The US Securities and Exchange Commission is currently probing an online gambling website following the federal agency concerns on the possibility that the site could have violated US laws.
According to a copy of the SEC's letter of request to the MPEx, an online exchange for Bitcoin-based trading, online on trilema.com, the agency is requesting the exchange to provide the agency contracts and other pertinent documents relating to SatoshiDice.com. MPEx operator Mircea Popescu told the news agency that it did received the request from the SEC and insisted that the company has not violated any legislation. Although the letter listed SatoshiDice as the SEC probe's main topic, the federal agency did not divulge on what rules MPex might have possibly violated. The letter, on the other hand, is seeking to look into communication between MPex and SatoshiDice's Erik Voorhees regarding the listing of the latter's shares and his account statements.
According to an MPEx-affiliated website, SatoshiDice has listed shares on the virtual exchange in August 2012.
In July last year, Voorhees had said in an online statement that he has sold the company to an unnamed private entity. At the moment, Bloomberg noted that the stock of SatoshiDice is no longer listed on MPex. When the news agency asked Voorhees about the SEC investigation, he declined to respond. An email sent by Bloomberg to a general mailbox ay SatochiDice was not answered.
In January, SEC's enforcement director Andrew Ceresney declared that the agency is very focused on determining whether Bitcoin-denominated stock exchanges are violating US laws. According to current legislation, securities-trading platforms need to acquire a license to operate. The letter indicated however that the probe does not mean that the virtual exchange has violated any rules.
"You can invest in those companies with your Bitcoin online. And so the question is, are those unregistered exchanges or broker dealers operating in violation of the securities laws?" Ceresney was quoted as saying in a conference.
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