US Financial Regulators Reach $7M Settlement Over PlexCorps ICO

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reached a multi-million dollar settlement with PlexCorps owner Dominique Lacroix, business partner Sabrina Paradis-Royer and PlexCorps over an allegedly fraudulent initial coin offering (ICO).

The SEC submitted its settlement agreement to a U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on Aug. 12. According to the filing, the defendants will collectively be fined nearly $7 million as part of the settlement agreement. 

The SEC concluded that the defendants raised $8,269,218 through the PlexCoin ICO. The agreement further states that the defendants will pay 55% of the funds raised in the ICO — approximately $4.5 million — as the commission determined this amount to be roughly what they personally gained from the offering.

Additionally, the document states that Lacroix and Paradis-Royer will be required to pay $1 million in civil penalties each as well as $348,145.25 for prejudgment interest, bringing the total amount of penalties to nearly $7 million. 

The settlement agreement also entails that Lacroix will be barred from acting as an officer or director of a public company, and that both Lacroix and Paradis-Royer will be barred from involvement in any future digital securities offerings.

Request to freeze Lacroix’s assets

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the SEC obtained an emergency court order in June to freeze Lacroix’s assets as part of ongoing enforcement. At the time, the SEC alleged that Lacroix and Paradis-Royer violated security laws via the PlexCoin ICO, in which they purportedly promised a 1,354% return on investment in under a month.