Walmart and Litecoin scammers face five years in prison

Spreading rumors about cryptocurrencies has no effect? No. The Walmart and Litecoin scammers should also feel this soon.

On September 13th, rumors spread that Walmart and Litecoin could work in partnership – the reason was a fake press release. It came blow by blow: Litecoin investors were hit by a wave of euphoria. Litecoin has been fired up to 30 percent. But when the retailer Walmart got wind of the alleged partnership, they stopped internally. Because, as the company then quickly made it clear to the public, the use of Litecoin was not imminent – so fake news.

This phenomenon of price increases, which are fueled by rumors, is nothing new. Because the prices of stocks have always been influenced by rumors, feelings and expectations of investors. And the cryptocurrency market is no exception. On the contrary. Because crypto currencies are still living a legal shadowy existence and there is no superordinate “crypto currency supervisory authority”, it is even easier to spread fake news in the crypto market.

Both Walmart and Litecoin deny partnership

Both Litecoin and Walmart made an effort to quickly mitigate the chaos surrounding the fake news. In addition was called it in a press release from Walmart:

Walmart was the subject of a fake press release released on Monday September 13th. And which falsely claimed that Walmart announced a partnership with Litecoin (LTC). Walmart was unaware of the press release issued by Global Newswire and it is false. Walmart has no relationship whatsoever with Litecoin.

Walmart press release

The organization behind Litecoin also had no information about a possible partnership between Walmart and Litecoin. So it says in a statement that the Litecoin Foundation on Twitter published:

(…) This morning a fake press release was sent out via Global Newswire that appeared to be official. It is not our policy to publish a partnership this way. As for the quotes in the article itself, these are also fake and do not come from Charlie Lee, the inventor of Litecoin and chief executive officer of the Litecoin Foundation. (…)

Litecoin Foundation statement on Twitter

Walmart starts investigation

Global Newswire, the news service, was partly responsible for spreading the rumors and the consequences. According to a Reuters article takes position the platform for press releases as follows:

We will work with the relevant authorities to request – and facilitate, a full investigation into any criminal activity related to this matter.

Global Newswire in an email statement

The dissemination of the fake news could, however, have negative consequences for the perpetrator. So reported the Crypto Potato portal that it is securities fraud if someone gives false information about the stock market, a certain company or an industry. If a court then convicts the person, a prison sentence of up to five years could result. In addition, the perpetrator waved hefty fines of up to five million US dollars.