SEC Charges Int’l Securities Dealer with Fraud

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fort Worth office filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit Thursday charging an Austrian man and his online brokerage service with operating an internet-based securities operation that allowed people to anonymously buy and sell securities using cryptocurrency.

In an 11-page complaint filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., the SEC claims that 1Pool Ltd. and its CEO, Patrick Brunner, illegally solicited U.S. investors through its online service requiring that they only need an email address and bitcoin to make the trades.