SEC accuses YouTube blogger Ian Balina of involvement in unregistered ICO

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused crypto investor and YouTube blogger Ian Balina of involvement in an unregistered ICO Sparkster.

The project positioned itself as a ‘no-code’ development platform. It closed its crowdsale in July 2018 and raised $30 million from participants.

According to court documents, in 2018 Balina promoted SPRK tokens that were securities. He did not disclose the $5 million advertising compensation he received, and also resold the project’s tokens through his own investment pool without registration with the SEC.

The allegations relate to promoting Sparkster on YouTube and Telegram.

The regulator intends to permanently bar Balina from participating in securities offerings or their promotion, and to seize all income he earned from advertising the project. In addition, the defendant could be liable for a monetary penalty.

Moreover, the SEC noted in the complaint that transactions on the blogger’s Ethereum wallet were processed by nodes located in the United States and, accordingly, fell under the regulator’s jurisdiction. According to Etherscan, more than 46% of Ethereum nodes are located in the United States.

In June 2019 Balina pleaded guilty to promoting Sparkster.

In 2018 Ian Balina fell victim to scammers. During a live stream on his YouTube channel, unknown attackers drained more than $2 million from his accounts in various cryptocurrencies. The blogger stored private and public keys in Evernote.

In August, the SEC filed a lawsuit against the organizers of the Dragonchain ICO for $14 million.

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