The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed an amended complaint on April 18 in its ongoing case against Justin Sun and other defendants, arguing that Sun’s numerous visits to the US give the agency the jurisdiction needed to proceed with legal action.
The SEC alleged that Sun traveled extensively to the US while he and several companies conducted unregistered offers and sales of BTT and TRX tokens. According to the regulator, Sun spent over 380 days in the US between 2017 and 2019, making business trips to major cities such as New York City, Boston, and San Francisco on behalf of the Tron Foundation and the BitTorrent Foundation, both of which are also named as defendants in the case.
The SEC aims to use these trips as grounds to claim jurisdiction over Sun and the companies to pursue regulatory and legal action in the US.
In addition, the SEC alleged that Sun and the companies were involved in a wash trading scheme on the now-defunct crypto exchange Bittrex. The agency also included the fact that Bittrex is based in the US alongside its claims to personal jurisdiction over Sun and the other defendants.
The amended complaint further alleges that Sun personally communicated with Bittrex in 2018 to have the exchange list the TRX crypto. The documents link Sun to the other companies, and Sun personally signed some of the documents.
These latest allegations come in response to Sun’s request to dismiss the SEC case in March, citing a lack of personal jurisdiction as a foreign national. The SEC originally sued Sun and the other defendants in March 2023, primarily claiming personal jurisdiction based on sales targeting investors in the Southern District of New York and celebrity promoters contacting individuals in the US via social media.
In April 2023, the SEC separately sued Bittrex and settled the case in August 2023. The exchange ceased operations globally later that year.
