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US Government Files Fresh Charges Against PlexCoin ICO Organizers
Having only settled with the SEC last year, the PlexCoin founders now face a fresh round of charges from the U.S. Department of Justice.
By Paddy Baker
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 9:36 a.m. Published Jul 27, 2020, 2:14 p.m.
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The founders of PlexCoin have been hit with charges from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), just a year after settling with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
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- The DOJ said last week 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 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 of that year.
- Lacroix, Paradis-Royer and PlexCorp were all sued by the SEC for securities fraud in late 2017 and Lacroix had his assets frozen again in June 2018.
- Last August, the defendants agreed to each pay $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.
See also: BitClave Search Engine Agrees to Pay Back $25M ICO in Settlement With SEC
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