New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the global cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx on Wednesday. James alleged that the crypto exchange failed to register with the state and that it was indulging in business transactions illegally. According to official documents filed in a New York state court in Manhattan, the Attorney General has accused the agency "engaged in repeated and persistent fraudulent practices," reported Reuters. She added that the exchange failed to register as a commodity broker-dealer, securities broker or securities dealer prior to getting involved in the sale and purchase of tokens. According to her, the firm indulged in violations of the Martin Act, which is used to curb economic fraud.
James further stated CoinEx was operating as a global crypto exchange even without having any proper state permission to do so, as cited by a report in Reuters. She also mentioned that the firm failed to comply with a subpoena sent to it last month about CoinEx's testimony regarding the digital assets and pertaining trade activities.
In an official statement, James asserted, "The days of crypto companies like CoinEx acting like the rules do not apply to them are over."
CoinEX did not comment on it at the time of writing. The firm is originally based out of Hong Kong and was founded in 2017. CoinEx is also known as Vino Global Ltd.
The Attorney General's civil lawsuit has sought restitution and an embargo on the use and access of CoinEx's mobile app, its websites and services from New York City.
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Meanwhile, in January this year, New York, along with nine other US states secured about $24 million from a cryptocurrency platform Nexo Inc and other associates. This was done to help tackle all the related civil claims pertaining to transactions that were carried out without any legitimate registration with the state. Most of these firms had also kept their registration matters and status hidden from the officials reported Reuters.
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