- Beaxy has closed operations, and its accused executives paid civil penalties.
- Founder Hamazaspyan is accused of misappropriating $900,000 of customer funds.
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The US Securities and Exchange Commission has struck again, closing crypto trading platform beaxy.com and charging its executives for failing to register the company as a national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency.
The founder of the trading platform, Artak Hamazaspyan, illegally raised $8 million through the unregistered offering of BXY tokens and used $900,000 for personal use and gambling, the commission alleges. After Hamazaspyan left the company in September 2019, according to the data retrieved from his Linkedin profile, those who took after him also breached the law.
‘‘Nicholas Murphy and Randolph Bay Abbot, through the company they managed, Windly Inc., maintained and provided the Beaxy platform as a web-based trading platform that facilitated buying and selling crypto assets offered and sold as securities, the complaint presented before a federal court in Chicago said.
Also mentioned are the market makers that operated on the Beaxy platform. According to the Gensler-led agency, the affiliates also operated as unregistered dealers, ‘‘without registering with the commission and complying with clear, time-tested rules governing those activities.’’
Because of the suit, the Beaxy team has agreed to shut down the trading platform, account for all the assets held and transfer them to their respective customer accounts, and destroy BYX cryptocurrencies. Without admitting or denying the allegations, the accused executives and former executives, except Hamazaspyan, paid $79,200 in civil penalties.
Beaxy team promises to refund customer funds
Regretting the steps taken by the SEC, Beaxy said on its website that it was arranging to make withdrawals available within 24 hours of the announcement. It urged users to withdraw their funds within 30 days. The team has also termed the condition under which it was closed uncertain.
‘‘We forthrightly committed to cooperation with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for over two years, continually providing information, data, and interviews to assist regulators however we could. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, it has become clear that the regulatory environment is just too uncertain about continuing operations.’’
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