The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has revealed that the agency has initiated discussions with Reggie Middleton. Previously, Reggie Middleton orchestrated the initial coin offering (ICO) for Veritaseu (VERI).
The watchdog broke the news in a filing with New York Eastern District Court. The regulator highlighted that the discussions had been started ahead of a pretrial conference.
The announcement follows suit or two previous settlements that the agency made over unregistered digital securities offerings. These included startup Sia and Block.One that made settlements on Oct 1 and Sept 30, respectively. Sia had to pay over two hundred thousand dollars ($225k) for an offering that raised over one hundred thousand dollars ($120k). Meanwhile, Block.One has agreed to pay twenty-four million dollars ($24M) for a raise that totaled over four billion dollars ($4.1B).
SEC: Middleton mislead investors
In the initial complaint, Middleton was alleged to say that the VERI tokens did not count as securities. His statements mislead investors about the token’s potential value. He obscured his business schemes and was seen calling the tokens as “software.” He often compared the tokens to prepaid gift cards that would be used on a technological platform.
Middleton was also accused of manipulating the value of the assets after the ICO. He was also accused of using over half a million dollars ($520k) for personal affairs. Two years ago, Middleton claimed that a hacker stole approximately eight million dollars from the company while the funds remain missing.
SEC has frozen all of Middleton’s assets and has requested the court to forbid him from operating a public company or partaking in any digital asset offering.
