Share this article
Boontech, Founder Pavithran Settle SEC Charges Over Fraudulent ICO and Registration Violations
Marketed as a “decentralized job marketplace,” Boontech and founder Rajesh Pavithran have settled charges of fraud and registration violation brought by the SEC.
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 9:43 a.m. Published Aug 13, 2020, 11:10 p.m.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Thursday it has charged Virginia-based Boontech and its founder Rajesh Pavithran for fraud and failure to register the firm’s tokens that were sold as investment securities.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
According to the SEC’s announcement, between November 2017 and January 2018, Boontech sold $5 million worth of its tokens, Boon Coins, to more than 1,500 investors in the United States, without registering the digital asset with the regulatory body.
- The announcement said the firm and Pavithran made false statements about how they had managed to eliminate volatility for their digital asset by using “patent pending” technology to hedge it against the dollar, despite what the SEC said was the complete absence of such a technology.
- While the firm and its founder claimed their platform was faster because it was built on a private blockchain, the SEC said these claims were also false and the firm used the same public blockchain as its competitors.
- Without accepting or denying the charges, Boontech and Pavithran have settled the allegations by agreeing to disgorge $5 million, plus interest, raised by the token sales. The settlement also requires Boontech destroy all of the Boon Coins in their possession and withdraw them from all digital asset trading platforms.
- In addition, the settlement requires Pavithran to pay a penalty of $150,000 and bars him from serving as an officer or director of any publicly traded company.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Farcaster Switches to Wallet-First Strategy to Grow Its Social App
The protocol still consists of casts, follows, reactions, identities and wallets, and third-party clients are free to emphasize whichever components they want.
What to know:
- Farcaster is shifting its focus from social media to its in-app wallet and trading features to drive user engagement.
- Cofounder Dan Romero acknowledged the lack of sustainable growth in their social-first strategy over the past 4.5 years.
- The wallet's trading tools have shown the strongest product-market fit, leading to a strategic pivot towards financial use cases.
Top Stories
