Court Issues Lifetime Securities Ban to Crypto Market Makers
On Tuesday, April 15, 2025, Law.com reported that two individuals, Maxwell Hernandez and Russell Armand, agreed to lifetime bans from the securities industry in a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a Massachusetts federal court.
Hernandez, known online as “MaxEquation,” and Armand, who used the handle “Saitamaguru1,” were accused of manipulating the markets for cryptocurrency tokens Saitama Inu and SaitaRealty, which the SEC alleges were offered and sold as securities to retail investors in unregistered transactions.
The SEC claimed that Hernandez and Armand made false statements about the development of a “Saitama ecosystem” to artificially inflate the value of the Saitama Inu token. They allegedly misrepresented their intentions to buy or hold the tokens while secretly selling large quantities. Additionally, the pair was accused of hiring market manipulation services from ZM Quant Investment Ltd. and Gotbit Consulting LLC to generate artificial trading volume and manipulate the prices of Saitama Inu and SaitaRealty tokens.
Under the final judgments issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Hernandez and Armand consented to permanent injunctions prohibiting them from participating in any securities offerings, including those involving cryptocurrencies. They are also barred from serving as officers or directors of public companies. The court will determine the financial penalties, including potential disgorgement of profits or civil fines, based on the SEC’s allegations, which are considered true for penalty proceedings. The judgments include a provision preventing Hernandez and Armand from discharging any debts owed under the settlement through bankruptcy.
Hernandez and Armand neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s allegations. The settlements leave two other individuals, Nam Tran, known as “Ntran1234,” and Manpreet Singh Kohli, the former CEO of a $7.5 billion cryptocurrency company who used the online aliases “Mkay Saitama” and “mannythehitman,” to face ongoing prosecution or negotiate their own agreements with the SEC.
Source: Law.com
