Blockvest founder might be headed straight to jail

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This past January, Blockvest thought it had dodged a bullet when a judge determined that a default judgment against the blockchain-based digital asset management firm was not necessary. However, the ongoing case brought against the company and its founder, Reginald Buddy Ringgold III, by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has revealed new evidence, and the courts aren’t happy. The amount of fraud, deceit and misconduct has been so overwhelming that the court can’t see any alternative but to approve the SEC’s request to apply terminating sanctions against the company. 

Ringgold and Blockvest allegedly engaged in “egregious misconduct and willful deception concerning key issues” during the court battle, which warrants the application of the sanctions, according to Judge Michael S. Berg. He adds, “The Court has considered alternative monetary, evidentiary, and issue preclusion sanctions, and concludes that, under the facts of this case, even broad sanctions would not adequately redress Defendants’ egregious misconduct and deceit.”

Among the numerous pieces of evidence of fraud, Ringgold, who is also known as Rasool Abdul Rahim El, and Blockvest had forged signatures, tried to coerce false testimony and much more during the court proceedings. It wasn’t enough that he had violated securities laws through the introduction of potentially unregistered securities, but Ringgold continued his lies and scams in front of a judge, which never has a happy ending. 

The judge adds, “Terminating sanctions are a severe remedy, and should be imposed only in extreme circumstances, where the violation is ‘due to willfulness, bad faith, or fault of the party’… Plaintiff moves for terminating sanctions against Defendants pursuant to the Court’s inherent authority, arguing that Defendants willfully and in bad faith deceived the Court by filing forged and false declarations in support of their opposition to Plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction… Plaintiff asserts that subsequent discovery revealed that the filed declarations ‘obscured critical details’ that the declarants were unaffiliated individuals who were provided Blockvest’s fraudulent promotional materials by Defendants and their commissioned sales agents.”

The terminating sanctions will prevent Ringgold from being able to legal engage in any activity tied to the financial industry. The final approval on implementing the sanctions rests with the District Court, which will most likely not oppose the measure. However, Ringgold will have the ability to file an objection to the decision, which must be submitted before the end of this month. If he does, the SEC will have seven days to respond to the objections. In the event no objections are filed, then Ringgold will be looking at the SEC’s wrath in all its force, and could possibly face jail time, as well.