The Lesson of Bitconnect: Promoters Can Be Liable

First and foremost, the best way to stay safe is to not take undisclosed payments in exchange for promotion. According to the SEC, the four regional promoters (Brown/James, Grand, Maasen and Noble) made between $475,000 and $1.3 million each for their promotional work. Jeppesen, the “continental promoter,” allegedly took home over $2.6 million. The SEC says that put them afoul of “touting” laws, which I wrote about last week after Soulja Boy inadvertently revealed he was being paid to promote SaferMars. The second set of charges focused on the lower-level promoters is that none were registered broker/dealers, even though they received payment based on how many people they helped buy positions in Bitconnect.