The SEC has stepped in and wants to be the knights in shining armor. Can we trust that they only want to protect investors?
We all know the crypto world is still the wild west with ICO's leading the charge, and governments are now getting involved. The first instance of this we have seen is obviously the Chinese government stepping in with the ICO ban, and now the SEC has put it's foot down and is going after the founder of REcoin Maksim Zaslavskiy for falsely representing his REcoin Group Foundation according to coindesk. The project had raised approximately $300,000 but had claimed to raise nearly 2 million for a real estate investment coin.
Coindesk mentions that Zaslavskiy had falsely claimed to have a team of "lawyers, professionals, brokers, and others" which he in fact did not. A second attempt at a coin that claimed to invest in diamonds was also thwarted. The SEC is going to seek to return all funds invested to their owners as well as penalties from Zaslavskiy. Zaslavskiy will also be banned from participating in any future digital security offerings in the future.
This is the first in what I believe will be many prosecutions in the near future. Some regulation is good for investors, as long as the government stays minimally involved. Once they begin to require licenses and demand payment for ICO's, this is when the fun stops. ICO's have been a safe haven for startup companies in silicon valley, but heavy involvement from the SEC will likely put an end to this.
Always do your DD when investing into any ICO, and never invest more than you can afford to lose. Remember, when an ICO does a crowdsale, you are usually giving your money to a foundation that determines at a later date whether or not to issue you tokens. It is usually safer to trade these tokens once there is an actual blockchain and it is trading on an exchange! Stay safe out there Mis Amigos.
Sources https://www.coindesk.com/sec-charges-promoter-two-icos-fraud-says-recoin-no-real-estate/
If you are a witness and would like to be interviewed, you can find me in the PALnet discord chat or steemit.chat