MAYWEATHER AGREES TO $614,000 FINE OVER SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

[PRIBO247]

On November 29, 2018, the
Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) announced
that pro boxing superstar Floyd
Mayweather, Jr. had agreed to
pay a $614,000 fine to settle
charges related to social media
posts touting cryptocurrency
initial coin offerings (ICOs).

Section 17(b) of the United States’ Securities Act of 1933 requires
that anyone being paid to tout or endorse a security investment
must disclose that fact that the are being compensated to do so. In
other words, an endorser may may not deceive the public by hiding
the fact that the endorsement was paid for by the promoter of the
security. In July 2017, the SEC issued a notice that cryptocurrency
investments would be subject to the Securities Act of 1933.
Mayweather’s social media endorsements began just two days
later, with no evidence that Mayweather was actually aware of the
rule.

According to the SEC, Mayweather has more than 7.8 million
Twitter followers, 21 million Instagram followers and 13.4 million
Facebook followers.  Two days after the rule went into effect,
Mayweather posted on Instagram, “floydmayweather Champion
Predictions: I’m gonna make a $hit t$on of money on August
26th… on the ICO.” There was no hashtag or other indication
informing readers that any of the the posts were paid
advertisement for the cryptocurrency companies.

Mayweather's Twitter posts included a message that Centra's ICO
"starts in a few hours. Get yours before they sell out, I got mine…”.
In total, Mayweather was paid $300,000 from three separate ICOs
issuers, including $100,000 from Centra Tech Inc.

In April 2018, the United States government filed criminal and civil
charges against Centra’s founders, alleging that the ICO was
fraudulent.
Mayweather also received $200,000 from two other cryptocurrency
companies, tweeting, for example, "You can call me Floyd Crypto
Mayweather from now on #HubiiNetwork ICO starts tomorrow!"
Although it did not blame him for Centra Tech's fraud, the SEC
charged Mayweather with failing to disclose that he was being
paid to promote any of the cryptocurrency investments.

The amount of Mayweather’s payment was a combination of
disgorgement, penalties and interest. Without admitting guilt,
Mayweather agreed to cough up the $300,000 he received, another
$300,000 as a penalty and about $14,775 in interest. Mayweather
also agreed he would not promote any securities for the next three
years and that he would continue to cooperate with the
investigation.
Similarly, rapper DJ Khaled agreed to pay about $152,000 to avoid
further proceedings for similar violations.

Source : http://www.boxingtalk.com