurrency market has attracted worldwide traders seeking huge profits with little investment. Furthermore, the rise of meme coins is a clear testament to greed in the industry. With the fall of Terra Luna and FTX – a combined loss of over $60 billion – the SEC has increased its manpower to scrutinize the crypto market.
To the surprise of many, the SEC recently won the LBRY Inc. battle on November 7, after the Judge deemed LBC tokens as unregistered severities.
Consequently, LBRY company sees no future hope of succeeding after losing the battle to SEC.
“We will likely be dead in the near future. We expect the LBRY mission to continue, but the company itself has been killed by legal and SEC debts,” the company noted.
As 2023 draws near, all eyes are on the Ripple vs SEC case, which will have a huge impact on the entire industry. Moreover, twelve crypto companies, including Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ: COIN), have joined the Ripple vs SEC lawsuit via amici briefs.