Former professional basketball player Paul Pierce has agreed to pay $1.4m to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Pierce is settling with the regulator over what SEC said was the promotion of the EthereumMax (EMAX) cryptocurrency on his Twitter account.
The ex-Boston Celtics player even earned himself an ironic moniker, with fans dubbing him “The Truth” over his failure to disclose that he was actually paid $244,000 worth of EMAX tokens to push the token onto his social media followers.
SEC established numerous infringements. In one case, Pierce shared a screenshot of a cryptocurrency wallet that held a significant amount of EMAX tokens. However, the wallet did not represent his personal holdings and was deemed as grossly misleading by the SEC.
The regulator deemed Pierce’s actions to be in violation of existing regulatory norms, and the player has agreed to settle. In addition, Pierce has agreed not to promote cryptocurrencies and crypto assets for a period of three years.
“This case is yet another reminder to celebrities: The law requires you to disclose to the public from whom and how much you are getting paid to promote investment in securities, and you can’t lie to investors when you tout a security”, SEC chairman Gary Gensler said.
Pierce is not the only celebrity to support EMAX on its heady rise and then drop it when it started sliding down rapidly.
Others, including Floyd Mayweather Jr and Kim Kardashian, have been seen to support the token. The pair were acquitted as part of a lawsuit alleging that they had misled investors, but Kardashian still had to settle with the SEC.
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