Sparkster to Pay $35 Million to Harmed Investor Fund for Unregistered Crypto Asset Offering
The Securities and Exchange Commission today issued a cease-and-desist order against Sparkster Ltd. and its CEO, Sajjad Daya, for the unregistered offer and sale of crypto asset securities from April 2018 through July 2018 and charged crypto influencer Ian Balina for failing to disclose compensation he received from Sparkster for publicly promoting its tokens and failing to file a registration statement with the SEC for Sparkster tokens that he resold. Sparkster and Daya agreed to settle and to collectively pay more than $35 million into a fund for distribution to harmed investors. According to the SEC’s order, Sparkster and Daya raised $30 million from 4,000 investors in the United States and abroad by offering and selling crypto asset securities called SPRK tokens to raise money to further develop Sparkster’s “no-code” software platform. As stated in the order, Sparkster and Daya told investors that SPRK tokens would increase in value, that Sparkster management would continue to im...