Kraken has been ordered to provide information on its users who conducted the equivalent of $20,000 in crypto transactions in any one year, between 2016 and 2020, to the United States Internal Revenue Service. A federal court in northern California authorized the IRS to serve a “John Doe summons” on Kraken Wednesday. The exchange is not alleged to have done anything wrong. The IRS is after the records of an “ascertainable group or class of persons” who may have failed to comply with tax reporting and internal revenue laws. In addition, the IRS will check if Kraken has been compliant …

Five proposed class-action lawsuits against crypto firms have been voluntarily dismissed without prejudice in New York federal courts — without costs or attorney fees to any party. Quantstamp, Status Research, Civic Technologies, HDR Global Trading, and Kaydex are off the hook, however related cases are ongoing. The five class-action lawsuits dismissed on April 27 are part of a batch of 11 filed by Law firms Selendy & Gay PLLCRoche Freedman a year earlier. The lawsuits accused several crypto firms of causing investor harm by selling digital assets that were allegedly unlicensed securities without brokerage licensing, misleading investors, and engaging in …

The Ripple community has launched a new petition to “stop the war” on XRP. Crypto & Policy founder Thomas Hodge has started a Change.org petition directed at Securities and Exchange Commission chair nominee Gary Gensler, asking him to end the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple once he’s confirmed as chairman of the commission. Announcing the news Wednesday, Crypto & Policy called on Gensler to investigate the potential motives of former SEC chair Jay Clayton and his SEC Director of Corporate Finance William Hinman for “favoring” Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) while harming XRP. The petition alleges that Clayton and Hinman could …

The founder of Bitcoin.com Roger Ver, and other high profile crypto figures including Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, have won a motion to dismiss an antitrust suit filed against them alleging market manipulation. The amended complaint was filed by crypto company United American Corp in March 2020 against Ver, Powell, Bitmain Technologies and its CEO Jihan Wu, along with Bitcoin Cash developers Shammah Chancellor and Jason Cox. The case has now been dismissed with prejudice due to a lack of evidence. The emphatic decision came after the district court threw out the initial complaint without prejudice in February 2020. UAC’s initial …

An Instagram influencer has been charged with wire fraud, after he allegedly scammed followers out of $2.5 million worth of Bitcoin. Social media influencer Jay Mazini, who boasted of a net worth of $33 million and is known for “cash giveaways”, is accused by the Department of Justice of operating a wire fraud scheme in which he duped some of his 1 million followers to send him Bitcoin in exchange for inflated cash offers, which he failed to pay properly. The DoJ announced the charges on March 24, following a complaint filed in Brooklyn Federal Court the day before. The …

The founder of a multi-million crypto Ponzi scheme has escaped paying a $4.5 million penalty to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. On March 23, the U.S District Court of Southern Florida initially ordered Jose Angel Aman to pay the SEC more than $4.2 million in disgorgement, and $300,000 in prejudgement interest. However, the court deemed the bill was satisfied that same day due to restitution paid in a parallel case from 2019. According to an emergency order obtained by the SEC in May 2019, Florida-based Aman operated three consecutive Ponzi-schemes which made up a “complicated web of fraudulent companies …

A federal judge has implied that an individual may not have the right to force the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, to expunge financial records it obtains from crypto exchanges. In granting a motion to dismiss filed in December, Judge Joseph DiClerico in the District of New Hampshire suggested the Internal Revenue Service has no obligation to honor requests to purge crypto transaction records it received from Coinbase or other exchanges regarding information for federal taxes. Dismissed in part for lack of jurisdiction, the civil rights case filed by plaintiff James Harper against IRS commissioner Charles Rettig, the agency, and …

A former navy seal and bodyguard to the banged-up abroad McAfee antivirus software founder, John McAfee, has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he was involved in two wholesale crypto scams that duped investors out of roughly $13 million. Jimmy Gale Watson Jr, the former executive advisor of the “McAfee Team” — a website offering crypto tips endorsed by John McAfee, was arrested in Texas on March 4. Watson faces charges of allegedly defrauding investors through cryptocurrency scams, money laundering, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit commodities and securities fraud. In a March 5 indictment, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss …

Ben Delo, one of the founders and co-owners of embattled crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX, has surrendered to United States authorities in New York. According to Bloomberg, Delo was arraigned remotely before U.S Magistrate Judge Sarah Cave during a proceeding on Monday. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and was released on a bail bond of $20 million. The bail terms stipulate that he is permitted to return home to the United Kingdom and await trial. Delo’s surrender was part of an agreement negotiated with U.S authorities in February. The terms were coordinated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and …

Chris Larsen — Ripple’s executive chairman — has joined company CEO Brad Garlinghouse in moving to dismiss the securities violation case filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In a court letter filed on Wednesday, Larsen’s attorneys provided four arguments detailing the reasons why the case against the Ripple executive should be struck. According to the letter, the SEC cannot substantiate its claims that Larsen “knowingly or recklessly provided substantial assistance” towards the violation of Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933. Arguing further, the letter stated that in 2015, when Larsen bore the designation of Ripple CEO, …

A three-year-old lawsuit accusing Nvidia of “misrepresenting $1 billion in sales” of crypto mining hardware during the 2017/2018 bull run came to a close on Mar. 2, with a California district court judge ruling in favor of the GPU manufacturer. The lawsuit alleged Nvidia misled investors by overstating demand from gamers as their primary sales audience. According to a summary of court documents by Law360, Judge Haywood Gilliam granted Nvidia’s request to dismiss the lawsuit on the basis that the plaintiff’s witnesses — former employees of Nvidia — were unable to demonstrate the manufacturer had acted with “conscious recklessness” when …

Da Vinci Capital, a major investor in Telegram’s Gram token $1.7-billion initial coin offering, has reportedly requested compensation for the failed launch of the Telegram Open Network, or TON. Investors at Da Vinci Capital reportedly sent a letter before claim to Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, stating that the fund is planning legal action against TON Inc. and Telegram, Forbes Russia reported Monday. Citing anonymous sources close to Da Vinci, the report initially stated that the fund has demanded $100 million in compensation from Telegram and other firms involved in the Gram ICO. According to the report, Telegram now has two …