- A South African mining business received $5.8 million.
- The SEC’s argument hinges on the fact that he has no funds.
According to the SEC, Australian Craig Derel Sproule sold “digital asset securities” via his company’s 2018 Initial Coin Offering in a manner that was “fraudulent and unregistered.” After conducting an ICO for Crowd Machine (CMCT) between January and April of last year, Sproule’s Metavine, Inc. firm issued unregistered securities, never made the project operational, and “materially misrepresented how it intended to use ICO proceeds.”
With a total of at least $33 million raised, the SEC believes adequate cash is no longer available for Sproule’s ongoing activities. The SEC’s argument hinges on the fact that he has no funds. As the SEC revealed in a press release dated January 6th, Sproule had consented to restrictions prohibiting him, Crowd Machine, and Metavine from conducting any further securities offerings.
Fine and Ban Imposed
Sproule has been fined $195,047 and banned from serving as an officer of a public business. A South African mining business received $5.8 million from the initial coin offering (ICO) as a loan or equity in exchange for Sproule’s representations that the money would be utilized to construct a decentralized peer-to-peer network. So far, Sproule has not received any of the lost funds and has suffered no financial loss due to the transaction.
Additionally, the lawsuit outlines how CMCT coins were planned to be used in the Crowd Computer ecosystem to pay device owners for their computer power usage and compensate software developers for their work. On the other hand, the tokens were never used in the ecosystem.
