New York Attorney General Letitia James announced on Thursday she recovered more than $1.7 million from COINEX for failing to register as a securities and commodities broker-dealer and for falsely representing itself as a crypto exchange.
The agreement resolves Attorney General James’ lawsuit against CoinEx and requires the company to refund thousands of New York investors more than $1.1 million and pay more than $600,000 in penalties to the state. As part of Thursday’s consent order, CoinEx is banned from offering, selling, or purchasing securities and commodities in New York and is prohibited from making its platform available in the state.
In response to Attorney General James’ lawsuit, CoinEx publicly announced that it would withdraw its platform and services from the United States.
CoinEx is a Hong Kong-based virtual currency trading platform that allows investors to buy and sell cryptocurrency through its website and mobile app. New York law requires securities and commodities brokers to register with the state, which CoinEx failed to do. An investigator from the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) was able to create an account with CoinEx using a computer with a New York-based IP address to buy and sell digital tokens although CoinEx was not registered with the state.
Today’s agreement requires CoinEx to provide full refunds totaling $1,172,971.50 to 4,691 New York investors. Investors can receive their refund in the form of cryptocurrency directly from CoinEx over the next 90 days. After 90 days, eligible investors can receive their refund as U.S. currency from OAG by emailing [email protected].
