The founders of Ormeus Coin have been fined $46 million for orchestrating a crypto fraud scheme. The siblings behind the project have also been given permanent injunctions and disgorgement with interest.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a notice stating that it obtained a judgment against siblings John and Tina Barksdale. The judgment was related to the Ormeus Coin. The siblings were charged with carrying out a crypto fraud scheme via the token.
The SEC filed a complaint against the siblings, alleging that they conducted two unregistered fraudulent offerings of securities. According to the complaint, the siblings raised tens of millions of dollars from June 2017 to March 2022. The agency also alleged that the two ran a multi-level marketing business called Ormeus Global, which involved selling subscription packages that involved the token.
Regarding the latter, the notice reads,
“As alleged in the complaint, to promote the offerings, John Barksdale held roadshows around the world while he and his sister, Tina, led the production of social media posts, YouTube videos, press releases, and other promotional materials.”
The SEC noted that the token falsely claimed that it was supported by one of the world’s largest crypto asset mining operations. The siblings also made this claim. The agency also alluded to false information provided regarding this supposed relationship.
Fraud and Conspiracy Charges Stem From 2022
first came to light in 2022 when the United States Department of Justice published a press release detailing the case on March 8, 2022. The charges listed back then were related to conspiracy, securities fraud, and wire fraud.
It’s the conclusion to what is a major case in the crypto industry. The Ormeus Coin project case made a lot of news when it first came out, and there may be more news yet.
What Is the Ormeus Coin Project?
The Ormeus coin project claimed to be “a new digital money system backed by a fully-audited industrial crypto-mining operation.” The cryptocurrency also operated on Ethereum, but there hasn’t been much to show for it in terms of development.
ORMEUS token has been down by over 9% over the past 24 hours. It is currently priced at $0.0008335. It’s a steep drop in price for the token, which is also seeing very low volumes.
