PANews, July 9 - According to Eleanor Terrett, lawyer John E Deaton has filed a class action lawsuit for securities fraud against Linqto founder and former CEO William Sarris on behalf of thousands of retail investors. The complaint alleges that Sarris used the Linqto platform SPV to sell shares of private companies like Ripple, Uphold, and Kraken through undisclosed markups of up to 60%, misleading exemptions, and unlicensed sales strategies, 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.