The Texas State Securities Board has taken an emergency action to stop a network of crypto-related companies from illegally offering investments in the state. A token offering and a mining firm are among those targeted by the securities board as selling fraudulent “cryptocurrency-related investments.”
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Emergency Action Taken
The Texas State Securities Board announced Thursday that an emergency action has been taken to “target promoters of crypto-mining investments.” According to the notice published on July 12 by the Board:
Texas Securities Commissioner Travis J. Iles took emergency action July 11 to stop a network of companies from fraudulently offering cryptocurrency-related investments to Texas residents.
Utah-based companies Mintage Mining LLC, Symatri LLC, NUI Social, Social Membership Network Holding LLC, and BC Holdings and Investments LLC are named in the emergency cease and desist order. They are all controlled by Darren Olayan of Lehi, Utah. In addition, NUI Social affiliates, Utah-based Douglas Whetsell and Houston-based Wyatt Mccullough, are also named in the order.
Investment Schemes
Mintage Mining LLC allegedly issues and offers two different crypto mining-related investments “illegally and fraudulently.” Together with Symatri LLC, they sell “pre-configured computer hardware to mine Kala,” an ERC-20 token which Symatri claims to be “fungible and transferable, and it is expected to be traded on cryptocurrency exchanges in the near future.”
Symatri also claims that more than 13,000 users have signed up for Kala’s ICO, which sold more than 814 million tokens. It supposedly raised over $8.5 million and more than 800 BTC. According to the Commissioner:
Symatri is not disclosing material information about the value of its cryptocurrency Kala. Nor is it providing information about the risks of investments in the computer hardware
