The new crypto litigation tracker from commercial law firm Morrison Cohen LLP shows details of more than 300 active court cases that have been completed since 2013.
Morrison Cohen is a New York -based company that caters to large financial institutions, entrepreneurs and early growth companies, and specializes in capital markets, business litigation, real estate and bankruptcy to name a few. The company also has a cryptocurrency litigation team.
Morrison Cohen’s Cryptocurrency Litigation Tracker is published in May. 3, and contains the development of any cases related to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and private class / court actions.
The company said it will update the tracker regularly “to include major decisions in the courts,” and also contain several “articles, webinars, and podcasts” and crypto regulatory announcements from various government agencies.
According to the tracker – which means a long pdf document – there are approximately 17 crypto cases brought to court or completed in 2022 to date.
The SEC, CFTC and DOJ combined accounts for seven, with some high -profile cases SEC v. Barksdale brothers, who allegedly committed fraudulent initial coins (ICO) worth $ 124 millionand SEC v. BlockFi digital asset platform, that is agreed to pay a $ 100 million fine for failing to register a crypto loan product.
But the most famous is the case of DOJ v.Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan. Duo bojomu Demonstrated conspiracy to launder funds related to the Bitfinex hack of 119,756 Bitcoin (BTC) in 2016. DOJ special agents can seized 94,000 BTC around the time of his arrest in February.
There may be a lot more work to be done this year, as the SEC announced this week that it will increase the number of “Crypto Assets & Cyber Units” heads focused on enforcement. 50 dedicated positions.
Today we announced that we are strengthening a unit responsible for protecting investors in the crypto market & from cyber related threats. The newly renamed Crypto Assets & Cyber Unit in the Enforcement Division will grow to 50 special positions.
– US Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) 3 May 2022
related: Has New York State gone astray in its pursuit of crypto fraud?
The majority of the action is done in a private class/arena action, however, SafeMoon attracted the most attention after the team received a class action lawsuit over the allegations pump and dump scheme.
The class action claimed the project hired many celebrities to lure investors with allegedly misleading information, with musicians such as Nick Carter, Soulja Boy, Lil Yachty and YouTubers Jake Paul and Ben Phillips all said to have promoted BNB Chain -based tokens.
The unique cases that appear generally on the radar are Halston Thayer v Matt Furie, Chain / Saw LL, and PegzDAO since March.
The trio – which includes Furie, the original creator of the beloved Pepe the Frog meme – were charged with fraud, after allegedly selling one -on -one NFTs that increased in value after the same NFT drops were released for free.
“Plaintiffs allege that defendants lied by misrepresenting the value of Pepe the Frog NFT. Plaintiff paid $ 537,084 for Pepe the Frog NFT made by Furie and sold through PegzDAO. A few weeks after the sale, PegzDAO released 46 of the same NFT for free, which allegedly reduced the value. NFT Plaintiff, “wrote Morrison Cohen.
