Actor Steven Seagal, known for a string of blockbuster martial arts movies throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, has been fined for "unlawfully touting" a bitcoin-wannabe by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The SEC found Seagal failed to disclose payments he received for promoting an investment in an initial coin offering (ICO) conducted by Bitcoiin2Gen, a now near worthless digital token that billed itself as "the world's first self-sustaining cryptocurrency."
Seagal, who made a name for himself as a straight-to-video action movie star, agreed to pay $314,000 over two separate charges. In addition, Seagal agreed not to promote any securities, digital or otherwise, for three years.
The SEC said Seagal failed to disclose he was promised $250,000 in cash and $750,000 worth of bitcoiin in exchange for promotion of the digital token, which included posts on his social media accounts encouraging the public not to "miss out" on Bitcoiin2Gen's ICO and a press release titled "Zen Master Steven Seagal Has Become the Brand Ambassador of Bitcoiin2Gen."
A Bitcoiin2Gen press release also included a quotation from Seagal stating that he endorsed the ICO "wholeheartedly."
"These investors were entitled to know about payments Seagal received or was promised to endorse this investment so they could decide whether he may be biased," said Kristina Littman, chief of the SEC enforcement division’s cyber unit, in a statement.
"Celebrities are not allowed to use their social media influence to tout securities without appropriately disclosing their compensation."
Bitcoiin2Gen claimed that bitcoiin was a "superior or more advanced version" of the original bitcoin, however, after bitcoiin soared to a price of $0.76 per bitcoiin token in the midst of late 2017 cryptocurrency gold rush, the price crashed to almost zero last year.
At its peak bitcoiin had a total market value of almost $40 million. Today, the 52 million bitcoiin in circulation combined are worth less than $10,000, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Celebrity endorsements intended to hype upcoming ICOs became popular during bitcoin's epic 2017 bull run, with many effectively worthless projects raising millions, and sometimes billions, of dollars.
In November 2017, the SEC warned these endorsements could be unlawful if compensation wasn’t disclosed.
Boxer Floyd Mayweather and music producer DJ Khaled have both previously been slapped with fines by the SEC, paying $600,000 and $150,000 respectively in 2018.
This article originally appeared on Forbes.
