The US Securities and Exchange Commission has sued Donald Basile and two companies he controlled over a crypto offering tied to Bitcoin Latinum. The agency says the group raised about $16 million through false claims that the token was insured and asset-backed. The complaint, filed Friday in a federal court in New York, says investors bought Simple Agreements for Future Tokens between March and December 2021. The SEC alleges that Basile diverted millions of dollars for personal spending while investors received a token that holds little to no value.
The SEC says Basile ran the offering through Monsoon Blockchain Corp. and GIBF GP Inc. The agency says the companies sold SAFTs that promised future delivery of Bitcoin Latinum. According to the complaint, hundreds of investors took part in the offering.
Regulators say Basile repeatedly told investors that Bitcoin Latinum was insured. They also say he described the token as asset-backed. Yet the SEC alleges no insurer ever provided coverage and no proof supported those claims.
The complaint says Basile also told investors that their money would support the token’s value. Instead, the SEC says that support never materialized.
The SEC alleges that Basile used investor money for personal purchases rather than for the token’s stated purpose. The complaint says about $4.1 million was paid for a condominium in Miami. It also says another $2.8 million went to a house in Park City, Utah.
Regulators also say about $1.4 million was paid on Basile’s personal American Express bill. In addition, the complaint says investor funds paid for a $160,000 horse for his daughter. The SEC says much of the remaining money went to marketing and related costs.
According to the filing, those funds did not go into any trust, reserve, or asset pool meant to support Bitcoin Latinum. As a result, the SEC says investors did not receive the protection they were promised. The Bitcoin Latinum website now shows a 404 error.
The case stands out because it comes during a period when the Trump administration has signaled a more crypto-friendly regulatory stance. Last week, the SEC said many past crypto enforcement actions did not directly help investors. It said some cases focused more on volume than on meaningful investor protection.
Read More: Crypto News Today: Major Bitcoin Depot Hack Exposes $3.6M Loss in SEC Filing
The agency said that since fiscal 2022 it had brought 95 actions and collected $2.3 billion in penalties for book-and-record violations. It also said several crypto cases on registration and dealer definitions did not identify clear investor harm. The SEC added that this approach reflected a misreading of securities laws and poor use of enforcement resources.
Under Chair Paul Atkins, appointed in 2025, the agency says it has moved away from regulation by enforcement. It says it now targets fraud, market manipulation, and serious abuses of trust. In this case, the SEC seeks permanent injunctions, repayment of allegedly ill-gotten gains with interest, civil penalties, a ban on securities offerings, and an officer-and-director bar.
The SEC says Donald Basile misled investors by marketing Bitcoin Latinum as an insured, asset-backed token while raising about $16 million through SAFTs. Regulators allege much of the money funded personal spending instead of supporting the token, leaving investors with losses and a project that no longer holds value.