The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said yesterday that Steven Seagal, the former action-movie star turned would-be musician, will pay more than $300,000 to settle charges that he failed to disclose he was being paid to promote a cryptocurrency investment, the Washington Post reported. Seagal did not tell his millions of social media followers that Bitcoiin2Gen had promised him $250,000 in cash and $750,000 worth of its tokens before promoting its initial coin offering on Twitter and Facebook, according to the SEC. Under the settlement, Seagal agreed to pay the SEC more than $330,000 in penalties and interest, including $157,000 that Bitcoiin2Gen had already paid him. “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,” Kristina Littman, chief of the SEC enforcement division’s cyber unit, said in a statement. In February 2018, Seagal posted a news release on Facebook, where he has 6.7 million followers, announcing he had become the company’s “brand ambassador,” according to the SEC settlement. He also congratulated the company on Twitter, where he has more than 100,000 followers, for reaching its financial goals.
