Summary:

• The American Stock Exchange Federation accused Ian Balina, CEO of Token Metrics
• Ballina was tested to initially sell Sparkster (SPRK) tokens in 2018.
• The regulator said that the US $30 million ICO was not registered, which violated the Securities Act.
• The SEC prosecutor identified many data encryption participants and projects with the main goal of suspected operation errors

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Ian Balina, CEO of crypto influencer and Token Metrics, regarding the initial coin offering (ICO) of Sparkster (SPRK) tokens in 2018

According to the documents submitted on Monday, the SEC inspector said that the theme activities of Balliner and Spaxter in that year violated the securities law

From April to July 2018, Balina served as the data encryption initiator of SPRK token. SPRK is a token launched by Sparker, LTD, a newly founded company based in Cayman Islands

Sparkerster gives its SPRK tokens to investors in the form of an initial coin offering (ICO). To put it bluntly, ICO involves selling tokens in a fixed amount at the initial stage of the project or company

Data encryption investors can get this token just like traditional investors who buy shares during the IPO period. The profits of ICO are generally used to develop blockchain networks or projects of limited companies

Instead, customers receive tokens as an equity stake in new projects. Later, this token was locked for a period of time before investors could decide to sell it. Generally, the price was higher than the ICO price.

SPRK tokens raised about 30 million dollars from about 4000 investors in the United States and around the world. According to the documents of the American Stock Exchange Federation, Ballina sold tokens based on social network accounts and promoted the ICO market sales, so he signed a contract with Spector

It is reported that the data encryption influencer invested about 5 million dollars in the newly established company of this software, and won 30% of the reward on the SPRK token. Subsequently, Balina gave some SPRK tokens to about 50 investors including American households.

The SEC prosecutor accused Sparkster and Ian Balina of selling unregistered securities, because neither of these two entity lines submitted an application to the Federation. The regulatory authorities clearly pointed out that Ian Balliner and Spaxter's personal behavior at the SPRK ICO stage violated several provisions of the Securities Law.

The SPRK ICO accusation against Balina and Sparkster is closely combined with many allegations made by the American Stock Exchange Federation on illegal digital currency theme activities. The SEC prosecutor also accused 11 individuals related to the collapse of the $300 million Forsage login password.