SEC says Justin Sun "frequently travels" to the U.S.: provides leverage for lawsuit

Source: cointelegraph, JESSE COGHLAN

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has restructured its lawsuit against Tron founder Justin Sun, claiming that he “frequently travels around the country” — thus giving him jurisdiction.

The regulator argued that it has “personal jurisdiction” over Sun, Tron, and two other businesses he controls because they “purposefully acted in and directed toward the United States,” the regulator wrote in an amended complaint filed in Manhattan federal court on April 17.

The SEC claims that Sun traveled to the United States for a total of more than 380 days between 2017 and 2019, including to New York City, Boston, Massachusetts, and San Francisco.

The SEC claims that these trips were made on behalf of the Tron Foundation, the BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry — all referred to in the lawsuit as Sun’s “alternative companies.”

The SEC reiterated allegations in last month’s complaint that Sun and his businesses sold unregistered securities through TRON’s TRX tokens and BitTorrent (BTT) tokens, and that Sun engaged in “manipulative money laundering transactions.”

The SEC specifically noted that TRX and BTT were promoted, offered, and sold to “consumers and investors located in the United States.”

It added that “Sun frequently traveled to the United States during the period during which TRX and BTT were promoted, offered, and sold.”

It also claimed that Sun’s alleged TRX money laundering transactions took place on Seattle-based cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex.

In late March, Sun, a Chinese-born citizen of Grenada, moved to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the SEC applied U.S. securities laws to “primarily foreign conduct” and had no jurisdiction over him or the Singapore-based TRON Foundation.

He claimed that TRX and BTT tokens were “sold entirely overseas” and that sales took steps to avoid the U.S. market — adding that the SEC did not allege that the tokens were “initially offered or sold to any U.S. resident.”

Sun Yuchen's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.