New York Attorney General Leticia James is suing another digital currency company. This time, the alleged “victim” of James’ attacks is Coin Ex, a crypto exchange that is reported to have conducted illegal business within the state.
Leticia James and Coin Ex Will Duke It Out in Court
It’s believed Coin Ex failed to engage in proper New York registration protocols. Court documents suggest the company persistently engaged in repeated “fraudulent practices” and that it failed to register as a commodity broker-dealer, security broker, or securities dealer. The company is also believed to have bought and sold tokens that violated the Martin Act, a piece of legislation enacted in New York many years ago designed to fight financial fraud.
Lastly, the company is accused of failing to comply with a subpoena last month to offer testimony about its present activities and services. In a statement, James said:
The days of crypto companies like Coin Ex acting like the rules do not apply to them are over.
It’s hard to know what insect has crawled up James’ sleeve. Does she see herself as a one-woman army of sorts? A unique copy of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), an agency that has also made a living out of going after digital currency firms? Or have all the crypto companies she’s attacking as of late legitimately taken part in illegal activity?
Not long ago, James issued another crypto-based lawsuit against former lending network Celsius, which filed bankruptcy in late 2022. The company first began experiencing trouble in the summer of that year when it initially halted all withdrawals as a means of fighting ongoing market speculation and volatility.
However, things took an even darker turn when it announced it was entering bankruptcy proceedings. This made a lot of people wonder how far its problems extended and whether they would ever see their money again. In the lawsuit against Celsius, James alleges that the firm misused customer funds (reminiscent of the situation surrounding FTX and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried) and that it engaged in fraudulent activity.
New York Doesn’t Like Crypto Much
The problem with all this is that while it could be believed that crypto fraud did indeed take place within the walls of crypto enterprises like Celsius, the background of New York when it comes to crypto doesn’t make it easy for the state to be taken all that seriously, as the region has practically made a career of trying to shut crypto out completely.
A few months ago, for example, the state’s governor Kathy Hochul signed a two-year crypto moratorium into law as a means of keeping eco-friendly individuals appeased. The idea is that all digital currency mining companies seeking to make their homes in the Empire State can’t do so unless they full operate on clean, renewable energy.