Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Akon settle with SEC over crypto case

WASHINGTON – Actress Lindsay Lohan, rapper Akon and several other celebrities have agreed to pay tens of thousands of dollars to settle claims that they advertised crypto investments to their millions of social media followers. their association without disclosing that they were paid to do so.

Lohan, Akon, recording artists Ne-Yo, and Lil Yachty, boxer and internet personality Jake Paul, and adult film actor Michele Mason, all agreed to pay a total of more than $400,000 incl. interest, interest and penalties to settle claims, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The commission said on Wednesday.

No one acknowledged or denied the SEC’s findings as part of the settlement. Two other celebrities named in the SEC complaint, rapper Soulja Boy and pop singer Austin Mahone, failed to reach an agreement with the SEC, the agency said.

In response to a request for comment, Leslie Sloane, a journalist for Lohan, said the actress was contacted in March 2022, unaware of the disclosure request and agreed to pay a fine to resolve the matter. Lohan, who last week announced she was pregnant, was asked to forgo the $10,000 she was paid, plus interest and pay a $30,000 fine, according to an SEC complaint.

A spokesman for Paul declined to comment. The remaining emails with representatives of other celebrities named in the SEC complaint were not immediately returned Wednesday.

In the SEC complaint filed in federal court in New York, the agency claims that celebrities have been paid to promote Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT), both money asset securities electronics for sale by three companies owned by Justin Sun. a Chinese national. According to the complaint, Sun is Grenada’s permanent representative at the World Trade Organization and may be living in Singapore or Hong Kong.

Beginning around August 2017, Sun allegedly offered billions of dollars in unregistered securities and engaged in manipulative trading, and created secondary markets to trade Tronix and BitTorrent, according to the complaint.

“Although celebrities are paid to promote TRX and BTT, their social media solicitations do not reveal that they were paid or how much they were paid,” according to the complaint. . “As a result, the public has been misled into believing that these celebrities have an unbiased interest in TRX and BTT, and are not merely paid spokespeople.”

Many celebrities and athletes have used their influence and huge social media followings to promote cryptocurrencies in recent years, including Matt Damon, Tom Brady, and Reese Witherspoon. But doing so without disclosing when they were paid to do so is illegal and has prompted some big names to get involved with securities regulators. Last fall, Kim Kardashian agreed to pay a $1 million fine to settle federal charges she proposed the Ethereum Max token, a cryptocurrency security, to millions of people. followed on her Instagram without explicitly stating that she was paid to do so.

In 2020, actor Steven Seagal agreed to pay more than $300,000 as part of a similar settlement with the SEC, which also barred him from promoting investments for three years.