The founder of BitFunder, Jon Montroll, was accused of giving false evidence about the exchange activities.
Bitcoin price declined again. As early as February, 19 Bitcoin broke $11,000. But now Bitcoin dropped below $10,000. Today Bitcoin is trading at $9.995 by 4 am EST.
On Thursday, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged BitFunder, cryptoexchange platform, with fraud. According to SEC, in 2013 BitFunder sold unregistered digital shares of companies related to cryptocurrencies. The founder of BitFunder, Jon Montroll, was accused of giving false evidence about the exchange activities.
FBI and SEC are investigating Montroll’s activities.
“As alleged, the defendant repeatedly lied during sworn testimony and misled SEC staff to avoid taking personal responsibility for the loss of thousands of his customers” Bitcoins,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement.
The SEC claims that BitFunder and its founder, John E. Montroll, operated BitFunder as an unregistered online stock exchange and tricked exchange users by misappropriating their bitcoins and did not disclose a cyberattack in the BitFunder system that led to the theft of over 6,000 bitcoins. The SEC also claims that Montroll sold unregistered securities that were supposed to be investments in exchange and illegally raised funds from these investments.
Source:
https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-23