SEC Updates Lawsuit Against Crypto Pioneer Justin Sun

Travels Underpin U.S. Legal Challenge

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has revised its legal stance in its ongoing case against Justin Sun, the founder of Tron. The amendment to the lawsuit emphasises Sun's extensive travel across the United States, which, according to the SEC, substantiates its claim to jurisdiction.

Purposeful U.S. Engagements Alleged

In a document submitted to a federal court in Manhattan on 17 April, the SEC detailed how Sun's actions were intentionally directed towards the U.S., thereby establishing "personal jurisdiction." The regulatory body highlighted that between 2017 and 2019, Sun spent over a year on U.S. soil, attending business engagements in major cities such as New York, Boston, and San Francisco.

These visits, the SEC asserts, were on behalf of entities like the Tron Foundation, the BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry, which are referred to in the legal documents as Sun’s "alter ego" firms. The implication here is that Sun and his businesses did not merely operate in the U.S., but targeted it strategically.

Source: CourtListener

Allegations of Unregistered Securities and Manipulative Trading

The heart of the SEC's claim lies in allegations that Sun and his associated companies engaged in the sale of unregistered securities via the Tron and BitTorrent (BTT) tokens. Additionally, the amended complaint accuses Sun of engaging in manipulative trading practices, specifically "wash trading" TRX tokens through a crypto exchange based in Seattle.

In a twist to the narrative, Sun, a Chinese-born Grenadian citizen, countered the SEC's claims in late March. Representing the Singapore-based Tron Foundation, he argued that the SEC's application of U.S. securities law to predominantly foreign activities was misplaced and that the agency lacked jurisdiction over him. Sun maintained that the sales of TRX and BTT tokens were conducted entirely abroad, with deliberate measures taken to circumvent the U.S. market.