Now, the New Jersey Bureau of Securities has issued them a cease and desist order.
The celebrity endorsement itself may have also been illegal, citing a previous SEC directive that any celebrity endorsement of an ICO should disclose the nature, scope, and amount of compensation paid to the celebrity.
The statement from the NJ Bureau of Securities reads:
“The Bitcoiin Websites do not disclose what expertise, if any, Steven Seagal has to ensure that the Bitcoiin investments are appropriate and in compliance with federal and state securities laws. Additionally, there are no disclosures as to the nature, scope, and amount of compensation paid by Bitcoiin in exchange for Steven Seagal’s promotion of the Bitcoiin investments.”
While there are no new announcements posted in direct response to the cease and desist, an older post from when Bitcoiin first started receiving criticism titled 'PRESS RELEASE: TO CLARIFY SOME FACTS AND RESPONSE ON ALLEGATIONS' says:
"...we are not an MLM company or any Pyramid Scheme or Scamming people, all of these allegations are false and just an attempt to discourage people from becoming a part of the Bitcoiin2Gen, Crypto-Currencies, and Crypto-economies."
Unfortunately, even if everything they say is true - that leaves plenty of red flags. The site owners are remaining anonymous (remember Bitconnect?) and they're promoting an Ethereum based ERC20 token but named it after a misspelling of Bitcoin - which appears to be a bold attempt to confuse people new to cryptocurrency.
Author: Adam Lee
Asia News Desk
