The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has slapped a $10m fine on crypto firm Poloniex for operating an unregistered cryptocurrency exchange.
According to Bitcoin.com, Poloniex has agreed to a cease-and-desist order and will pay disgorgement of $8,484,313, prejudgement interest of $403,995 and a civil penalty of $1.5m.
The SEC found that between July 2017 through November 2019, Poloniex facilitated the buying and selling of digital asset securities, and while the platform was available to investors in the US, the company did not register as a national securities exchange – a move that was a violation of Section 5 of the Exchange Act.
Chief of the SEC enforcement division’s cyber unit Kristina Littman said, “Poloniex attempted to circumvent the SEC’s regulatory regime. Poloniex chose increased profits over compliance with the federal securities laws by including digital asset securities on its unregistered exchange.”
Poloniex is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pluto Holdings – a company that it also a subsidiary to Circle Internet Financial. Back in 2019, Pluto sold the Poloniex trading platform to a third party.
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