NY Court holds in abeyance SEC’s request for sanctions against individuals behind PlexCoin

Maria Nikolova

Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy has given more time to the individuals behind PlexCorps, aka PlexCoin, to respond to discovery requests.

As the case launched by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against PlexCorps, also known as PlexCoin, and the individuals behind this scheme – Dominic Lacroix and Sabrina Paradis-Royer, continues at the New York Eastern District Court, proceedings were held before Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy on October 22nd.

The Judge has decided to hold in abeyance the motion for sanctions filed by the SEC about a month ago. Let’s recall that on September 25th, the Commission submitted a document to the Court, asking for leave to file a motion to compel and a motion for discovery sanctions against Dominic Lacroix and Sabrina Paradis-Royer. The regulator argued that the defendants continue to ignore Court orders concerning discovery, accounting of assets and repatriation of assets.

On Monday, October 22nd, Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy said that the parties had agreed in principle on a preliminary injunction and expect to file an agreement shortly.

He granted the SEC’s motion to compel, explaining that, on or before November 5, 2018, defendants shall respond to four interrogatories, as well as to a number of document requests and requests for admission, all of which relate to asset location. The motion for sanctions is held in abeyance pending the responses to these discovery requests.

In its complaint, the US regulator says that it has to take an emergency action to stop Lacroix, a recidivist securities law violator in Canada, and his partner Paradis-Royer from further misappropriation of investor funds illegally raised through the fraudulent and unregistered offer and sale of securities called “PlexCoin” or “PlexCoin Tokens” in a purported “Initial Coin Offering”.

From August 2017 through the present, the defendants have obtained investor funds, purportedly $15 million from thousands of investors, including those throughout the United States and in the Eastern New York District, through materially false and misleading statements.

Lacroix and Paradis-Royer allegedly misappropriated investor funds and engaged in other deceptive acts relating to investments in the PlexCoin Token, despite having both been enjoined by a Quebec tribunal from engaging in the activities that are the subject of the SEC action.

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