Out for justice: action star Steven Seagal fined $330,000 by US financial regulator
Action film supremo Steven Seagal found himself on deadly ground today when he was hit with a $330,000 (£256,000) fine by US financial regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The Exit Wounds-star discovered he was not above the law after promoting an initial coin offering (ICO) on social media without disclosing he was being paid to do so.
Failing to disclose this payment violated Section 17(b) of the Securities Act, which makes it illegal for a person to promote a security without disclosing they are being paid.
According to the SEC, Seagal, 67, who is currently a resident of Moscow, had approximately 107,000 Twitter followers and 6.7m Facebook followers at the time of the promotion in 2018.
The roundhouse-kicking Code of Honour thesp used his social media accounts to promote an ICO by Bitcoiin2Gen (B2G) which offered digital tokens to be issued on the Ethereum blockchain.
Seagal was promised $250,000 in cash and $750,000 worth of B2G tokens in exchange for his promotion of B2G.
On 19 February 2018, Seagal’s Facebook account posted a link to the press release on B2G’s newsroom page titled “Zen Master Steven Seagal Has Become the Brand Ambassador of Bitcoiin2Gen.”
The former star of reality TV show Steven Seagal: Lawman was paid approximately $157,000 for these promotions, which he did not publicly disclose.
Seagal has agreed not to promote any securities for the next three years.
The SEC took the executive action to order Seagal to disgorge $157,000, pay $16,500 in prejudgment interest and to pay a penalty of $167,000 to the SEC.
Seagal’s booking agent was contacted for comment.