The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed an amended complaint against Tron founder Justin Sun, arguing that the case falls under the country's jurisdiction because he “travels extensively” to the US.
In the complaint, the SEC said Sun spent 380 days in the U.S. in the three years from 2017 to 2019. In 2019, he made business trips to New York City, Boston and San Francisco. It was leased in the US by Rainberry, one of the firms named in the suit.
In the year In March 2023, the SEC accused Sun and its “wholly-owned” companies Tron Foundation Ltd., Bittor Foundation Ltd. and Rainberry Inc. of offering unregistered securities in the Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT) cryptocurrencies. The lawsuit also alleges that Sun and its companies rigged the TRX secondary market with “extensive wash trades.”
The SEC also accused Sun of orchestrating a scheme to pay celebrities including Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paula and Soulja Boy to promote TRX and BTT without disclosing their compensation.
Sun vehemently denied the allegations, calling the SEC's lawsuit “the latest example of its crackdown on prominent players in the blockchain and crypto space,” and argued that the case was “flawed.”
Last month, Sun and the Tron Foundation filed a lawsuit to dismiss the SEC's lawsuit, saying it exceeded its jurisdiction and “extends US securities laws to cover primarily foreign conduct” as a “global regulator.”
In the amended complaint, the SEC asserted that it had jurisdiction over Sun and its entities, including promoting TRX and BTT to US investors and laundering TRX trades against the US by “intentionally taking steps to direct” Bittrex to the United States.
The ongoing lawsuit doesn't seem to have dampened Sun's enthusiasm; Earlier this week, Tron announced the release of “The Tron Song,” an orchestral piece “inspired by Justin Sun” and written by Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
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