The United States Federal Court for the Eastern District of New York has rendered a default judgement in the case of the false encryption platform NanoBit. According to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the court required NanoBit and five other defendants to pay a total of $5,5189 million, including recovery of illegal proceeds, pre-judgement interest and civil fines.
The platform in question was not actually traded
SEC states that the acts in question occurred between September 2023 and June 2024. People impersonating financial practitioners in the WhatsApp group, then led them to NanoBit when they established contact with investors.
According to the SEC, investors saw false record of profitable transactions in the back of the platform, but the platform did not actually carry out any encrypted asset transactions. At least 18 investors suffered damage as a result, with a total loss of nearly $1 million, involving encrypted assets and French currency.
Funds transferred to Hong Kong account
The SEC states that the investor ' s funds were not used for the transaction but were transferred to bank accounts in Hong Kong. Participants transferred over $2 million abroad and misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars of investors ' encrypted assets.
The Commission also alleged that NanoBit had enhanced the Platform ' s credibility by falsely claiming that its associated entity, Nanobitus Securities, was registered in the Commission and had links to a number of prominent financial institutions.
6 Accused permanently barred from issuing securities
The defendants found responsible in this case were NanoBit Limited, Radiant Horizons Limited, Sweet Karma Fashion Inc., Zhao Tropical Deli Inc. and Jiajie Liu and Hua Zhao. As none of the defendants appeared, the court rendered a judgement in absentia and found their absence to be intentional.
According to the judgement, the defendant is permanently prohibited from violating the federal anti-fraud provisions and from participating in the issue of securities or related transactions. However, Liu and Zhao can still carry out transactions in their personal accounts.
Additional information:The SEC states that the case was originally filed in September 2024. At the time, the SEC also simultaneously sued another false platform, CoinW6. The seventh accused in the original indictment, Fei Liao, was not covered by this default judgement.