US court summons Tron's Justin Sun, threatens default judgment if unanswered

By: Henry Felix

April 14, 2023 6:10 AM

The summons was issued in connection with the SEC's civil case against Justin Sun and others for allegedly promoting and selling TRX tokens as unregistered crypto asset securities.

In conjunction with a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) civil proceeding, a US judge issued a summons to Tron founder Justin Sun's Singapore home.

As stated→ in a court document dated April 12, Sun has 21 days to respond to the summons by contacting Adam Gottlieb, attorney for the SEC. The court has stated that if the Tron founder does not answer, "judgment by default will be entered," which might result in sanctions for violations of securities laws.

Sun's Twitter bio stated that he was from Switzerland, but his social media behavior indicated→ that he had recently visited Hong Kong. Even though the Tron Foundation was set up in Singapore in 2017, rumors have it that the Tron co-founder was born in China and now calls Grenada home.

Sun, the Tron Foundation, the BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry were sued→ by the SEC in March for "orchestration of the unregistered offer and sale, manipulative trading, and unlawful touting" of Tron (TRX) as a crypto asset security. Sun was accused of "manipulative wash trading" by trying to build public interest in TRX and BitTorrent (BTT) with the support of celebrities such as Soulja Boy, Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, and Akon.

Apart for Austin Mahone and Soulja Boy, all celebrities allegedly implicated in the scheme had settled with the SEC at the time of the SEC statement. If the SEC wins the case, it plans to "permanently bar" Sun from serving as an officer or director of any company that offers crypto securities.

Sun is far from the first individual in the crypto field who has come under scrutiny from US authorities in the aftermath of the 2022 market meltdown and a string of high-profile bankruptcies. A bankruptcy judge subpoenaed Three Arrow Capital co-founder Kyle Davies in January. In Davies' instance, unlike Sun's summons, which was mailed to a physical address, the US court permitted a subpoena over Twitter, but he had yet to answer as of the time of publishing.