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- The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has prosecuted a Texas-based couple for deceiving hundreds of investors via three investment offerings that calculated around half a million dollars.
- Per SEC report, the Leonards primarily sold false stock certificates in their company Teshuater, a company that bottled and sold alkaline water.
- They purportedly attempted to carry out a sale of a fully functioning cryptocurrency TeshuaCoin claiming that the coin was backed by the company’s alkaline water products.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has prosecuted a Texas-based couple for deceiving hundreds of investors via three investment offerings that calculated around half a million dollars.
A federal court lawsuit against Leonards
During a press release on Friday, the SEC announced a federal court lawsuit against Texas resident and a former pastor Larry Donnell Leonard along with his wife Shuwana Leonard. As per the legal complaint, the Leonards with the help of their two companies, Teshuater and Teshua Business Group accumulated almost $500,000 in three fraudulent offerings from almost 500 investors.
Per SEC report, the Leonards primarily sold false stock certificates in their company Teshuater, a company that bottled and sold alkaline water. To which they notified the investors that it would yield a short-term investments returns of approximately 3,000 percent. This raised a sum of $291,044.07.
The defendants compared TeshuaCoin’s usability to Bitcoin
After that, they purportedly attempted to carry out a sale of a fully functioning cryptocurrency TeshuaCoin claiming that the coin was backed by the company’s alkaline water products. The complaint also highlights that the defendants compared TeshuaCoin’s usability to Bitcoin (BTC) and hyped it as a unique trait.
The SEC alleges that TeshuaCoin was not actually backed by the Teshuater. The Leonards apparently raised $170,395.20 out of their target $20 million from this scheme.
Along with this, they have also collected funds for a fake bitcoin mining investment that does not exist and spending the money on hypothetical options trades.
The SEC has sued the Leonards and their two companies for the violation of the Securities Act’s anti-fraud and registration provisions. The SEC is further looking for permanent and conduct-based orders, disgorgement of the supposedly criminal profits, and civil fines.
In this way, the couple and their company are rumored to have stolen $486,984.28 from 500 total investors.
