Ahead of Monday’s regime change Inauguration of President Donald Trump, The SEC has filed a lawsuit against Nova Labs, the original startup behind Helium, a decentralized network for sharing internet connections fueled by crypto incentives.
In a applicationfiled Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, attorneys Nova Labs (formerly Helium Inc.) sold millions of dollars Unregistered securities since April 2019 by selling electronic devices called hotspots that mine crypto tokens while sharing an internet connection with nearby devices.
The SEC further pointed to a feature called “Discovery Mapping” that allows users to exchange their personal data for crypto tokens. Nova Labs also made “false and misleading” claims to potential investors that companies like Lime, Nestlé and Salesforce were using its decentralized network.
Nova Labs in 2022 told Deciphering Nova said it will adopt a “much more rigorous” process for marketing its brand partnerships following the controversy over Salesforce and Lime testing Helium products.
“Nova Labs knew or negligently ignored that Nestlé, Salesforce and Lime were neither customers of Nova Labs nor ‘users’ of the Nova Labs network,” the lawyers said in the lawsuit, adding that the companies sent Nova Labs cease and desist letters. Laboratories on this issue.
“Nova Labs’ false and misleading statements to potential investors violated the anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws by pretending to be business dealings that did not exist,” the lawyers added.
Amir Halim, founder of Helium and CEO of Nova Labs, denied the allegations in a post on X (formerly Twitter) published on Sunday.
“Of course, none of the claims hold any water,” Halim said said in the post. “The SEC wasted two years of our time and millions of dollars.
The suit also requires Nova Labs to pay a civil penalty, the amount of which has not yet been determined. It also calls for a permanent ban on the company offering unregistered securities.
The lawsuit was filed before SEC Chairman Gary Gensler resigned ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday. His departure is part of a broader clearing among the top ranks of several government agencies responsible for regulating digital assets, as pro-crypto President Donald Trump returned to the White House on Monday.
SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda serves as acting chairmanbut there is Trump former commissioner Paul Atkins was nominated to preside permanently.
Helium includes several networks, one that allows network operators to share internet connections to power nearby trackers and sensors, and another that enables 5G networks to provide services to smartphones and other devices. Nova Labs has also launched Helium MobileA cellular service that uses the Helium 5G network and T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G coverage.
Although Helium initially worked on its own blockchain network, it Moved tokens to Solana network In April 2023.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
Daily information Bulletin
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