Coinbase is expanding its legal team, hiring Christian Sabello, recent Director at the SEC, who joins Coinbase as head of cryptocurrency exchange’s capital markets work

Coinbase, the first major cryptocurrency broker to go public with an opening day valuation on the Nasdaq, is expanding its legal team, perhaps in anticipation of increased regulation by the US and other nations. It has hired Christian Sabella, who was recently acting director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division...
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Securities and Exchange Commission awards $22 million to two whistleblowers for revealing securities violations

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced awards totaling approximately $22 million to two whistleblowers whose information and assistance were of crucial importance to successful SEC enforcement actions brought against a financial services firm. The first whistleblower received an award of $18 million, while the second whistleblower received a $4 million award.  The larger award...
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Securities and Exchange Commission charges investment advisor with defrauding sports clients for undisclosed fees and high risk investments

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Douglas Elstun, an investment advisor serving pro athletes, with defrauding his clients with undisclosed fees and misleading them about a high-risk investment strategy. Elston operated registered investment advisor (RIA) Crossroads Financial Management and billed clients annual fees as high as 1.25% of assets under management, above the 1%...
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Securities and Exchange Commission files suit against New Hampshire firm LBRY for failure to register offering of securities LBRY Token

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a civil suit against New Hampshire firm LBRY because it allegedly failed to register an offering of securities. The SEC Complaint states: "From 2016 through the present, LBRY offered and sold millions of dollars’ worth of unregistered securities to investors, in the form of a digital...
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Major Canadian cryptocurrency exchange Coinsquare ordered to hand over client info to federal tax authorities

A major Canadian cryptocurrency exchange Coinsquare of Toronto has been ordered to render its client information to federal tax authorities following a first-of-its-kind court ruling. The Federal Court issued an order compelling Coinsquare Ltd. to reveal customer details to the Canada Revenue Agency as it expands its enforcement among cryptocurrency holders and traders....
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Coinbase pays $6.5 million to settle charges by CFTC of fraudulent “wash trades” in Bitcoin and Litecoin

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday digital asset exchange Coinbase Inc paid $6.5 million to settle charges it reported misleading transaction data that potentially inflated the apparent trading volume on its professional GDAX platform. The fine was issued for  “wash trades” in litecoin and bitcoin by a former Coinbase employee...
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Securities and Exchange Commission issues first ever enforcement action on securities fraud on the darknet

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has announced charges against California resident James Roland Jones in the first-ever enforcement action from the commission to target securities fraud on the darknet. The dark web was designed to let users access the internet anonymously and it is intentionally hidden requiring special software to access the...
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