A Utah judge denied Kristoffer Krohn’s appeal, upholding the SEC’s case that his $18M crypto mining scam involved securities offerings.
A federal judge in Utah denied an appeal to dismiss a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) case against the promoter of a purportedly dishonest cryptocurrency mining company that engaged in a $18 million scam.
Kristoffer Krohn’s motion to appeal her Sept. 23 ruling permitting the SEC’s case against Green United LLC was denied by Judge Ann Marie McIff Allen on Nov. 26. Krohn could not present sufficient justification for the appeal.
The court stated in the ruling that “the Court declines to certify this case for interlocutory appeal because Mr. Krohn has not shown any substantial ground for difference of opinion as to the controlling law governing any matter the Court addressed in its Sept. 23 Order.”
According to Krohn’s rationale for dismissing the lawsuit, the SEC had not proven that Green United’s Green Boxes were investment contracts, as the agency had asserted in its complaint.
Additionally, he asserted that the SEC had misinterpreted certain components of the Howey test, which defines securities.
According to Allen, Krohn was wrong to argue that she had selected words from two different definitions and provided no “legal support to show any court has adopted the definition,” as he put it.
Executives at Green United were charged by the SEC in 2023 with running a fraudulent cryptocurrency mining scheme that defrauded investors of $18 million between April 2018 and December 2022 by selling investments in “Green Boxes” and “Green nodes,” which the regulator claimed effectively mined Bitcoin.
Investors were reportedly informed that the company was creating a Green Blockchain and that the GREEN token would appreciate as a result of its efforts with significant returns, according to the SEC complaint.
The Green token was developed following the initial hardware sales to investors. It was sporadically distributed to provide the impression that the operation was successful, according to the SEC, which asserts that the Green Blockchain did not exist.
Wright Thurston, the founder of Green United, has also filed a second motion to have the lawsuit dismissed.
