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Stripe to Pay $120,000 in PlexCoin ICO Settlement With Massachusetts Attorney General

The payments processor facilitated millions of dollars of PlexCoin investments before shuttering accounts in September 2017.

By Danny Nelson
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 9:58 a.m. Published Sep 21, 2020, 3:29 p.m.
Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston.
Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston.

Stripe has agreed to pay the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General (AG) $120,000 in a settlement over the payments processor's role in the multimillion-dollar PlexCoin initial coin offering (ICO).

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  • According to a Sept. 16 filing by the Massachusetts AG's office, PlexCorp's leadership used Stripe to defraud millions of dollars from thousands of investors, including 22 in Massachusetts, between August and September 2017.
  • PlexCoin's Canadian backers raised $15 million during the height of the ICO boom by pitching their product as "the next decentralized worldwide cryptocurrency," as previously reported by CoinDesk.
  • But the offering quickly drew scrutiny from Canadian and U.S. regulators. It became the first targeted for prosecution by the Securities and Exchange Commission's crypto-focused Cyber Unit in December 2017.
  • Stripe "terminated" the ICO's accounts that September. It lacked adequate "risk monitoring" and "fraud prevention" tactics to move faster, Massachusetts AG Maura Healey alleged.
  • The firm has since bolstered its protections and has pledged to assist Healey in her office's ongoing investigations, according to the terms of the settlement.
  • In return for Stripe's payment, the AG's office agreed to not pursue any civil action against the firm, according to the settlement.

See also: US Government Files Fresh Charges Against PlexCoin ICO Organizers

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