According to a press release from the Government agency on 18th September 2019, ICObox conducted ICO sales which “ignored” the SEC registration process. Moreover, ICObox not only acted as an unregistered broker but also raised $14.6 million from the sale of its own ICO tokens.
Michele Wein Layne, Regional Director of the Los Angeles Regional Office, noted in the press release,
“By ignoring the registration requirements of the federal securities laws, ICOBox and Evdokimov exposed investors to investments, which are now virtually worthless, without providing information that is critical to making informed investment decisions,”
The SEC has charged the firm and its founder for “injunctive relief, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil money penalties.” It will attempt to estimate the earnings as commission from the sale of other unregistered ICOs as well.
Found in 2017, ICOBox has conducted 100s of ICOs. Some of the well-known ICOs from the platform are INS, Universa, Play2Live, Crypterium, Patron, Storiqa, Paragon, Tokenstars, CrowdGenie, SocialMedia.Market, Native Video Box, and so on. Since the SEC has classified all the token sales as unregistered, a plethora of blockchain projects are expected to feel the brunt as well.
Apart from reaching out to ICOs directly, the SEC has been hunting at platforms that made the most sales or even misled the investors. Recently, it has charged ICO rating for “paid ICO reviews” on their website.
Nevertheless, the ICOBox continues to conduct its operations. It has now added the listing of STO (Security Token Offering) which can be classified under registered securities. It looks like similar to Kik and Veritaseum cases in the court, ICObox is determined to content SEC’s claims in court.
