ASIC Charges Helio Lending With A Non-Conviction Good Behaviour Bond Of One Year
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Helio Lending, a crypto lender based in Australia, has received a non-conviction good behavior bond for one year. The sentencing comes after the Melbourne-based lender falsely claims to have a local credit license.
Australian lender sentenced over false claims of credit license
The charges in question were imposed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). According to this regulator, Helio is subject to a non-conviction bond valued at 15,000 Australian dollars. The condition of the bond is that the lender acts on good behavior for a year.
With the bond being subject to good behavior, it is now required that Helios continues operating within the confines of the set regulatory regime, failure to which the lender will be convicted. This type of bond is granted in cases where a company’s offenses are deemed less severe.
The potential penalty that the company will pay of 15,000 Australian dollars, equivalent to $9,600, is notably lower than the maximum sentence of $160,000 it faced.
The bond was issued after the ASIC accused Helio of misleading claims of obtaining an Australian credit license in August 2019. These claims had appeared in a news article on the company’s website.
Helio pled guilty to the claims made by the ASIC. The regulator noted that the admission of guilt played a role in the lender’s sentence. The ASIC withdrew a charge about the company falsely representing having a license on its website.
Helio is a crypto lender that targets the crypto community in Australia. The company provides crypto-backed loans and is the Australian subsidiary of a US-based crypto public holding company, Cyios Corporation. This corporation is behind a yet-to-be-released non-fungible token (NFT) platform, Randombly.
The issue between the ASIC and Helio was first reported in April 2022 after the regulator brought charges against the company. In late 2018, the company circulated an investor update, with Helio claiming to secure a license by buying out Cash Flow Investments and secured a license in the process.
ASIC cracks down on non-compliance
The wins secured by the ASIC across the cryptocurrency sector follow other similar suits it has launched in recent weeks. Earlier this month, the ASIC filed a lawsuit against copy trading platform eToro. The regulator claimed that the retail trading platform failed to provide adequate screen tests before providing leveraged derivative contracts to retail traders.
The other platform offering similar services is Finder.com. The platform was sued in December last year, with the regulator saying that the company provided a crypto-yielding financial product without the appropriate license.
Its US counterpart, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has also been cracking down on unregulated crypto trading activities. The regulator has filed lawsuits against the two largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the US, Binance and Coinbase, claiming they offer unregistered securities.
