Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York issued on April 20 a ruling in favor of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) lawsuit filed in September 2022 against Hydrogen Technology Corp. and its former CEO Michael Ross Kane.
The defendants were ordered to pay a $2.8 million fine for manipulating the price of the Hydro (HYDRO) cryptocurrency token.
According to the SEC, the scheme had netted the company more than $2 million, achieved by issuing the Hydro token through an airdrop and direct payments to individuals to promote it.
In addition, Hydrogen hired South African firm Moonwalkers to create a “false impression of market activity” using specialized software, and then sold the tokens at artificially inflated prices.
