One of the largest pieces of crypto news this year was when Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison on March 28th, 2024. Since that date, the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have been busy handling  myriad crypto legal issues. 

The SEC focus typically falls on crypto projects, coins and offers being unregistered securities.  The DOJ has a wide array of actions combating alleged fraud, theft, and money laundering. 

Recent SEC Crypto Actions 

Since 3/28/24, the SEC has announced: 

April 5, 2024:  The SEC v Terraform Labs case results in a verdict that Terraform Labs is liable for fraud. The civil case resulted in a verdict where the company was found to have acted recklessly, while the CEO was found to have acted intentionally to commit fraud.  

April 9, 2024:  Uniswap Labs announced they had received a Wells Notice from the SEC, stating the letter shows the SEC intends to bring a legal action against Uniswap.  According to Uniswap, the allegations are that Uniswap allows trading of unregistered securities. Uniswap is headquartered in New York, New York. 

April 24th, 2024:  The SEC announces it has filed charges against Geosyn Mining of Texas, along with two co-founders, for alleged fraudulent and unregistered security offerings. 

May 6, 2024:  Robinhood Markets announces the SEC has sent a Wells Notice to the trading platform, related to crypto tokens it allowed to be traded. Robinhood states they do not believe the assets in question are securities. 

June 12, 2024:  The SEC announces Terraform Labs agrees to a $4.5 billion penalty, including interest and disgorgement.  Their former CEO is listed as responsible for $200 million of the penalty. The assets of Terraform Labs are not expected to be sufficient to cover more than a small portion of the penalty. 

June 28, 2024:  The SEC announces charges against Consensys Software for the alleged unregistered sale of securities through their MetaMask Staking and MetaMask Swaps. The allegations is Consensys sold tens of thousands of securities by selling liquid staking tokens in exchange for staked assets, without registering as a broker. 

July 1, 2024:  The SEC announced charges against Silvergate Capital and their CEO and CRO for allegedly misleading investors about the strength of their anti-money laundering and bank secrecy compliance programs, and their monitoring of crypto customers including FTX. The SEC also alleges their CFO mislead investors about losses after they occurred. 

Recent DOJ Crypto Actions 

Since 3/28/24, the DOJ has announced: 

April 18, 2024: The DOJ issue a press release that a jury in New York handed the DOJ and the FBI the first open-market manipulation case victory, after allegations  a man had fraudulently acquired $100 million in cryptocurrency through smart contracts on Mango Markets. The charges included commodities fraud, commodities manipulation and wire fraud. 

April 24, 2024:  The DOJ and the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York announce charges against the CEO and CTO of Samourai Wallet for allegedly committing money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, by operating a cryptocurrency mixer allegedly used for money laundering, including money from the infamous black market websites. 

April 30, 2024:  The DOJ announce an early bitcoin investor would be charged with alleged tax fraud for not reporting capital gains and transactions involving American corporations, resulting in $48 million in taxes not being collected by the IRS. 

May 3, 2024:  The DOJ announce a grand jury has charged executives of Cred, LLC with alleged false and fraudulent statement and wire fraud.  The allegations include charges the executives charged made false statements about the risk they were taking, the insurance they had acquired, and that investments and lending were collateralized or guaranteed. 

May 15, 2024:  The DOJ announce charges against two men from Boston and New York, alleging they conspired to commit wire fraud, and money laundering when exploiting the Ethereum Blockchain. The exploit is alleged to have taken just 12 seconds to perform, netting $25 million in crypto currency. 

May 17, 2024:  The DOJ announce charges against two Chinese nationals alleged to have laundered over $70 million of funds gathered from cryptocurrency investment scams through shell companies.  The DOJ alleges in their filings that the proceeds of “pig butchering” scams were washed by the two through domestic and international banks and shell companies. 

May 28, 2024:  The DOJ announce Ryan Salame of FTX was sentenced to 90 months in prison for his role in the Alameda Research and FTX debacle. Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in Prison for his role in the same scheme. 

June 3, 2024: The DOJ and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announce an indictment of the Chief Financial Officer of a multinational media company for alleged fraud and money laundering. The scheme includes the alleged use of cryptocurrency to buy the results of fraudulent unemployment benefit claims loaded onto prepaid debit cards.