Deep Tide TechFlow News, on July 10, according to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, lawyer John 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 lawsuit alleges that Sarris orchestrated a years-long fraudulent scheme by selling shares of private companies such as Ripple, Uphold, and Kraken on the Linqto platform through special purpose vehicles (SPVs) using undisclosed markups (up to 60%), misleading exemptions, and unlicensed sales tactics.
According to the lawsuit documents, Sarris ignored internal legal memoranda warnings from 2023 and 2024 that these products violated multiple rules of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), including acting as an unregistered broker-dealer and operating an unregistered investment company.
