Crypto-Backed Online Lender Hit With SEC Investor Fraud Penalty

The head of defunct online lending platform MyConstant must pay more than $10 million to resolve SEC charges that he defrauded investors by misrepresenting that his company would allocate their funds to a low-risk loan-matching service backed by crypto.

The SEC’s Trump-era pullback on digital asset enforcement has still allowed for some crypto-related actions against such defendants as MyConstant founder Huynh Tran Quang Duy, who agreed to settle the Securities and Exchange Commission’s administrative proceeding Tuesday.

Huynh spent more than two years raising upwards of $20 million from over 4,000 investors. But he misappropriated their assets, purchasing at least $11.9 ...