US Government Files Fresh Charges Against PlexCoin ICO Organizers
The founders of PlexCoin have been hit by charges from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), just a year after settling with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
- The DOJ said last week that an Ohio grand jury indicted three figures in the PlexCoin initial coin offering (ICO) on conspiracy to commit both securities and wire fraud, as well as money laundering and one count of wire fraud.
- The DOJ alleges that founder Dominic Lacroix, Yan Ouellet, and Sabrina Paradis-Royer, from Quebec, Canada, made false statements including promising returns of over 1,345%.
- PlexCoin raised a total of $15 million from investors in 2017; the SEC stopped the sale with an emergency asset freeze in December that year.
- Lacroix, Paradis-Royer, and PlexCorp were all sued by the SEC for securities fraud in late 2017 – Lacroix had his assets frozen again in June 2018.
- Last August, the defendants agreed to each pay a $1 million in penalties and not participate in a securities sale again; PlexCorp would also disgorge $4.56 million, plus $350,000 in interest to the SEC.
- Lacroix served a two-month prison sentence in Canada for contempt of court in 2017.
- If found guilty, the DOJ’s indictment may well take PlexCoin’s remaining ICO funds.
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