Texas Securities Commission Issues Emergency Cease and Desist Order against Abra Alleging Misleading the Public and Committing Securities Fraud

The Texas Securities Commission has issued an emergency cease and desist order accusing crypto lending platforms Abra (Plutus Financial), Abra Boost, Plutus Lending, and Abra founder William Barhydt of misleading the public and committing securities fraud. The Texas Securities Commission said the company has been insolvent since at least March 31, 2023. Abra offered investments in Abra Earn and Abra Boost, but these investment products contained misleading representations. Abra Trade and defendant Plutus Lending had been secretly transferring assets to Binance that, as of February 2023, had assets worth $118,581,732 on Binance.com, the regulator said. Abra has just under $30 million in Babel Finance, $8.8 million in Auros Tech Limited, $30 million in Genesis and $10 million in Three Arrows Capital, all of which are in various liquidations or in bankruptcy proceedings. Foresight News previously reported that in December 2022, according to Blockworks citing three people familiar with the matter, Abra was restructuring several of its business lines and considering cutting costs as a buffer against the bear market.