A U.S. federal judge sided with the SEC, finding that Ian Balina broke securities laws by participating in a 2018 crypto token ICO.
Crypto YouTuber Ian Balina sold unregistered securities when he bought Sparkster (SPRK) tokens and offered them to United States investors in an investment pool, a Texas federal court judge has ruled.
“The Court has determined, as a matter of law, that U.S. securities laws are applicable to Balina’s actions and that SPRK tokens qualify as securities,” Judge David Alan Ezra wrote in a May 22 order, granting a partial victory to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which filed the lawsuit in 2022.
The court found SPRK was an investment contract under the securities-determining Howey test — where investors pool money into a common enterprise expecting profits due to the efforts of others.
