Crowdcheck Blog

Confucius had some thoughts on precision of language: Tsze-lu said, “The ruler of Wei has been waiting for you, in order with you to administer the government. What will you consider the first thing to be done?” The Master replied, “What is necessary is to rectify names.” “So! Indeed!” said Tsze-lu. “You are wide of the mark! Why must there be such rectification?” The Master said, “How uncultivated you are, Yu! A superior man, in regard to what he does not know, shows a cautious reserve. “If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to…

We’ve noticed something interesting recently: Regulation A filings by companies that used to be SEC-reporting companies with quotes on the OTC Pink market, who have ceased to file reports with the SEC and whose trading activity on OTC has flatlined. Why would such companies file for a Reg A offering? Especially since so many of them are complete losers with weird agglomerations of business lines resulting from multiple reverse mergers (“We are a holding company operating in the mattress, muffin and blockchain businesses”)? Because someone can make money, and it’s not the issuer and it’s not investors. Here’s how. You start with an existing OTC-quoted shell…

Part of the whole point of crowdfunding is that you leverage the “wisdom of the crowd.” That is, a start-up company presents the relevant information about its idea, its team, and its financials to the crowd, and the crowd weighs in with questions and commentary. The crowd may ask about the company’s competitors, challenge the valuation, ask for further information about the company’s plans and draw the company’s attention to issues management hadn’t thought about. Crowd comments have the ability to improve disclosure and increase the knowledge of potential investors. This is why the regulators insist on crowd communication channels being clear, and examine…

Well, actually nothing of the sort, but did I get your attention? The SEC is continuing to bring suit against ICO scammers. This one got my attention because (a) the scammers stuck the SEC seal on their website and tried to make out that they were a regulated entity and (b) said they could sell under Regulation A, when they hadn’t filed a Form 1-A with the SEC. Two things here: First, these are dumb criminals. If you can’t work out that the SEC really likes its seal and takes it terribly personally when people who are not the SEC plaster it all over their offerings, or that it takes two seconds for folks to work out whether or not an offering has been qualified…

We are seeing a lot of references to KYC/AML in the ICO/STO space. Lots of shops include this function as part of their pitch to create smart contracts and host the offering on their platform. The problem is that what they are doing in most cases isn’t actually KYC/AML and this could lead to confusion in the future. KYC, or “know your client,” is the process that a regulated entity like a broker-dealer goes through in order to establish not just the identity of its client, but also that client’s risk tolerance and the suitability of the investment for the client in question. Online platforms that are brokers routinely do this through a series of questions when…

Early-stage companies often fail. They often get acquired, too, sometimes in distressed circumstances and sometimes in circumstances leading to Lambos all round (most often the former). Companies who have raised funds under Reg A and Reg CF are no exceptions. Unlike companies that made only private offerings to investors, companies that have made Reg A or Reg CF offerings are required to make reports to the SEC. Reg A companies must file an annual report on Form 1-K (together with audited financials), a semi-annual report on Form 1-SA (with unaudited financials) and report material events on a Form 1-U. Companies that have made Reg CF offerings must make annual…

I’ve never been a fan of the “the SAFT is a security but the token isn’t” theory. As a refresher, the Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (“SAFT”) is an investment contract where funds will be used by the issuer to develop its blockchain platform and issue digital tokens that can be used on that platform as repayment for the SAFT. If you are selling contracts to obtain tokens which will eventually do a thing, but can’t yet, on a platform that is yet to be built, chances are those tokens issued to repay the SAFTs are securities. That being the case, if you are issuing SAFTs or SAFEs  (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) or any form of convertible instrument that…

As of Friday night, when the SEC’s EDGAR system went to bed, there had been 61 filings of Form C-AR made (with the rest due Monday for all companies with a 12/31 fiscal year-end). This is the form that companies have to file to keep their investors updated when they have sold securities under Regulation Crowdfunding. Form C-AR requires updated information about the company’s business and its financial performance and, most importantly, the provision of financial statements. The information that companies need to provide on Form C-AR is set out in Rule 202(a) under the Securities Act and can be found here. Only 13 of those 61 companies to have filed a Form C-AR…

No, not a novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but some musings on an aspect of the more complicated aspects of securities law relating to what needs to be registered under the Securities Act of 1933, part of what we law bores refer to as “the metaphysics.” Some investments happen in two stages. You buy convertible notes and then they convert into shares. You are issued warrants and you exercise those warrants. You get the idea. The important thing from the point of view of registration under the Securities Act is that there are usually two separate transactions, and you have to examine both of those transactions to make sure each is registered under the Securities…

We keep saying that ICOs have not changed the securities laws and there’s no real magic to how to apply existing securities laws to ICOs. We are sure you’ve read our memo on the topic. That’s certainly true when it comes to “bounty” or referral programs in the ICO space. In these programs, people get coin or tokens for spreading the word about an ICO offering. Normal securities laws apply. ICOs have not warped the space-time continuum so as to apply the Securities Act of 1933 differently than other classes of securities. This means, if your coin or tokens are securities: The companies (and we hope you have formed an actual company) issuing the coin or token…