The noose is tightening around Dominic Lacroix, a Quebec City businessman believed by Quebec’s financial watchdog and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to be behind PlexCorps, a controversial cryptocurrency start-up accused of fraudulently selling millions of dollars’ worth of digital assets.
Nearly a month after Lacroix was ordered by the Quebec Financial Markets Administrative Tribunal to hand all bitcoins in his possession, the SEC obtained on June 15, 2018 a second emergency court order freezing his assets.
On December 2017, the SEC had filed securities charges, and obtained an emergency asset freeze, against Lacroix, described as a “recidivist” Quebec securities law violator, his partner Sabrina Paradis-Royer and PlexCorps.
The SEC returned to the federal court in Brooklyn, New York this month because Lacroix allegedly has been using secret accounts, including an account in his brother’s name but which he controlled, to “improperly dissipate” for personal use monies he obtained from investors during the PlexCoin Initial Coin Offering. U.S. District Judge Allyne Ross granted the emergency freeze asset after finding there was a grave risk that Lacroix would siphon monies he obtained from PlexCoin investors.
The SEC original complaint alleges that from August 2017 to December 1, 2017, PlexCorps, Lacroix and Paradis-Royer “purportedly” obtained $15 million from thousands of investors through “materially false and misleading statements” made by Lacroix and through entities Lacroix controls. The complaint alleges that he promised investors returns of 1,354% in under 29 days. The complaint further alleges that Lacroix and Paradis misappropriated investor funds and engaged in deceptive acts relating to PlexCoin.
On May 24, 2018, the Quebec Financial Markets Administrative Tribunal issued new freeze orders against Lacroix and Paradis-Royer — on top of the ones they already face — in a bid to protect the public and prevent them from transferring or “squandering” monies in their possession.
Lacroix was found guilty last October of contempt of court for failing to adhere to broad ex parte orders issued by the Tribunal on July 2017 that forbade him and his company DL Innov Inc. from trading in any form of investment. On December 2017, he was sentenced to a two-month jail term and fined $10,000 for contempt of court while DL Innov was fined $100,000. Both rulings have been appealed.
In 2013, Lacroix pleaded guilty to six counts of “illegal placement, illegal practice, and transmission of false or misleading information” and was fined $25,000.
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