SEC Charges Gig Economy Platform for $2.6 Million Unregistered Coin Offering

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Thor Technologies and its co-founders with conducting an unregistered securities offering. In 2018, the company minted and sold tokens to raise funds for its ‘gig economy platform,’ the development of which had not even started at the time.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States has charged Thor Technologies, its co-founder and CEO David Chin and Matthew Moravec, co-founder and former CTO, with carrying out an unregistered offering of securities through an initial coin offering (ICO).

Chin and his company are accused of selling ‘Thor tokens’ to the general public to attract funding for the business which was supposed to build a software platform for the ‘gig economy’ workers and firms, the SEC’s complaint reveals.

The regulator details that the digital assets were marketed as an investment opportunity. The sale was promoted with the potential increase in their value and claims that they would be listed on crypto trading platforms.

The SEC alleges that at the time of the offering, no development work had yet occurred on the Thor platform and that tokens couldn’t be used anywhere else. Furthermore, the sale, which raised $2.6 million in fiat and crypto from investors, was not registered with the SEC and did not qualify for exemption either.

The complaint against Thor and Chin has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The Commission seeks injunctive relief, the return of allegedly ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest, and civil penalties.

A second complaint alleges that Matthew Moravec was also engaged in the unregistered token offer and sale. He has agreed to settle with the SEC and to the entry of a judgment ordering him to disgorge $407,103, plus prejudgment interest of $72,209.45, and pay a civil penalty of $95,000. Moravec will also be banned from taking part in crypto asset offerings for a period of three years.

The announcement comes after earlier this month the SEC Chairman Gary Gensler emphasized on the importance of bringing issuers of crypto securities tokens into compliance. “Nothing about the crypto markets is incompatible with the securities laws,” Gensler insisted while highlighting the risks associated with what he views as a “largely noncompliant market.”

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