Lindsay Lohan attends the Christian Siriano Fall/Winter 2023 trend present at Gotham Hall on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023, in New York.

Charles Sykes/Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

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Charles Sykes/Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

Lindsay Lohan attends the Christian Siriano Fall/Winter 2023 trend present at Gotham Hall on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023, in New York.

Charles Sykes/Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

Eight celebrities together with actor Lindsay Lohan, influencer Jake Paul and rapper Soulja Boy have been charged by federal regulators with illegally touting two cryptocurrencies and failing to reveal they had been paid to take action.

The two cryptocurrencies, Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT), had been offered by crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, who was additionally charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

Sun and three of his wholly-owned firms — Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd. and Rainberry Inc. — are accused of the unregistered provide and sale of crypto asset securities and manipulating the secondary market by “wash trading,” which entails shortly shopping for and promoting cryptocurrencies to make them appear to be they’re being actively traded.

The SEC additionally says Sun and the businesses paid celebrities with huge social media followings to hype TRX and BTT and directed them to not publicly disclose their compensation.

“This case demonstrates again the high-risk investors face when crypto asset securities are offered and sold without proper disclosure,” SEC chair Gary Gensler mentioned in an announcement.

The different celebrities charged within the scheme are:

• Austin Mahone
• Michele Mason (often called Kendra Lust)
• Miles Parks McCollum (often called Lil Yachty)
• Shaffer Smith (often called Ne-Yo)
• Aliaune Thiam (often called Akon)

Each of the eight is accused of illegally touting one or each of the securities.

Six of the celebrities — excluding Soulja Boy (whose authorized identify is DeAndre Cortez Way) and Mahone — have agreed to pay a complete of greater than $400,000 to settle the fees with out admitting or denying the SEC’s findings.

NPR reached out to representatives for every of the celebrities with a request for remark however didn’t instantly hear again from seven out of the eight. A consultant for Jake Paul declined to remark.

Crypto’s meteoric rise in reputation led to a wave of celebrities plugging numerous digital currencies, however regulators’ curiosity in ferreting out unlawful habits within the crypto market has landed a number of of these stars in authorized hassle.

In October, the SEC charged Kim Kardashian with utilizing her Instagram account to tout a cryptocurrency with out divulging that she was being paid to market it.