Stripe to Pay $120,000 in PlexCoin ICO Settlement With Massachusetts Attorney General
The payments processor facilitated millions of dollars of PlexCoin investments before shuttering accounts in September 2017.
Sep 21, 2020 at 3:29 p.m. UTCUpdated Aug 19, 2021 at 4:27 a.m. UTC
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Stripe has agreed to pay the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General (AG) $120,000 in a settlement over the payments processor's role in the multimillion-dollar PlexCoin initial coin offering (ICO).
- According to a Sept. 16 filing by the Massachusetts AG's office, PlexCorp's leadership used Stripe to defraud millions of dollars from thousands of investors, including 22 in Massachusetts, between August and September 2017.
- PlexCoin's Canadian backers raised $15 million during the height of the ICO boom by pitching their product as "the next decentralized worldwide cryptocurrency," as previously reported by CoinDesk.
- But the offering quickly drew scrutiny from Canadian and U.S. regulators. It became the first targeted for prosecution by the Securities and Exchange Commission's crypto-focused Cyber Unit in December 2017.
- Stripe "terminated" the ICO's accounts that September. It lacked adequate "risk monitoring" and "fraud prevention" tactics to move faster, Massachusetts AG Maura Healey alleged.
- The firm has since bolstered its protections and has pledged to assist Healey in her office's ongoing investigations, according to the terms of the settlement.
- In return for Stripe's payment, the AG's office agreed to not pursue any civil action against the firm, according to the settlement.
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