META 1 Coin Threatens Securities.io with Litigation for Reporting on ICO Fraud

On August 4th, 2020 Securities.io was threatened with legal action by Robert Paul Dunlap, the legal advocate for META 1 Coin, the creator, owner, controller, and also one of the defendants in the Complaint filed by the SEC. The threat followed the publication of an article titled “SEC Files Charges Against ex-Senator David Schmidt” which was published on March 25, 2020.

Who is META 1 Coin?

META 1 Coin raised funds in April 2018 by performing an Initial Coin Offering (ICO).  As described by an SEC filing META 1 COIN raised at least 4.48 million from over 150 investors in the United States and internationally.

In order to raise funds misleading claims were made. These were some of the claims:

• They owned $1 billion in art insured against loss by a surety bond, and later, that META 1 owned $2 billion in gold assets;
• KPMG, one of the largest independent financial audit firms in the world, was auditing Meta1’s gold assets;
• Meta1 formed its own investment bank and developed its own digital currency exchange;
• the Coin is safe and risk-free and will never lose value;
• Each Coin, sold for either $22.22 or $44.44 would in two years be worth $50,000—up to a 224,923% return—as a “very conservative value.”

Unfortunately many investors did not perform adequate due diligence as the SEC claims the tokens were backed by nothing.

Litigation Threat:

The letter received by META 1 accused the SEC and Securities.io of being fraudulent, below are some of the accusations/threats and our responses.

If SECURITIES.io was to do any due diligence at all you would know it was a fictitious story fabricated by the SEC in order to make all digital assets look fraudulent.

Our response: Securities.io has the responsibility of reporting on both legitimate projects, and fraudulent projects. Every time an investor is taken advantage with false claims whether it is the form of an ICO, or other fraudulent behavior, it destroys the credibility of the industry. We also believe in the credibility and the mission of the SEC which is stated as “The mission of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation”.

So time will tell if SECURITIES.io is really about digital assets or just another STATE run publisher of malicious defamation.

Our response: Perhaps this is pushing a conspiracy theory or an agenda of being owned and controlled by a deep state. Either way, Securities.io is NOT owned in part or in whole by any government entity in any jurisdiction.

Today is August 4th 3:25 EST 2020 and a claim will be made in 24 hours and It will decimate SECURITIES.io if the named article is not immediately removed.

Our Response: This has been noted. We have fact checked the original article and it remains accurate.

Additionally, I am ordering a follow-up update of the facts regarding the validity or META 1 Coin

Our Response: We have updated the article to reflect new information regarding the fraud behind the initial ICO raise. We were unaware that information was missing, thank you for notifying us of this. Whenever we are notified of errors in reporting we take corrective action.

Summary:

Unfortunately, the digital assets industry continues to result in many operators that are taking advantage of the naivety of investors. It is our responsibility to report on this unethical behavior and to report on any actions taken against these rogue operators by the SEC or other government entities. We will continue with our mission.