U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer of California sided with the SEC in a default judgement, after the alleged unregistered broker failed to respond to the commission’s lawsuit against the startup from September 2019, according to a March 6, 2020 statement.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has ordered that ICO broker ICOBox must pay $16 million after the startup failed to act on previous legal action from the commission.
ICOBox allegedly conducted an unregistered token offering, as well as unregistered broker activities. The SEC filed with California courts in January 2020 seeking such a default ruling.
ICOBox allegedly facilitated millions in ICO sales
On Sept. 18, 2019, the SEC announced legal action against ICOBox and creator Nikolay Evdokimov, stating the firm allegedly held an unregistered digital asset offering in 2017, dealing its assets to over 2,000 participants. The startup reportedly touted the assets would gain financial worth.
At the time of its September 2019 action, ICOBox’s tokens had decreased in value, the SEC said. ICOBox allegedly raised approximately $14.6 million during its ICO.
“By ignoring the registration requirements of the federal securities laws, ICOBox and Evdokimov exposed investors to investments, which are now virtually worthless, without providing information that is critical to making informed investment decisions”, Los Angeles Regional Office Regional director Michele Wein Layne said in a statement from the SEC.
The March 6 brief also included that ICOBox reportedly conducted broker dealings for more than 30 other ICOs, raising $650 million in the process.
The firm has not come forward
Founder Evdokimov has not yet addressed the SEC’s legal action, according to the brief. On his LinkedIn profile, Evokimov still lists himself as ICOBox’s vision director, in addition to his status as founder and director for a stablecoin known as SRL.
The SEC tried to contact the founder in January, with no success. “After service of the complaint was effected at ICOBox’s office, the premises was vacated, with several months’ rent left unpaid”, the SEC said in the brief. “Efforts to email Evdokimov’s last known address … garnered no response (though no emails bounced back).”
With a deadline set 14 days from the ruling, the March 6 action states Evdokimov must pay a civil penalty to the tune of $192,768, while ICOBox must pay $16 million.
Cointelegraph reached out to the SEC for additional details, but received no response as of press time. This article will be updated accordingly should a response come in.
Icon to Giveaway $570,000 in Tokens to Promote Voting, Decentralization
The Icon Foundation, the group behind the Icon blockchain network, is giving away 3 million ICX tokens — worth ~$570,000 — in anticipation of its upcoming Public Representative (P-Rep) elections. The giveaway will last from August 26 to September 24 for IXC token holders who opt to participate in P-Rep voting.
Icon shared news of the giveaway in a press release on Aug. 13. According to the announcement, the giveaway is an effort to promote community involvement in the so-dubbed P-Rep elections, and to advance decentralized control of the network.
As per the announcement, ICX holders must participate in voting and staking in the upcoming P-Rep in order to receive tokens from the giveaway, so the giveaway acts directly as a participation incentive.
ICON Foundation founder Min Kim elaborated:
“With the giveaway, we expect not just to re-distribute 3 million ICX for better decentralization and voting capabilities, but we also hope to encourage current ICX holders and ICON community members to transfer their coins to ICONex wallet, so they can properly stake and participate in the upcoming P-Rep elections.”
Becoming more decentralized
The foundation is reportedly actively looking to lessen their own share of the network, and is further encouraging voters to spread out their delegation among the P-Reps. The purpose, as they say, is to make sure that the network remains decentralized, by making sure that neither the foundation nor initial representatives have too much control.
As explained in a report by Decrypt, the Icon Foundation currently controls a lot of its coins, but not for long. The foundation is moving to launch a governance mechanism, dubbed Iconsensus, which shifts the network’s governance model to something like a proof-of-stake system. However, this means that token holders have to elect third parties to run the network. This is where the giveaway incentives come in, which Decrypt reports to be worth $570,000 in total.
DApp Connectivity
Per the press release, Icon is a blockchain network that aims to connect blockchain projects together. This includes decentralized application (DApp) development for public blockchain sectors via partnerships.
As reported by Cointelegraph in May 2018, Icon partnered with the Japanese messaging app Line via joint blockchain initiative Unchain. According to the report, Line aimed to bring its blockchain mainnet closer together with its DApps via Icon’s blockchain solution.
