SEC Charges Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Soulja Boy, Akon In Crypto Promotion Scheme

As part of an ongoing crackdown on entertainers endorsing crypto without disclosing it to their fans, the SEC charged eight celebrities, including DeAndre Cortez Way, better known as the rapper Soulja Boy, as well as porn star Kendra Lust (whose real name is Michele Mason), Akon (Aliaune Thiam), Shaffer Smith (Ne-Yo) and Miles Parks McCollum (Lil Yachty), for violating the federal Securities Act by illegally touting cryptocurrencies Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT) without disclosing the fact that they were being compensated for it.

The celebrities promoted the cryptocurrencies to their thousands of followers on Twitter, with Lohan writing “super fast and 0 fee,” Thiam tweeting, “hearing a lot about #TRX,” and Smith tweeting: “What’s an ideal crypto bag? Thinking $TRX.”

The SEC also filed charges Wednesday against the owner of the crypto companies that paid the celebrities, Tron Foundation Limited and BitTorrent, Justin Sun, for allegedly manipulating the trading volume of crypto tokens TRX and BTT by directing employees to buy and sell the tokens through a process called wash trading.

According to the complaint, filed in federal District Court in New York, Sun and his associates also offered and sold BTT and TRX as investments, directing purchasers to promote the crypto tokens on social media, join social media channels on Discord and Telegram affiliated with Tron and create BitTorrent accounts.

Six of the eight celebrities facing charges agreed to pay a total of more than $400,000 to settle those charges, with the exception of Cortez Way and singer Austin Mahone.