Share this article
GAW Miners CEO Held Liable for $9.8 Million Judgment in SEC Case
A US federal judge has signed off on a final judgment against GAW Miners CEO Homero Josh Garza.
By Stan Higgins
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 7:00 a.m. Published Oct 4, 2017, 10:24 p.m.
In this article
A US federal judge has signed off on a final judgment against Homero Josh Garza, the CEO of the now-defunct cryptocurrency mining firm GAW Miners.
The judgment, entered on October 4, comes less than two years after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) first filed suit against Garza, GAW Miners and ZenMiner, a related firm. Garza was accused and charged with violating securities laws through the offering of so-called "Hashlets," or "virtual miners" which were sold to customers through an internal exchange.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Today's judgment follows a guilty plea from Garza, given in July, in a related criminal case pursued by the U.S. Justice Department. Garza plead guilty to a single wire fraud charge and faces sentencing early next year.
In the SEC's civil case, Garza has been held liable for $9,182,000, an amount that the court order said will be "deemed satisfied by the order of restitution that will be entered against him when he is sentenced in the related criminal case." It comes after the agency won a default judgment against GAW Miners and ZenMiner for $11 million in disgorged profits and civil penalties.
GAW Miners, prior to its collapse, previously offered hosted mining services. It later moved into the cloud mining business, through which customers can purchase hash power generated by hardware owned by the miner. But in the case of GAW, the firm didn't actually possess as much hash power as it sold – prompting a harsh rebuke from federal prosecutors in their original complaint from December 2015.
"Though cloaked in technological sophistication and jargon, defendants' fraud was simple at its core – defendants sold what they did not own, and misrepresented the nature of what they were selling," they wrote at the time.
Image via Shutterstock
More For You
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
More For You
Strategy shares register first six-month losing streak since adoption of bitcoin strategy in 2020
Crypto analyst Chris Millas has highlighted an unusually persistent slump in Strategy shares, breaking with past drawdown patterns even as the firm continued accumulating bitcoin.
What to know:
- Strategy shares fell in each of the final six months of 2025, marking the first time since the firm adopted bitcoin in August 2020 as a treasury reserve asset.
- The decline stands out for its persistence, as past selloffs were often followed by sharp rebounds.
- The stock sharply underperformed both bitcoin and the Nasdaq 100 despite the firm's continued BTC purchases.
Top Stories
