The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ordered Sproule to pay a $195,047 civil penalty. Without admitting or denying the allegations, Sproule and Crowd Machine have consented to judgments permanently banning them from participating in future securities offerings. They also agreed to seek the removal of CMCT tokens from crypto trading platforms.
Disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties for Crowd Machine will be determined by the court at a later date, as will disgorgement and prejudgment interest for Metavine.
“As alleged, Sproule and Crowd Machine misled investors about how they were using ICO proceeds, spending funds on an entirely unrelated scheme,” Kristina Littman, chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Cyber Unit, said in the statement.
“We will continue to hold accountable issuers of digital asset securities who fail to provide fulsome and truthful disclosure to the public,” she added.
