Eight celebrities together with actor Lindsay Lohan, influencer Jake Paul and rapper Soulja Boy have been charged by federal regulators with illegally touting two cryptocurrencies and failing to reveal they have been paid to take action.

The 2 cryptocurrencies, Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT), have been offered by crypto entrepreneur Justin Solar, who was additionally charged by the Securities and Alternate Fee on Wednesday.

Solar and three of his wholly-owned corporations — Tron Basis Restricted, BitTorrent Basis Ltd. and Rainberry Inc. — are accused of the unregistered supply and sale of crypto asset securities and manipulating the secondary market by “wash buying and selling,” which entails shortly shopping for and promoting cryptocurrencies to make them look like they’re being actively traded.

The SEC additionally says Solar and the businesses paid celebrities with huge social media followings to hype TRX and BTT and directed them to not publicly disclose their compensation.

“This case demonstrates once more the high-risk traders face when crypto asset securities are supplied and offered with out correct disclosure,” SEC chair Gary Gensler stated in an announcement.

The opposite celebrities charged within the scheme are:

• Austin Mahone
• Michele Mason (generally known as Kendra Lust)
• Miles Parks McCollum (generally known as Lil Yachty)
• Shaffer Smith (generally known as Ne-Yo)
• Aliaune Thiam (generally known as Akon)

Every of the eight is accused of illegally touting one or each of the securities.

Six of the celebrities — excluding Soulja Boy (whose authorized title is DeAndre Cortez Approach) and Mahone — have agreed to pay a complete of greater than $400,000 to settle the fees with out admitting or denying the SEC’s findings.

NPR reached out to representatives for every of the celebrities with a request for remark however didn’t instantly hear again from seven out of the eight. A consultant for Jake Paul declined to remark.

Crypto’s meteoric rise in recognition led to a wave of celebrities plugging numerous digital currencies, however regulators’ curiosity in ferreting out unlawful conduct within the crypto market has landed a number of of these stars in authorized bother.

In October, the SEC charged Kim Kardashian with utilizing her Instagram account to tout a cryptocurrency with out divulging that she was being paid to put it up for sale.