ICO Of Calata’s Krops Stopped By Philippines Securities And Exchange Commission

ICO News, News, Regulation | January 29, 2018 By:

The Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a cease-and-desist order against the initial coin offering (ICO) of Krops, an agriculture mobile app founded by businessman Joseph Calata.

In an order dated Jan. 23, the SEC cites four affiliated companies – Black Cell Technology Inc., Black Sands Capital Inc., Black Cell Technology Limited and Krops – as operators of the KropCoin token sale, claiming to sell “the world’s first agriculture marketplace crypto equity ICO.”

“Krops are selling or offering securities in the form of KropCoins to the public without the necessary license from the corporate regulator, which is a violation of the Securities Regulation Code,” the decision read.

According to the SEC, the continued public offering and sale of KropCoins without the required license from the commission makes the public offering and selling a continuing illegal act which makes it imperative and necessary that a cease and desist order be immediately issued.

Based on the SEC investigation, Calata’s Black Cell operates a website, mykrops.com, which advertises the business of Krops and publicly offers tokenized shares.

On its website, Black Cell claims Krops as “the largest agricultural hub that brings you the future of global agriculture, a marketplace for agricultural products that connects buyers to sellers that are within close proximity.” Black Cell said on its website that there was an ongoing pre-sale at a price of $0.70 per token, with more than 2 million tokens already sold out of the 6.4 million tokens being offered to the public.

“The Commission will institute the appropriate administrative and criminal action against any person or entities found to act as solicitors, information providers, salesmen, agents, brokers dealer or the like for and in behind of the subject corporations,” the SEC said.

Last year, Calata Corporation was delisted from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) over multiple disclosure violations.