The SEC charged ICOBox and its founder Nikolay Evdokimov for allegedly conducting an illegal $14 million offering of digital tokens and for acting as unregistered brokers for other digital asset offerings.
ICOBox, in 2017, sold about $14.6 million of "ICOS" tokens in an unregistered offering to more than 2,000 investors in the U.S. and globally, the SEC said in its complaint. The defendants also promised investors that the tokens would increase in value once it started trading and that token holders would be able to swap them at a discount for other tokens promoted on the ICOBox platform. The ICOS tokens are "virtually worthless," the SEC said in its complaint.
The SEC's complaint also alleges that ICOBox acted as a broker even though it did not register as one by facilitating approximately 35 initial coin offerings since ICOBox's ICOS offering in 2017. The roughly 35 initial coin offerings have raised an estimated $650 million from investors, according to the SEC.
The regulator charged ICOBox and Evdokimov with violating the registration requirements of the federal securities laws and is seeking injunctive relief, disgorgement with prejudgment interest and civil money penalties.
