Thailand’s SEC Takes Action Against 2 Crypto Exchanges

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand has taken legal action against crypto exchanges for their roles in illegal activity on virtual currency exchanges.

In a press release, the SEC said that it is looking into two cases with regards to crypto exchanges. The first is about Bitkub, and the second is about Satang Corporation Co., Ltd.

In the first case, the Civil Punishment Measures Committee (OCC) told Bitkub and its representatives Anurak Chuachai and Sakon Srakawee to pay the SEC a fine of THB24,161,292 ($625,000) to cover the costs of investigating them.

The investigations were for their part in “creating artificial volumes of digital assets” on crypto exchanges, Bitkub, Anurak, and Sakon got banned from trading virtual currencies for six months.

The three people didn’t do what the OCC asked, which would have been a settlement. The SEC had no choice but to tell the public prosecutor to file a lawsuit against the defaulters.

If the courts find Anurak and Sakon guilty, they will get a harsh sentence and won’t be able to be directors of any digital asset company for up to a year.

In Bangkok, a similar case was brought against LLC Fair Expo and Mikalai Zahorski for making up numbers for Satang Corp.

Both sides were given a chance to settle for a total of THB12 million ($317,000), but they both said no. Since then, the SEC has told public prosecutors to handle the case, on top of the civil penalties that had already been given.

Wash trading, or making fake volume, is a trick that projects use to get traders to buy an asset. The activity tricks investors into thinking that the asset is more popular than it really is.

The SEC Getting Tough on Crypto Exchanges

In the past few weeks, the country’s top security official has been very angry with the digital assets business. The SEC has changed its mind because several local digital asset service providers, like Zipmex, have filed for bankruptcy.

The regulator had already told law enforcement about Zipmex and its main members for not giving the commission all the information it needed about stopping withdrawals.

Riding the wave, the commission made it illegal for any company in the space to offer staking or lending services. This was done to prevent another mess like Zipmex.

The SEC has made new rules for how ads for digital assets can be run in Thailand. Early in September, the government sent out a notice saying that all advertisements must include a clear warning about the risks of investing in virtual currencies.

Information about celebrities and that all costs related to this must be sent to the SEC.

Source: CoinDesk

 

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