and were among a group of celebrities forced to pay tens of thousands in settlements following claims they promoted crypto investments on social media without declaring they were paid ads.
The cohort of famous faces included boxer and internet personality , rapper Lil Yachty and adult film star Michelle Mason.
It was reported that all the celebrities agreed to pay more than £325,000 to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after they were paid to promote crypto firms owned by entrepreneur Justin Sun – Tronix and BitTorrent – to their millions of online followers.
Despite paying the fines, none of the stars have since admitted or denied the SEC’s findings, according to Sky News.
However, the outlet reported that two other celebrities – pop singer Austin Mahone and rapper Soulja Boy – did not pay an amount in settlement to the SEC.
Following the announcement of her pregnancy last week, Lindsay’s spokesperson revealed that the actress was first contacted in March 2022 and at the time of the posting, was unaware she needed to alert followers to the fact that she was being paid.
The Hollywood actress subsequently returned the £8,141 she was paid to promote the companies plus interest and also paid out a further £24,425 in fines.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement: ‘This case demonstrates again the high risk investors face when crypto asset securities are offered and sold without proper disclosure.
‘As alleged, [Justin] Sun and his companies [Tronix and BitTorrent] not only targeted U.S. investors in their unregistered offers and sales, generating millions in illegal proceeds at the expense of investors, but they also coordinated wash trading on an unregistered trading platform to create the misleading appearance of active trading in TRX.
‘Sun further induced investors to purchase TRX and BTT by orchestrating a promotional campaign in which he and his celebrity promoters hid the fact that the celebrities were paid for their tweets.’
This wasn’t the first time major public figures were seen promoting cryptocurrencies to their online platform followers.
The group of stars faced with fines followed in reality TV royalty Kim Kardashian’s footsteps as she found herself in trouble with regulators for not declaring she was being paid to recommend Ethereum Max tokens.
Last year, the Skims founder paid a £813,635 fine to settle federal charges that arose due to her failing to declare her post was earning her money.
In 2020, actor Steven Seagal was banned from promoting investments on social media for three years and was forced to pay £244,102 in fines as part of a similar settlement case.
Metro.co.uk contacted all celebrities mentioned for comment.
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