WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a public statement today unveiling charges against eight influencers, including Kendra Lust, for “illegally touting” cryptocurrency assets without disclosing that they were compensated for doing so, or the amount of their compensation.
Lust was among the majority of those influencers who agreed to pay a total of more than $400,000 in disgorgement, interest, and penalties to settle the charges, without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings.
Lust told XBIZ she was not aware of how the law regulates touting until the SEC began its investigation.
“I would never intentionally deceive or try to harm anyone in any way,” she added.
The charges stem from an SEC investigation into asset entrepreneur Justin Sun and three of his companies: Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd., and Rainberry Inc. (formerly BitTorrent).
The SEC probed Sun’s unregistered offer and sale of crypto asset securities Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT) and also charged the entrepreneur and his companies with “fraudulently manipulating the secondary market for TRX through extensive wash trading, which involves the simultaneous or near-simultaneous purchase and sale of a security to make it appear actively traded without an actual change in beneficial ownership, and for orchestrating a scheme to pay celebrities to tout TRX and BTT without disclosing their compensation,” the statement explained.
The influencers who allegedly touted Sun’s crypto assets included Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Soulja Boy, Austin Mahone, Lil Yachty, Ne-Yo, Akon and Lust.
All of them except for Soulja Boy and Mahone reached a financial settlement with the SEC.