$124M Crypto Scam? SEC Charges Sibling Founders Of Ethereum-Based Coin

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged “modern-day snake-oil salesmen” siblings for allegedly defrauding cryptocurrency investors out of $124 million.

What Happened: In a Tuesday statement, the SEC announced that it charged John and Jonatina Barksdale for running Ormeus Coin ORMEUS/USD, alleged to be a cryptocurrency scam.

The Ethereum-based ETH/USD-token in question claimed to be powered by "green energy" and to have a $250 million cryptocurrency mining operation and was producing $5.4 million to $8 million per month in mining revenues.”

The siblings purportedly abandoned their mining operations in 2019 after generating under $3 million in revenue. SEC's Division of Enforcement Associate Director Melissa Hodgman alleges "that the Barksdales acted as modern-day snake-oil salesmen, using social media, promotional websites, and in-person roadshows to mislead retail investors for their own personal benefit."

The complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and charges the siblings with violating the federal securities laws and seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement plus interest, and civil penalties. CoinMarketCap data suggests that the coin is available on cryptocurrency exchanges HitBTC, BW, Finexbox and PancakeSwap at the time of writing.

ORMEUS Price Action: As of press time, Ormeus Coin is trading at $0.001919 after seeing its price fall by nearly 40% over the last 24%.