Arizona regulator issues cease-and-desist letter against crypto investment firm

On Oct. 1, 2020, Abuchi Okoye and his company, Coininvest, received a cease-and-desist letter from the Arizona Corporation Commission that ordered him to stop offering and selling investments in cryptocurrency. 

The Commission’s Security Division alleges that Okoye and Coinvest solicited investors to buy cryptocurrency investments through a pirated website and social media account. The company appears to be located in Phoenix, Arizona, but it’s actually managed by an Arizona resident with no connection with Coininvest or Okoye, according to a statement published on Oct. 2. 

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The Commission’s Securities Division maintains that Coinvest stole the identity of an Arizona registered securities dealer and misrepresents their imposter website, Arcadia-Capital.net, as being a registered dealer. 

“As with any investment,” writes the AZCC, “if a promoter guarantees returns, if an opportunity sounds too good to be true, or if you are pressured to act quickly, please exercise extreme caution and be aware of the risk that your investment funds may be lost.”

Okoye and Coininvest are entitled to a hearing to answer claims held against them, according to the statement.

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.