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Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander has reported halted the bitcoin-related operations of a man residing in Springfield, according to a report from the Springfield News-Leader.
The report indicates that Kenneth Slaughter used “deceptive tactics” to try and convince investors in the online space to pay for the development of equipment used to mine bitcoin.
“The fact that somebody is selling investments through Bitcoin rather than traditional currency doesn’t change their obligations to investors, and I encourage Missourians to call my office before making any Bitcoin investments,” said Kander in a statement.
“Investors have a right to know the full set of facts about both an investment and its backer, including the risks, profit-generating strategy and pertinent financial history.”
Slaughter founded the Virtual Mining Corporation (incorporated in Delaware), but before that he incorporated a company in Belize known as Active Mining Corporation.
Mr. Slaughter is said to have posted on the BitcoinTalk forum in order to court potential investors, going so far as to tell them they could see an return on investment of nearly 3,000 percent and receive a 100 percent return from “global profits” if they decided to buy stock in his company. He also allegedly told possible investors that his company had offices in London.
Slaughter managed to rake in about $200,000 worth of bitcoin in his campaign, but neglected to inform investors about the possible risks of throwing in their cash — namely, losing it all — according to Kander’s news release.
Kander also says that Slaughter should have alerted investors to complaints against another of Slaughter’s previous company (Active Internet Communications).
Kander suggests that the public ensure that a person/company they’re investing with is registered.
“If somebody isn’t registered, that’s a major red flag,” he said.
As for Slaughter, he was reportedly unaware of the Secretary’s news release, but suggested to the News-Leader that it may be part of a settlement his lawyers on working on.
He is expected to pay a fine, but it’s unclear what the amount will be.
[textmarker color=”C24000″]Source[/textmarker] Springfield News-Leader
