We all know the Mantra "This is not professional financial advice, invest at your own risk"; but is that enough not to be held accountable?
The subject matter in sum relates to a complaint that was filed by six individuals on their own behalf, as well as that of all other persons who have lost their money by investing into BitConnect. The six plaintiffs stated that their personal losses amounted to $771,000.
The class action complaint states that BitConnect issued cryptocurrency tokens that were actually unregistered securities and collected additional funds via a "wide-ranging Ponzi scheme."
In this lawsuit the names of Bitconnect's more forward promoters keeps ringing out those being:
Treyvon James, Ryan Hildreth, Cryptonick, and CraigGrant.
The argument now is, while these guys most definitely swayed the minds of their subscribers they should not be held accountable for what was ultimately and individuals personal decision. On the other hand susbscribers are adamant that if it wasnt for the way the aformentioned promoters now deemed Shillers presented the Bitconnect platform they would not have invested. My 2cents on the matter however will be a mixture of both POV's ; on one hand you made the decision yourself and should ultimately be responsible for your actions but when you have promoters offering Opt-in rewards and giveaways for those that join using their refferals enticing their subscriber base with a honey-pot of sorts i think they should atleast apologize to those they enticed with encentizes, playing off the emotions of individuals seeking financial freedom.
You will see that several of the bcc promoters have removed their videos and referral links in an effort to make evidence gathering more difficult. There are two points but guilt in one does not lead to guilt in the other.
Point one: Selling securities without a license. This is a crime in all countries. They could face criminal charges.
Point two: Causing loss to another - eg by promoting a ponzi scheme. They could be sued for damages if it can be shown they owed a duty of care to others.
But if someone tells you to jump off a bridge, would you do so? if someone promoted milk and you have a food allergy to milk and all milk made products would you eat them,would you then hold the milk promoter responsible, no you would not, when investing money each person is held responsible for their own actions.
You are right. People should be accountable for their own actions. However we will see what the judges think if it gets to court.
your right, it will be an interesting case, could set some form or new legal precedent in specific cases of this matter dealing in financial promotion of cryptocurrency.
I understand your POV and made sure to state it in the post, but it's not as simple as you make it seem. Yes the buck ultimately stops with the would be investor but the science behind advertising and promotions can't be ignored, the crypto community is riddled with, for want of a better term "noobs"; so they seek knowledge and advice from seemingly credible sources only to be manipulated, think of it as being new to a city and dont know where to grad a bite to eat, while walking you come across two burger stands, one has a long line of customers the other has none, there is a 99.9% chance you will automatically go to the stand with the long line without doing any research yourself that huge following became a source of validity and swayed your decision
Or you are in a new city and a friendly guy comes over, and puts his arm around you and says “I know a great place to eat”. He takes you to the restaurant with no queue.