The Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced settled charges with Bitqyck Inc. and its founders, who all
According to the SEC’s complaint, Bitqyck and founders Bruce Bise and Sam Mendez created and sold Bitqy and BitqyM in unregistered securities offerings to more than 13,000 investors, raising more than $13 million.
Investors allegedly received $4.5 million for referring new investors to Bitqyck but collectively lost more than two-thirds of their investment in the Dallas-based company. This type of referral system appears to be similar to the Shipchain ICO, which sold over $30 million of its digital token Shipcoin through promoters such as Shark Tank’s Kevin Harrington, whom may have received undisclosed bounties. The Shipcoin value is now down $28.5M, causing investors to take to the internet to lament of lost money. The Co-Founder and Chief Compliance Officer of Shipchain, Aaron Kelly, is an attorney that is on probation with the Arizona Bar for alleged fraud and others on the payroll such as Shaun Groomes are long-time friends with the founder, John Monarch.
