Bitcoiin, aka Bitcoiin2Gen or B2G, the initial coin offering endorsed by actor Steven Seagal, has been issued with an immediate cease and desist order by the state of New Jersey, USA.
Issued by the New Jersey Bureau of Securities and dated March 7th, it alleges that Bitcoiin is fraudulently offering an unregistered security in violation of the Securities Law.
The ICO was expected to start later this month and was seeking a $75 million soft cap with a hardcap limit of $250 million.
The project has been dogged by controversy since its launch, and a slew of sceptical media articles led to the company issuing a press release last month to defend themselves against allegations of fraud.
As previously reported, Steven Seagal became the public face of Bitcoiin by publicly endorsing the campaign through Twitter, and is referred to by Bitcoiin as their Brand Ambassador.
However, the New Jersey Bureau of Securities’ document points out that, “The Bitcoiin Websites do not disclose what expertise, if any, Steven Seagal has to ensure that the Bitcoiin investments are appropriate and in compliance with federal and state securities laws.”
It goes on to itemise an extensive list of material facts that have been omitted by Bitcoiin in their business proposals.
These include the identity of its principals involved and their physical address, the company’s assets and liabilities, and the nature, scope, and amount of compensation received in exchange for Steven Seagal’s promotion of Bitcoiin.
One final point of order that other ICOs may want to heed is that, whilst Bitcoiin stated that there was no promise of any return or profit, the disclaimer was negated by other promotional material which directly had insinuated “promise of profits and returns.”
