On July 9, CoinWorld reported that lawyer John E Deaton represents thousands of retail investors in a securities fraud class action lawsuit against Linqto founder and former CEO William Sarris, according to Eleanor Terrett. The lawsuit claims that Sarris sold shares of private companies like Ripple, Uphold, and Kraken through the Linqto platform SPV by using undisclosed markups of up to 60%, misleading exemptions, and unlicensed sales tactics, while ignoring internal legal warnings from 2023 and 2024, allegedly violating multiple SEC and FINRA regulations. Deaton stated that this lawsuit targets Sarris personally, is not protected by bankruptcy, and any compensation will be used to reimburse the affected investors.