Two senior bosses from one of London leading crypto firms are facing prosecution and potential fines for failing to comply with accounts submission requirements. Blockchain.com’s co-founder Nicolas Cary and operations executive Al Turnbull are accused of not submitting company accounts on time, according to reports.

Both individuals are said to have received summons from Companies House, the UK’s company registrar, and an initial hearing was held at Cardiff Magistrate Court on 25 September this year. There will be a follow-up hearing on November 26 this year.

According to another report, the allegations against the above individuals are around failure to submit company accounts for the financial year ending December 2022.

The company has cited major restructuring and staff reduction as reasons for the delay in submitting its financial accounts, and is said to be seeking legal advice to contest the charges.

Blockchain.com has millions of customers around the world and was valued at $7 billion last year.

ASIC charges former crypto CEO

Australia’s Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has brought fraud charges against the former CEO of the now defunct crypto exchange, Mine Digital.

According to reports, Grant Colthup has been charged with “one count of fraud after a customer of Mine Digital did not receive the bitcoin they paid 2.2 million Australian dollars (roughly $1.47 million) for in July 2022.”

Mine Digital collapsed as a cryptocurrency exchange in September 2022 and creditors have since been claiming millions in compensation.

Colthup is alleged to have used the customer’s money “to pay for his company’s liabilities or purchase cryptocurrencies with it, or both.”

In a separate case, investigators looking into the finances of Mine Digital after its collapse in September 2022 only found $20,000 in assets, despite claims of around $16m against it by customers, according to Financial Review.

Crypto industry shuns Trump?

The FT has published a piece suggesting much of the crypto industry is not impressed with former President Donald Trump’s recent crypto ventures, and his support for World Liberty Financial.

The article suggests that Trump’s presidential run, the unclear investor protections mechanism within World Liberty Financial, and the records of two of the executives running it are the main concerns.

“One of them previously ran classes teaching men how to pick up women and the other faced allegations of fraud and illegal drug sales,” the article says about the two executives.

Experts who spoke to the FT on the subject have accused Trump of ‘wanting to immediately extract value’, something which, in their opinion, does not help with liberalizing or democratizing access to finance.

There are also questions around the reliability of the platform after its website crashed soon after it began selling its token.

Crypto fraud trial in France

In Europe, a major trial involving around $30m in cryptocurrency and diamonds has opened in Nancy, France. According to reports, the trial has implicated 20 defendants and is expected to last for a month.

AFP and other local media outlets have said the 20 individuals are accused of committing crypto fraud by luring French football clubs and individuals to invest huge sums in fake crypto and diamonds schemes.

The involvement of football clubs has led to the trial being dubbed as “red card”, and it had to be moved to a conference hall due to the large number of plaintiffs.

According to another report, the total number of individuals affected due to the fake scheme is around 1,600 and around $30m has allegedly been stolen.

Investigators have said they have so far recovered around €2.8m ($3m) which will be used to compensate some of the victims.