US congressman could face a fine for promoting the Pump and Dump scheme

US Congressman Madison Cawthorn, of North Carolina, has been accused of participating in a crypto pump and dump scheme nicknamed Lets Go Brandon (LETSGO).

According to recent news Washington Examiner, several regulators have accused Cawthorn of engaging in an insider trading scheme that involved a relatively short-term cryptoproject.

Let’s G® Brandon – Pump and Dump scheme

Let’s Go Brandon is a memecoin named after the mocking president Joe Biden. The project was pioneered by hedge fund manager James Koutoulas.

On December 29, 2021, Cawthorn published “LGB Legends” on Instagram. … We will fly to the moon tomorrow!” He also admitted that he has part of the cryptocurrency in his portfolio.

Interestingly, on December 30, NASCAR driver Brandon Brown revealed that the cryptoproject would be the primary sponsor of his 2022 season.

In a sudden turnaround in NASCAR’s events in January 2022, he rejected the project’s sponsorship agreement with Brown. Insiders who bought a large number of coins in circulation quickly threw them out.

This caused the memecoin to drop to zero and investors to scratch their heads at a loss. One disgruntled investor recently filed a class action lawsuit accusing Koutoulas and other insiders Let’s Go Brandon of using a token to create a pump-and-dump scheme.

Although Cawthorn was not directly named as a defendant in the lawsuit, he was identified as one of the supporters of the project and helped increase its cost just before the rug pull.

Madison Cawthorn faces charges

In the report, they pointed out that Cawthorn probably knew about the LETSGO agreement with Brown, hence his contribution and statement. They suggested that Cawthorn be investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to determine whether he violated federal insider trading laws.

Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, the government affairs manager of one of the federal regulators, said of the case:

“This is really, really bad. It seems like a classic case where you have some inside information and you act on that information. And that’s illegal. “

Brandon project relaunched

After a catastrophic failure in January, the project was delayed by a month and then restarted, with Koutoulas claiming that he now had guarantees to prevent the whales from selling their tokens at once.

However, the project is trading about 95% below its maximum.