SEC Quickly Ties Up $4 Million Suit on Crypto Venture Fraud (1)

A crypto-focused venture capital fund manager agreed to pay around $4 million to resolve charges from the SEC that he raised more than $158 million from 349 investors by falsely touting a 90-times return generated by a prior investment.

Yida Gao also allegedly sold $11.9 million in membership interests that he purported to invest in blockchain social network BitClout, claiming he could negotiate significant discounts for the purchase of the platform’s native crypto tokens. He was able to buy the tokens at a discount, but he failed to pass those savings along to investors and instead generated $1.9 million in ...