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A Texas federal judge ruled that crypto YouTuber Ian Balina sold unregistered securities by purchasing Sparkster (SPRK) tokens and offering them to U.S. investors in an investment pool. Judge David Alan Ezra, in a May 22 decision that partially favored the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), stated that U.S. securities laws applied to Balina’s actions and that SPRK tokens were considered securities. The Commission filed the case in 2022.
Court Shock for Famous Figure
The court found that SPRK was an investment contract under the Howey test, where investors pool money in a common enterprise with the expectation of profits from others’ efforts. Judge Ezra agreed with the SEC that Balina intentionally targeted U.S. investors and rejected the influencer’s summary judgment claim that SEC had no jurisdiction because the sales occurred abroad.
SEC failed to prove that Balina did not properly disclose his compensation agreement with Sparkster CEO Sajjad Daya due to factual inconsistencies found by the court. The SEC alleged that Balina purchased $5 million worth of SPRK between May and July 2018, promoted it on multiple social media platforms, and created a Telegram group to form an investment pool for the tokens.
Court Decision Draws Attention
It was also noted that Balina did not disclose that Sparkster gave him a 30% bonus for the tokens he purchased. Balina claimed the bonus was a standard volume discount in a private pre-sale agreement. Sparkster marketed itself as a low-code blockchain application development platform and conducted its initial coin offering (ICO) for SPRK tokens between April and July 2018.
In September 2022, without admitting or denying the regulator’s allegations, Sparkster agreed with the SEC to destroy the remaining SPRK tokens and remove them from trading platforms. The SEC ordered the company to pay $30 million in disgorgement, $4.6 million in interest, and a $500,000 penalty.
