The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed an action against financial advisory firm BKCoin and its co-founder Kevin Kang for allegedly defrauding investors of $100 million through a fraudulent crypto scam.
The SEC claims that the defendants told investors they would use their funds to trade crypto assets and earn them huge returns on their investments.
However, the SEC alleges that instead of trading with investors’ funds, the defendants used $3.6 million to pay out to others in a Ponzi scheme model.
Kang allegedly misappropriated more than $370,000 for personal expenses, such as holidays, property, and sports events tickets.
The SEC has frozen some of the assets under BKCoin and seeks a permanent injunction against the duo and disgorgement from Bison Digital LLC for receiving $12 million from BKCoin.
The SEC has been taking regulatory actions against other fraudsters operating in the industry, such as CoinDeal, which allegedly stole investors’ money for personal use, and advisory companies Edelman Blockchain Advisors LLC and Creative Advancement LLC, which operated a Ponzi scheme that saw investors lose $4.4 million.
