Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, & More Celebs Charged With Crypto Currency Crimes!

perezhilton.com:

Whoa! As the houses of cards making up most (or all?) of the crypto currency market crumble before our eyes, they’re taking plenty of celebs with them!

Critics have been saying for years now that stars who use their platform to shill for crypto should be ashamed of themselves. In some cases they’ve already faced very real financial consequences — like Tom Brady and Gisele who reportedly lost millions as marketplace FTX was exposed. But what about legal consequences?

Looks like a handful of celebs are actually being charged! The Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed on Wednesday that they filed charges against Lindsay Lohan! And the Parent Trap star wasn’t alone! YouTube megastar Jake Paul, Lil Yachty, Soulja Boy, Ne-Yo, Austin Mahone, Akon, and porn star Kendra Lust have been charged with “illegally touting TRX and/or BTT without disclosing that they were compensated for doing so and the amount of their compensation.”

Related: Donald Trump Asks Fans To Sign Petition Against Arrest — But It’s Really A Fundraiser??

TRX is Tronix, BTT is BitTorrent. Both are crypto brand names tied to entrepreneur Justin Sun, whose businesses are the target of a larger investigation by the SEC. Sun allegedly instructed the celebs to plug the brands without saying they were paid to — to make it seem like a cool thing they were doing just because they really believed in it. That is apparently a crime when it comes to investment. SEC chair Gary Gensler explained:

As we understand it, “wash trading” is when you own two companies and have one buy lots of stock in the other and vice versa, selling it back and forth to make it look digitally like there’s tons of active trading of the stock going on. It looks really hot, in other words. But