SEC charges individuals connected to former iced tea-turned-mining company

Published at: July 9, 2021

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against three people accused of insider trading with the Long Blockchain Company related to changing its name from the Long Island Iced Tea Company.

In a Friday announcement, the SEC said Eric Watson, Oliver Barret-Lindsay, and Gannon Giguiere were facing charges in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for their role in trades connected to rebranding a beverage business to a blockchain firm, which caused the company’s stock price to rise significantly. Giguiere purchased 35,000 shares of Long Blockchain after having been allegedly tipped off to the change by Barret-Lindsay, who was first alerted by Watson.

The decision to change the firm from Long Island Iced Tea to Long Blockchain happened in early 2018. After the company rebranded to focus on blockchain development, the stock price surged by 289% — more than 380% intraday according to the SEC. Giguiere subsequently sold his shares for more than $160,000.

The regulatory group said Barret-Lindsay and Giguiere had already pleaded guilty to criminal charges in connection to a stock manipulation scheme, but it would be seeking permanent injunctions and civil penalties for the three individuals for its current case. In addition, it is attempting to prevent Watson from being an officer or director of any public company.

Related: Former Iced Tea-Turned-Blockchain Company Sells Beverage Subsidiary

Founded in New York as a non-alcoholic beverage company in 2011, Long Island Iced Tea went on to shift its operations to blockchain and later focused on crypto mining. The SEC official delisted the company’s shares in February after it alleged the firm hadn’t produced any financial reports.

Tags
Regulation
United States
Sec
Trading
Government
Crimes
Related Posts
Robinhood CEO calls on SEC to revise ‘outdated’ trading rules
United States lawmakers are set to grill Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev over the GameStop trading frenzy at a Congressional hearing later today. In his prepared remarks, Robinhood CEO appeared to place responsibility for the platform’s stock trading suspensions on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Tenev said that the company blocked trading to meet “regulatory deposit requirements” defined by the SEC. The exec specifically criticized an SEC rule that requires equities transactions to clear over two days: “It takes several days for the clearinghouse to process the transaction [...] This is known as “T+2” settlement, denoting the trade date plus …
Regulation / Feb. 18, 2021
BNY Mellon to Act as Transfer Agent for Bitwise’s Proposed Bitcoin ETF
Bank of New York Mellon has been appointed to serve as transfer agent and administrator of Bitwise Asset Management’s proposed Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF). Bitwise amended the S-1 form that it submitted to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Sept. 11. The amendment also lists major accounting firm Cohen & Company as auditor, while Boston-based legal firm Foreside Fund Services is listed as the Bitcoin ETF’s marketing agent. Whether any of the aforementioned firms will act in their appointed regard depends on an eventual decision to allow the listing by U.S. financial regulators. The long road …
Etf / Sept. 12, 2019
What the SEC can learn from the German regulator
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s chairperson Gary Gensler announced this month that the crypto industry should not escape the purview of the regulator. He highlighted that decentralized finance (DeFi) trading and lending protocols need particular attention when it comes to investor protections. Regulation can extend into a menu of options that covers custody, reporting, counterparty verification and asset classification and issuance. Reports are surfacing that people are waiting with bated breath on how the SEC will regulate the DeFi industry, but Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, also known as BaFin, has found a way to apply existing securities …
Technology / Aug. 12, 2021
XRP purchasers back Ripple, arguing that it is not a security
On Dec. 22, 2020, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against Ripple Labs. The complaint essentially alleged that Ripple had engaged in a multi-year, sustained practice of illegally selling unregistered, non-exempt securities in the form of its XRP tokens. This complaint, having been filed on the last day of former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton’s tenure at the commission, led to a considerable volume of public commentary, as is not unusual for SEC litigation against major players in the crypto space. What is unusual about SEC versus Ripple is the reaction from a sizable segment of XRP …
Technology / March 21, 2021
Go green or die? Bitcoin miners aim for carbon neutrality by mining near data centers
Bitcoin (BTC) mining has always been a controversial topic. But, Bitcoin’s proof-of-work (PoW) model has reached new levels of concern as senior decision-makers and investors pay closer attention to environmental, social and governance factors. As such, many crypto miners are highlighting environmentally friendly practices by acquiring carbon offsets. Yet, some would argue that this isn’t enough to guarantee green Bitcoin mining. Other risk factors may also be involved with carbon credits. For instance, Kevin O’Leary — the Canadian entrepreneur better known as “Mr. Wonderful” for his role on Shark Tank — told Cointelegraph that he typically indexes public mining companies …
Bitcoin / May 10, 2022