Responding to Cointelegraph’s request for clarity on investor refunds, an SEC representative referred to page five of its order on the proceedings, according to which ENG purchasers will have the right to request a refund with interest. However, those content with their investment will be able to hold onto their ENG tokens as Enigma simply ups its public reporting requirements.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, recently announced its conquest over yet another unregistered ICO from 2017.
The SEC went after Enigma for its 2017 ICO, labeling the capital raise as an unregistered securities offering, the governing body said in a statement on Feb. 19.
Enigma settled with the SEC, agreeing “to return funds to harmed investors via a claims process, register its tokens as securities, file periodic reports with the SEC, and pay a $500,000 penalty”, the statement detailed.
Enigma saw major funding in 2017
Enigma raised $45 million selling its ENG token, finishing its ICO sale in September 2017. Approximately one year after its ICO, the decentralized internet privacy solution even partnered with mainstream powerhouse Intel for tech privacy exploration and advancement.
According to its recent statement, the SEC classified ENG tokens as securities and pointed out the commission received no filing from Enigma for its tokens during the ICO.
The SEC ordered investor compensation
“All investors are entitled to receive certain information from issuers in connection with a securities offering, whether it involves more traditional assets or novel ones”, SEC Boston branch Associate Director for Enforcement John Dugan said in the statement. He added:
“The remedies in today’s order provide ICO investors with an opportunity to obtain compensation and provide investors with the information to which they are entitled as they make investment decisions.”
ENG, however, has not seen any notable price decline as of press time, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Since 2017, Cointelegraph has reported numerous SEC coin offering crackdowns, including an ongoing case with Telegram and its related GRAM asset.
Cointelegraph reached out to the SEC and Enigma for clarification but received no response as of press time. This article will be updated accordingly should a response come in.
SEC Reaches $24 Million Settlement With EOS Parent Firm Block.one
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reached a settlement with Block.one to pay $24 million in penalties for conducting an unregistered initial coin offering (ICO).
On Sept. 30, the SEC announced in a press release that it has settled the charges against the firm behind the EOS network and corresponding token in the form of a civil monetary penalty. Block.one settled the charges without admitting or denying the findings.
According to the press release, Block.one’s ICO of 900 million tokens “began shortly before the SEC released the DAO Report of Investigation and continued for nearly a year after the report’s publication.”
Block.one raised the equivalent of billions of dollars but failed to register its ICO as a securities offering in agreement with the U.S. federal securities laws, “nor did it qualify for or seek an exemption from the registration requirements”, the SEC states. Co-director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement Stephanie Avakian said:
“A number of U.S. investors participated in Block.one’s ICO. Companies that offer or sell securities to U.S. investors must comply with the securities laws, irrespective of the industry they operate in or the labels they place on the investment products they offer.”
Steven Peikin, co-director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement added that Block.one did not provide ICO investors with the needed information, saying:
“The SEC remains committed to bringing enforcement cases when investors are deprived of material information they need to make informed investment decisions.”
The $24 million fine is not expected to make a significant dent, as it only represents a small portion of the $4 billion initial raise.
Block.one opens headquarters in Washington DC
Cointelegraph reported recently that Block.one opened its fourth global site located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region. The office is said to create 170 high-skilled jobs over a period of three years. Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer said at the time:
“Its proximity to the nation’s capital positions us close to the policy innovation around digital assets and distributed ledger technology in the U.S. This expansion opens up important new avenues of talent expansions for us at a time when there is rapidly increasing demand for blockchain-based technologies.”
