The New Jersey Securities Exchange in the United States terminates two ICO projects, alleging fraud.

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The New Jersey Securities Exchange in the United States terminates two ICO projects, alleging fraud.

The New Jersey Securities Exchange has issued emergency orders and taken enforcement actions against two state-based ICO projects, declaring their products to be fraudulent and unregistered securities offerings.

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According to an order announced at a press conference by the Office of the Attorney General on August 7th, coordinated by the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) and executed by New Jersey officials, U.S. regulatory authorities have issued emergency orders to Zoptax and UNOcall, declaring a halt to their issuance.

As part of the "Cryptosweep Action," the Securities Bureau claims that Zoptax engaged in fraudulent securities issuance, raising $500,000 to $3.4 million through its token offerings on its website; UNOcall issued tokens and allowed investors to invest in its betting agreement, claiming daily interest rates ranging from 0.18% to 0.88%.

The Cryptosweep Action was established by the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) in April 2018 to combat fraudulent ICOs and cryptocurrency-related investment schemes internationally.

Furthermore, the orders allege that Zoptax made "materially false and misleading statements to investors and intentionally omitted important facts about its securities offerings and sales."

These facts reportedly include the allocation of ICO funds, relevant information about the projects behind Zoptax, and specific location details such as the company's actual address and principal place of business.

The New Jersey Office of the Attorney General stated that the emergency orders were issued due to the misleading information provided by both entities and the severe concealment of underlying facts. They added:

The Securities Bureau stands ready to enforce our "Investor Protection Act" in cases involving ICO issuances and cryptocurrency-related investment schemes. As public solicitations for investments in cryptocurrency-related products continue to rise sharply, crypto developers need to understand that these regulations still apply to them.

As of January 2019, the "Cryptosweep Action" has had 85 pending or completed cases, 330 inquiries or investigations, and 8 enforcement actions, including those against Zoptax and UNOcall.

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