Paragon, a Cannabis-focused company that completed an initial coin offering (ICO) that was determined to be an offering of unregistered securities by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has begun accepting applications for investor refunds.
According to a recent update on the Paragon site, the company is now entering the mandated Claim Period. All eligible Paragon Coins (PRG) purchasers wanting their money back may complete a form as required by the recission order. The process has been delayed several times but now it appears it is a go. The claims period is said to expire on November 21, 2019.
According to CoinmarketCap, PRG currently trades at about $0.03 a token. Its all-time high is stated at around $10 per token. During January 2019, after the SEC had taken action against the company, PRG oddly jumped to the 52 week high on YoBit.
As was previously reported, Paragon accepted money from approximately 8,323 investors, including individuals in the United States, and raised about $12 million. The ICO was completed post-DAO report in late 2017 and thus the organizers ignored the blunt warning from the SEC that ICOs were, in fact, securities.
Paragon’s settlement with the SEC, included a requirement to:
- return funds to harmed investors
- register the tokens as securities under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
- file periodic reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for at least one year
- pay $250 000 in penalties
Earlier this month, the SEC forwarded a letter to Jessica VerSteeg Lavrov, President ParagonCoin Limited, to an address in Gibraltar.
In the letter, the SEC Division of Corporate Finance expressed the agency’s frustration with the prior delays threatening to “terminate our review and will take further steps as we deem appropriate.”
“Among other things, we may decide to release publicly, through the agency’s EDGAR system, all correspondence, including this letter, relating to the review of your filing, consistent with the staff’s decision to publicly release comment and response letters relating to disclosure filings it has reviewed.”
It appears the threat to disclose all correspondence has had its desired effect.
Recently, VerSteeg deleted some of her social media accounts but Paragon’s remain active.
Now the question is if Paragon will have sufficient funds to pay back any investors who may want their money back.
In the mandated Form 10 filed with the SEC in March 2019, Paragon reported the following:
“We have historically experienced recurring losses and negative cash flows from operations. At December 31, 2018, we had a working capital deficit of $14,863,257 which included cash and cash equivalents of $36,559. As of December 31, 2018, we held cryptocurrency with a carrying value of $54,106.”
Paragon Coin Claims Process Information
PARAGON COIN has entered Claim Period listed below is the Claim Form.
https://paragoncoin.com/Claim_Form.pdf
All eligible PRG token purchasers wishing to do so can apply for a resciss by filing out the attached form and mailing it to
ParagonCoin, Inc
P.O. Box 93219
Los Angeles, CA 90093
Please note that in order for your Claim Form to be processed, it must be received at the address above on or before November 21, 2019 VIA REGISTERED MAIL, along with all of the supporting documentation.
Claimants will receive a written response within three months of the expiration date.
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