On August 1, 2022 the US Securities and Exchange Commission brought a lawsuit alleging that Forsage was a fraudulent crypto scheme.
According to the Complaint, Defendants Vladimir “Lado” Okhotnikov, Jane Doe a/k/a Lola Ferrari, Mikail “Mike” Sergeev, and Sergey Maslakov (the founders of Forsage) created, operated and maintained an online pyramid and Ponzi scheme through Forsage.io (“Forsage”), a website that allowed millions of retail investors in the United States and elsewhere to enter into transactions via smart contracts created by the founders that operated on the Ethereum, Tron, and Binance blockchains. To date, these transactions have totaled over $300 million. The Founders perpetuated Forsage and its smart contracts through aggressive online promotions and continuous development of new investment platforms. During the relevant time period, the Founders raised funds from retail investors in the United States and across the world through the unregistered offer and sale of securities in Forsage. In connection with the offer and sale of those securities, the Founders engaged in a scheme to defraud investors.
During the relevant time period, as alleged by the SEC, Forsage used algorithmic contracts (“smart contracts”) to direct funds to an investor as additional investors were recruited into the scheme. The smart contracts allocated payments automatically to investors’ crypto-asset wallets, to which Forsage assigned sequential identification numbers…
