Illegal crypto promotion: NBA star Paul Pierce harpooned by the SEC

This player scores the wrong basket – There DRY pursues the NBA player Paul Pierce for promoting EMAX tokens, without disclosing his compensation for doing this publicity. Now the ax falls on another celebrity who doesn’t want to play by the rules.

Paul Pierce pays $1.4 million as SEC penalty

In a communicated on February 17, the SEC announced that it was suing Paul Pierce for promoting the EMAX tokens of EthereumMax on social networks, without having revealed that he had been paid to praise the qualities of this project. In details, the NBA player received more than $244,000 in EMAX tokens to advertise the token on Twitter.

According to the regulator, Paul Pierce also deceived his audience by sharing, on the social network, a screenshot of an account that held a significant amount of EMAX with substantial profits. However, the assets of the NBA player were actually much lower to those displayed on the capture.

Faced with these accusations, which he neither admitted nor explicitly denied, Paul Pierce agreed to pay a penalty of $1,115,000 And $240,000 as disgorgement and interest. The NBA player also agreed to refrain from promoting cryptocurrencies for three years.

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Crypto projects, staking offers, stablecoins and celebrities: the SEC continuously on the job

In the announcement, SEC Chairman, Gary Genslerrecalls the rules that celebrities must follow when promoting titles:

• Influencers are subject to an obligation to disclose the earnings they receive for this promotion;
• They must not lie to their audience when touting these titles.

The SEC’s announcement reminds us that the regulator de facto considers that most cryptocurrencies are securities. It underlines this desire of the agency to interfere more and more – whether justified or not – in the crypto industry.

The commission also attacks crypto projects that have gone bankrupt, such as Terra and its founder Do Kwonbut also to staking offers and to stablecoinsas well as celebrities who violate securities promotion rules.

Paul Pierce is not besides not the only celebrity that the SEC has singled out for promoting EMAX tokens. The regulator also has sued Kim Kardashian who failed to disclose the compensation of more than $250,000 that she perceived for having extolled the qualities of the token.

From 2017, the SEC had warned celebrities when it comes to promoting crypto projects. Apparently, influencers continue to knowingly ignore the rules and then have to checkout. The penalty bill far exceeding the winnings, is the game worth the candle?

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