US States Secure Reimbursement For Investors In Metaverse Scheme

According to Cointelegraph, securities regulators in 12 US states have secured reimbursement for investors who lost money in an investment scheme involving the Lydian.World metaverse, cryptocurrency, and tokenized partial ownership of a metaverse skyscraper. The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) announced that regulators reached a settlement with a group of German companies associated with Josip Heit, known collectively as the GSB Group, for the return of all money and cryptocurrency deposited with GSB Group for any purpose. The settlement involves US investors in the states of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, and Texas, who will receive compensation. These states will withdraw all prior allegations of fraud or dishonest practices against Heit and his companies. Under the settlement, Heit and his companies will not pay any penalties. The NASAA stated that regulators from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin participated in the settlement. Additionally, the British Columbia Securities Commission in Canada was involved in the enforcement actions against the German group, which began in November. The regulators described the GSB Group offering as a multilevel marketing (MLM) scheme. Bloomberg reports that GSB Group began freezing withdrawals in October. Joe Rotunda, Texas State Securities Board enforcement director and NASAA vice chairman, stated, "We have negotiated a settlement that will ensure that all clients in any state or province that join the settlement receive 100% of their deposits, less any withdrawals. This is really a North American settlement." According to Bloomberg, "hundreds of millions of dollars" will be returned to investors, and "hundreds of thousands of investors in the US and Canada" were affected by the scheme. Investors will have 90 days to file a claim against the group. The German group claims to have more than 800,000 investors from over 170 countries and transactions worth close to $1 billion.