Uphold will hand over more than $5 million to customers it helped deceive — a payout that amounts to over five times what the company actually earned from the deal.
A Settlement With Real TeethFrom January 2019 through October 2020, Uphold pushed CredEarn to users through its platform and mobile app, billing it as a safe place to park money and earn solid annual returns. What users weren’t told was how those returns were actually being generated.
Cred was funding them through microloans to low-income video game players in China — borrowers who had no credit histories and no access to traditional banks. That detail never made it into Uphold’s pitch to customers.
My office secured over $5 million from Uphold, a cryptocurrency platform, for misleading people and promoting a fraudulent investment scheme.
I’ll always work to ensure bad actors are held accountable for putting people’s livelihoods at risk.
The Insurance Claim That Wasn’t True“Investors should be able to trust the industry advice they receive,” James said in a statement, adding that her office would continue holding bad actors accountable for putting customers’ finances at risk.
Featured image from Finder, chart from TradingView
