A New York federal Judge Rules Securities Laws Can Apply to Cryptocurrencies

On September 11, a ruling, first of its kind, was passed by a New York federal judge, which states that U.S. securities laws are applicable for prosecuting crypto fraud allegations.

According to the reports by Reuters, U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie dismissed a motion to drop the charges on the grounds that the cryptocurrencies didn’t fall under the Securities Exchange Act, ruling that cryptocurrency does indeed fall under the U.S. securities laws

Dearie ruled that the case against Brooklyn resident Maksim Zaslavskiy which alleges that he defrauded investors in two cryptocurrencies reportedly backed by real estate and diamonds, can continue. The Judged stated that the federal securities laws should be interpreted “flexibly.”  Financial Times, cited the Judge Dearie statement:m

“The question is whether the ‘elements of a profit-seeking business venture’ are sufficiently alleged in the indictment, such that, if proven at trial, a reasonable jury could conclude that ‘investors provide[d] the capital and share[d] in the earnings and profits; [and] the promoters manage[d], control[ed] and operate[d] the enterprise.’ For present purposes, we conclude that they are.”

Attorneys for Zaslavskiy did not respond to Reuters’ questions. Richard Donoghue, a spokesman for the office of U.S. Attorney who works on the case, declined to comment as well.

Prosecutors have claimed that in 2017, Zaslavskiy claimed that a cryptocurrency called REcoin, is backed by real estate, and diamonds and gained at minimum $300,000 from investors. The allegation is that the digital assets was not backed by real estate or diamonds. Dearie noted that it would be up to the jury to make a final decision.

Earlier in March, another federal judge from Brooklyn ruled that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) can regulate cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) as commodities. Can we conclude from these individual incidences that as Crypto-awareness is spreading, the regulations that are required for it to be legally accepted are forming as well?