Crypto Class Action Against Rapper TI Dismissed in US Appellate Court
Three judges from the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit have upheld a lower court decision to dismiss a case against the rapper.
Jun 22, 2021 at 2:25 a.m. UTC
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A class-action lawsuit brought against Atlanta-based rapper Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. has been dismissed in a U.S. appellate court for exceeding the statute of limitations.
Harris Jr., who is better known by his stage name "T.I.," and business partner Ryan Felton were accused of violating securities law for selling unregistered FLiK tokens to investors in 2017.
Court documents filed on Monday in the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals show the decisions made by circuit judge William Pryor, district judge Emily Coody Marks and chief judge Robert J. Luck upheld a decision by a lower court to dismiss the complaint, because it was filed beyond the limitations period.
Investor Kenneth Fedance, who purchased $3,000 worth of FLiK, sued Harris Jr. and Felton in 2019 in the U.S. Northern District Court of Georgia, accusing them of three securities violations.
"Because we affirm the dismissal of the complaint as untimely, we do not reach Harris’s alternative arguments for affirmance, or Felton’s attempt to adopt them," the appellate judges wrote.
Felton created FLiK the same year he began marketing his company's tokens and solicited Harris Jr. as its co-founder shortly after. Harris' contacts, including actor Kevin Hart, took to Twitter to promote the project and its tokens, according to the document.
“I’m Super Excited for [T.I.] and his new venture with @TheFlikIO! They’re gonna crush it! #ICO #blockchain #crypto #bitcoin,” Hart wrote at the time.
The tokens formed part of purported digital streaming platform FLiK's ecosystem, which was marketed as an “online viewing platform that [allows] creatives to sell/rent their projects.”
In a separate matter last year, the pair, alongside six other individuals, were accused of promoting the platform's initial coin offering without first registering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The rapper agreed to pay $75,000 and not participate in any digital asset sales until 2025.
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See the court document in full below:
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