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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has achieved a significant victory against a Georgia man accused of orchestrating an $800,000 affinity fraud scheme involving a purported cryptocurrency falsely claimed to be backed by gold and stem cell technology.

In a default judgment issued Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Judge Tiffany R. Johnson ordered Keith Crews, a resident of Kennesaw, Georgia, to disgorge $530,000, pay prejudgment interest exceeding $50,900, and a $530,000 civil penalty — totaling over $1.1 million in penalties.

The SEC’s case, initiated in August 2023, alleges that Crews exploited his network within the African-American community, soliciting approximately 200 investors, many of whom were non-accredited, including through church and Bible study connections.

According to SEC filings, Crews promoted his now-defunct companies, 4 Square Biz and Stem Biotech, claiming they were developing blockchain-based online banking systems and stem cell rejuvenation centers, respectively. He marketed a digital asset named “Stemy Coin,” launched in May 2019, asserting it was backed by both stem cell technology and hard assets such as gold.

Between October 2019 and May 2021, Crews and his representatives allegedly made numerous misrepresentations to investors, including false claims of partnerships with legitimate companies and guaranteed substantial returns through dividends and coin value appreciation. The SEC states these claims were speculative and unauthorized by the real companies mentioned.

Keith Crews chose to represent himself in court and failed to respond to the SEC’s allegations, resulting in the default judgment.

The SEC was represented in-house by attorneys M. Graham Loomis and Paul Kim.