SEC wins case against YouTuber Ian Balina for unregistered crypto ICO promo
A U.S. federal judge sided with the SEC, finding that Ian Balina broke securities laws by participating in a 2018 crypto token ICO.
Crypto YouTuber Ian Balina sold unregistered securities when he bought Sparkster (SPRK) tokens and offered them to United States investors in an investment pool, a Texas federal court judge has ruled.
“The Court has determined, as a matter of law, that U.S. securities laws are applicable to Balina’s actions and that SPRK tokens qualify as securities,” Judge David Alan Ezra wrote in a May 22 order, granting a partial victory to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which filed the lawsuit in 2022.
The court found SPRK was an investment contract under the securities-determining Howey test — where investors pool money into a common enterprise expecting profits due to the efforts of others.
Judge Ezra agreed with the SEC that Balina “purposefully targeted United States investors” and knocked back the influencer’s summary judgment bid, claiming the SEC had no sway as the sales happened overseas.
