The agreement with the SEC came after the three were charged in September with „fraudulent and unregistered“ involvement in the ICO.
Three associates of Clifford Joseph Harris Jr., a rapper also known as T.I. who was responsible for helping launch the FLiK token, have agreed to pay over $100,000 after a U.S. district court approved a settlement.
According to records filed Nov. 17 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Chance White, Owen Smith and William Sparks Jr. will pay $102,992 in a settlement that will cover fines, fees and displeasure over their role in selling tokens in FLiK and CoinSpark’s initial coin offerings, or ICO. T.I., a rapper, singer and songwriter, has won three Grammy Awards and has had several hits, including „Whatever You Like and Live Your Life.
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The SEC announced the charges against the three in September along with Ryan Felton, founder of video producer AVA, and T.I., claiming that the ICOs were „fraudulent and unregistered. Sparks, who is T.I.’s social network manager, was charged with violating registration provisions by allegedly selling FLiK tokens on the rapper’s social network accounts.
White and Smith, both involved in the Atlanta film industry, were charged with violating registration and anti-tourism provisions for allegedly promoting CoinSpark without revealing that they were being paid for their support of the token.
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The trio reached an agreement at that time, which was approved by the court on Tuesday. The SEC’s case against Felton reportedly remains ongoing, while the commission ordered T.I. to pay a $75,000 fine and not to participate in any offerings or sales of digital asset securities for at least five years.
FLiK was one of many tokens announced during the 2017 ICO boom. When the token was launched in September, Felton declared on social networks that FLiK would register „tremendous growth in one year“ and would be redeemable for $14.99 in 15 months. However, the price of the token only peaked at $0.21 on October 17 and is currently trading at $0.000289 according to CoinMarketCap.
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In 2018, a group of 25 investors named Felton and T.I. in a class action suit accusing them of carrying out a pump and dump plan with FLiK by promoting the token using misleading information and celebrity support.
The class’s legal team modified the lawsuit, including comedian Kevin Hart for his alleged role. A U.S. district judge dismissed the lawsuit against T.I. earlier this year, stating that he found no concrete evidence of values violations or negligent misrepresentation regarding the rapper promoting FLiK.