SEC fined Alex Tapscott for misleading investors

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fined entrepreneur and co-author of the bestseller Blockchain Revolution Alex Tapscott, reports CoinDesk .

Representatives of the agency say that the Canadian fund NextBlock, which specializes in crypto-investments, issued unregistered securities and provided false data in the project description, misleading investors. SEC has appointed NextBlock founder Alex Tapscott a $ 25,000 fine.

In addition, the SEC said it took into account remedial measures, “immediately taken” by Tapscott and NextBlock, including a fine of 700 thousand Canadian dollars (about $ 520 thousand), which the company paid at the request of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC).

Sec by BlockchainJournal on Scribd

In addition, according to The Globe and Mail, Tapscott will pay a $ 148,000 fine and will conduct ethics workshops in three Canadian business schools over the next 18 months in accordance with his agreement with OSC. Also, the publication notes that Tapscott is not prohibited from running the company.

Investment Fund NextBlock Global was founded in the summer of 2017. At the same time, the company raised $ 20 million to invest in digital assets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. As Tapscott stated at the time, cryptocurrencies are at the core of the Internet of values (Internet of Value) and “literally everything turned upside down” – from financial services to power grids.

After that, the investment fund announced its intention to enter the Toronto Stock Exchange. However, in the fall of 2017, Alex Tapscott announced the abandonment of these plans and promised to return the funds to investors. This decision followed after the release of the Forbes investigation, which revealed that at least four of the project’s advisers on the NextBlock Global website had no relation to it and denied that they had given their consent to the use of their names.

NextBlock advisors included Coinbase board member Katherine Haun, Civic blockchain-startup startup Winnie Lingham, special Ripple advisor Karen Gifforrd, and Vitalik Buterin's father and co-founder of BlockGeeks Dmitry Buterin.

Recall that last summer the second edition of the Blockchain Revolution book was published , authored by Alex Tapscott and his father Don Tapscott, who is the founder of the Blockchain Research Institute.

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