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Cryptocurrencies have been the focus of intense efforts by the SEC, which has more than kept its promise for 2023 and taken necessary actions. At the end of 2022, executives had announced they would start filing lawsuits ruthlessly against non-compliant crypto ventures, predicting tough times ahead for them. They kept their word with dozens of new cases and continue to do so.
SEC Crypto Currency Case
The current case is not related to a popular exchange or token. The Securities and Exchange Commission today took action against Brian Sewell and his company Rockwell Capital Management. Sewell is accused of defrauding students who took his online crypto trading course known as the American Bitcoin Academy.
The SEC claims the fraudulent scheme cost 15 students $1.2 million.
“According to the SEC’s complaint, from early 2018 to mid-2019, Sewell encouraged hundreds of online students to invest in the Rockwell Fund, a hedge fund he claimed to be starting that would generate returns for investors through the use of artificial intelligence and crypto assets. The complaint details that Sewell, who resided in Hurricane, Utah, before moving to Puerto Rico, took approximately $1.2 million from 15 students but never actually launched the fund.”
SEC‘s Enforcement Division Director Gurbir S. Grewal wrote;
“We allege that Sewell defrauded students of the online American Bitcoin Academy out of over a million dollars by telling a series of lies about investment opportunities in his so-called crypto hedge fund. Among other things, it was falsely claimed that the investment strategies would be directed by his own ‘artificial intelligence’ and ‘machine learning’ technology, which, like the fund itself, never actually existed.”
