Lindsay Lohan is a popular American actress who is very well known for her roles in The Parent Trap, Mean Girls, and Freaky Friday. The actress has been in and out of the industry for a while now. Her last film was Falling for Christmas. The film was part of a multi-film deal she’s made with Netflix. She is set to appear in a number of future projects very soon. Times have been good for Lohan, who has struggled with alcohol and drug abuse as well as a horribly downward spiraling career. She recently announced that she had a baby on the way. However, a law-suit too was on its way and caught up with Lohan and other celebrities.
Crypto Scheme
The Security and Exchange Commission has charged multiple celebrities for their ties with Justin Sun, a cryptocurrency mogul. Sun’s companies like BitTorrent Foundation Ltd, Tron Foundation Limited, and Rainberry Inc. have been found to have paid celebrities like Lohan, Soulja Boy, Akon, and many others to promote their relations with Sun’s crypto “without disclosing that they were compensated for doing so and the amount of their compensation.”
Clearly, a big mess has been made for a lot of celebrities. Were they aware that they should let the world know that their crypto scheme was a paid promotion? None of the charged celebrities have made any comments regarding this question. But this much is clear. The SEC is not going to go easy on them because a crime is a crime.
The SEC says that these celebrities have done the same thing many scammers do. They mislead easy targets-their fans, to invite investors in order to finally bring them financial harm in the very end. Here’s what the official statement read:
“As alleged in the complaint, Sun and others used an age-old playbook to mislead and harm investors by first offering securities without complying with registration and disclosure requirements and then manipulating the market for those very securities,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, Enforcement Divison’s director of the SEC.
Grewal believes that Sun and the celebrities entered a contract where they agreed to not disclose to the people that they were being paid to tout the unregistered cryptocurrency. Because of this, all these celebrities will have to pay a massive fine to the SEC.
“At the same time, Sun paid celebrities with millions of social media followers to tout the unregistered offerings, while specifically directing that they not disclose their compensation. This is the very conduct that the federal securities laws were designed to protect against regardless of the labels Sun and others used.” Said Grewal condemning these activities.
According to the SEC, artists Soulja Boy and Austin Mahone have not yet cleared their response to the action. Meanwhile, all the other celebrities, including Lohan, Akon, adult film star Kendra Lust, Lil Yachty, Jake Paul, and Ne-Yo, have agreed to pay a $400,000 fine to cover up for their criminal offense.
This comes days after Lohan celebrates her pregnancy with her husband, Bader Shammas, who she married in 2022. Lohan had put up a picture on her socials in a onesie that said ‘coming soon,’ and the caption read:
“We are blessed and excited.”
Hopefully, the settlement doesn’t dim down her excitement about becoming a mother soon. However, Hollywood is certainly facing the crypto problem lately, with Kim Kardashian having to pay $1.2 million in settlement for the EMA token promotion just last year. Will celebrities continue to bite crypto for money? Or will they learn their lesson after this case? Only time will reveal.
