Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 1, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged SafeMoon LLC, its creator Kyle Nagy, SafeMoon US LLC, and the companies' Chief Executive Officer, John Karony, and Chief Technology Officer, Thomas Smith, for perpetrating a massive fraudulent scheme through the unregistered sale of the crypto asset security, SafeMoon. According to the SEC's complaint, the Defendants promised to take the price of the token "Safely to the moon," but instead of delivering profits, they wiped out billions in market capitalization, withdrew crypto assets worth more than $200 million from the project, and misappropriated investor funds for personal use.
"Decentralized finance claims to deliver transparency and predictable outcomes, but unregistered offerings lack the disclosures and accountability that the law demands, and they attract scammers like Kyle Nagy, who use these vulnerabilities to enrich themselves at the expense of others," said David Hirsch, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division's Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit (CACU).
According to the SEC's complaint, in marketing the SafeMoon Token, Nagy assured investors that funds were safely locked and could not be withdrawn by anyone, including the Defendants, while held in SafeMoon's liquidity pool, a collection of investor funds that provides liquidity to facilitate trading in the asset. However, as alleged, large portions of the liquidity pool were never locked, and the Defendants misappropriated millions of dollars to purchase McClaren cars, extravagant travel, luxury homes, and other things.
"We urge investors to continue to exercise extreme caution in this space, as fraudsters exploit the popularity of crypto assets to promise astronomical profits while all too frequently only delivering a crash landing," said Jorge G. Tenreiro, Deputy Chief of the CACU.
The SEC's complaint alleges that SafeMoon skyrocketed in price by more than 55,000 percent from March 12 to April 20, 2021, and reached a market capitalization exceeding $5.7 billion before its price plummeted by nearly 50 percent when the public learned, on April 20, 2021, that SafeMoon's liquidity pool was not locked as claimed. After this plunge, Karony and Smith allegedly used misappropriated assets to make large purchases of SafeMoon to prop up its price and manipulate the market. Karony also allegedly used an account he opened on a trading platform to buy and sell SafeMoon to create the impression of market activity, a practice known as wash trading.
The SEC's complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, charges Defendants with violating the registration and anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
The SEC's investigation was conducted by John Lucas, with the assistance of John Crimmins, Pamela Sawhney, Sejal Bhakta, and John Marino. It was supervised by Deborah A. Tarasevich, Mr. Tenreiro, and Mr. Hirsch. The SEC's litigation will be led by Dean M. Conway and Oren Gleich, under the supervision of James Connor.
The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, which filed a parallel criminal action, and the FBI.
華盛頓特區--(新聞檔案公司,2023年11月1日)——美國證券交易委員會今天指控SafeMoon LLC、其創始人凱爾·納吉、SafeMoon US LLC以及兩家公司的首席執行官約翰·卡羅尼和首席技術官托馬斯·史密斯通過未經註冊出售加密資產證券SafeMoon實施大規模欺詐計劃。根據美國證券交易委員會的投訴,被告承諾 “安全地登上月球”,但他們沒有帶來利潤,反而消滅了數十億美元的市值,從該項目中撤回了價值超過2億美元的加密資產,並挪用了投資者資金供個人使用。
美國證券交易委員會執法部加密資產和網絡部門(CACU)負責人戴維·赫希說:“去中心化金融聲稱可以提供透明度和可預測的結果,但未註冊的發行缺乏法律要求的披露和問責制,它們吸引了像凱爾·納吉這樣的騙子,他們利用這些漏洞以犧牲他人爲代價致富。”
根據美國證券交易委員會的投訴,在銷售SafeMoon Token時,納吉向投資者保證,資金已被安全鎖定,包括被告在內的任何人都無法提取,而資金則存放在SafeMoon的流動性池中,這是一系列提供流動性以促進資產交易的投資者資金。但是,正如所指控的那樣,流動資金池的很大一部分從未被鎖定,被告挪用了數百萬美元購買麥克拉倫汽車、奢侈旅行、豪宅和其他東西。
CACU副負責人豪爾赫·滕雷羅說:“我們敦促投資者繼續在這一領域格外謹慎,因爲欺詐者利用加密資產的受歡迎程度來承諾天文數字利潤,而往往只會墜毀。”
美國證券交易委員會的投訴稱,從2021年3月12日至4月20日,SafeMoon的價格飆升了55,000%以上,市值超過57億美元,之後其價格暴跌了近50%,當時公衆在2021年4月20日得知SafeMoon的流動資金池沒有按聲稱的鎖定。據稱,在這次暴跌之後,Karony和Smith使用挪用的資產大量購買了SafeMoon,以支撐其價格並操縱市場。據稱,Karony還使用他在交易平台上開設的賬戶來買入和賣出SafeMoon,以給人留下市場活動的印象,這種做法被稱爲虛假交易。
美國證券交易委員會向美國紐約東區地方法院提起的申訴,指控被告違反了1933年《證券法》的註冊和反欺詐條款以及1934年《證券交易法》的反欺詐條款。
美國證券交易委員會的調查由約翰·盧卡斯在約翰·克里明斯、帕梅拉·索尼、塞賈爾·巴克塔和約翰·馬裏諾的協助下進行。它由黛博拉·塔拉塞維奇、特雷羅先生和赫希先生監督。美國證券交易委員會的訴訟將由迪恩·康威和奧倫·格萊奇領導,由詹姆斯·康納監督。
美國證券交易委員會感謝提起平行刑事訴訟的紐約東區美國檢察官辦公室和聯邦調查局的協助。