real celebrities including Lindsay Lohan And Jack Paul have been sued by US regulators participating in an illegal crypto scheme.
The famous names reportedly used their social platforms to boost two crypto tokens without disclosing that they were paid to promote them.
The charges were announced by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday.
In a press release, the SEC said Lohan, 36, and Paul, 26, paid to settle the charges without admitting guilt.
The other indicted celebs are musicians Soulja Boy32, whose real name is DeAndre Cortez Way, singer Austin Mahone, 26, porn actress Michele Mason, 44, better known as Kendra Lust.
Musician Ne-Yo43, real name Shaffer Smith, rapper Lil Yachty, 25 (Miles Parks McCollum) and Senegalese-American singer akon49, (Aliaune Thiam) are accused.
Soulja Boy
/ Frederick M. Brown/Getty ImagesThe group is accused of illegally promoting TRX and BTT crypto assets “without disclosing that they were compensated and the amount of their compensation,” the SEC said.
Justin Sun, a crypto investor and diplomat for the Caribbean island nation of Grenada, is also accused of fraud by manipulating the trading activity of the two tokens to make it appear they were being actively traded in a crime known as “wash trading” . .
Mr. Sun, a Chinese-born protege of Alibaba founder Jack Ma, is known to have once paid $4.6 million (£3.7 million) to have dinner with investor Warren Buffett.
The SEC added in their press release that Mr Sun is accused of “hosting a promotional campaign in which he and his celebrity promoters hid the fact that the celebrities were being paid for their tweet”.
His companies – Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd. and Rainberry Inc. (formerly BitTorrent) – are also charged as part of the scheme.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said, “This case again demonstrates the risk investors face when crypto asset securities are offered and sold without proper disclosure.
“Sun and his companies not only targeted U.S. investors in their unregistered offerings and sales, generating millions in illicit proceeds at the expense of investors, but they also coordinated wash trading on an unregistered trading platform to avoid misleading appearances of active trade.”
All the celebrities except Mr. Cortez Way, Akon and Mr. Mahone have paid a total of more than $400,000 to settle the charges.