The SEC alleged that the co-founder and employees of cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex were aware that they were violating securities laws, despite whining publicly for "regulatory uncertainty."
SEC Reaches Internal Private Messages From Bittrex Exchange Employees
They have messages to prove it, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) claim in a criminal complaint filed Monday against the company.
The SEC reports that an unnamed employee told one of Bittrex's three founders, "I hate people who complain about market delusions because we don't email them."
The SEC, also unnamed, states that the founder's preferred response to these clients was "go f*** yourself", telling them to "track your own damn investment or find a broker to do it for you."
Bittrex Managers Warn Altcoins They List To Change Their Whitepapers
According to Monday's filing, during the 2017 initial coin offering, Bittrex co-founder Bill Shihara allegedly advised different projects to remove investment-related statements from their marketing materials after sales were made. According to the SEC, this move was an effort to keep more assets on the platform and avoid regulatory scrutiny.
It is also alleged that Shihara and other Bittrex employees scanned whitepapers, marketing materials and social media posts and urged coin market companies to remove "problematic statements". They even had a "cheat sheet" they could use as a guide when reviewing materials.
“Congratulations on the crowdsale,” Shihara wrote in an email to the developer team behind TKN coin in May 2017, which was included in the SEC filing. Shihara then asked them if they had removed "investment-related terms" from their documents.
*Not investment advice.
