(Photo: Bloomberg)
The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed an emergency action and obtained a temporary restraining order and asset freeze to stop what it claims is a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme.
According to an SEC complaint filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania, brothers Sean Hvizdzak and Shane Hvizdzak sold securities in a private fund that said it would invest in digital assets from at least July 2019 through May 2020.
For the venture, which involved three entitities, the Hvizdzak's misrepresented fund performance, fabricated financial statements and forged audit documents.
The defendants "fraudulently raised and subsequently misappropriated millions of dollars from the sale of limited partnership interests in High Street Capital Fund USA," a fund that they claimed would invest in digital asset for the benefit of fund investors, the complaint alleges.
In soliciting investments, the defendants "misrepresented key information to potential investors about the fund's past performance and assets, and provided investors and/or their representatives with false financial statements and a forged audit report" for the fund, the SEC claimed.
"Once invested, defendants, without investor knowledge or consent, moved millions of dollars of investor funds from fund accounts into the personal bank accounts of Shane and Sean, where defendants further dissipated investor funds into personal digital asset accounts," the regulator charged.
