Switzerland's financial regulator has launched proceedings against a company that issued a $100 million initial coin offering (ICO).
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) said on Thursday that it has launched enforcement proceedings against envion AG on suspicion of breaching financial market law in relation to an ICO.
The proceedings focus on possible breaches of Swiss banking law resulting from the potentially unauthorized acceptance of public deposits from the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) for the EVN token.
Investigations carried out by FINMA indicate that envion AG accepted funds amounting to approximately 100 million francs ($100.6 million) from more than 30,000 investors in return for issuing EVN tokens in a bond-like form.
The New York Times reported in May that Envion was "melting down, with its creators accusing one another of fraud" following the apparent loss of control over the company on the part of its founders.
Switzerland is a crypto-currency friendly country, which allows serious innovators to launch their ICO projects lawfully. FINMA published guidelines to this effect in February. However, it also consistently takes action against ICO business models, which violate or circumvent supervisory law.
FINMA has been frequently drawing the attention of the public to the risks that ICOs pose to investors.
by Joji Xavier
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