On February 4, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York entered a final judgment against Sergii ‘Sergey’ Grybniak and his blockchain marketplace company, Opporty International, Inc.
The SEC’s complaint was filed on January 21, 2020.
In its complaint, the SEC alleged that, from September 2017 to October 2018, Grybniak and Opporty conducted an unregistered and fraudulent securities offering of crypto assets called OPP Tokens via an initial coin offering (“ICO”), raising approximately $600,000 from nearly 200 investors.
The complaint also alleged Grybniak and Opporty marketed the ICO by making material misrepresentations and omissions and engaging in other deceptive conduct, including exaggerating the number of users and growth of its online blockchain-based marketplace for small businesses, misrepresenting the nature of Opporty’s purported partnership with a major software company, and claiming the ICO was “SEC regulated” and “100% SEC compliant” when it was not.
On September 24, 2024, the court granted the commission’s motion for partial summary judgment, finding Grybniak and Opporty had conducted an unregistered securities offering without a valid registration exemption in violation of Section 5 of the Securities Act.
In addition, the court rejected Grybniak and Opporty’s defences, asserting reliance on counsel and that they lacked fair notice of the application of the federal securities laws to the ICO.
Without admitting or denying the SEC’s allegations, Grybniak and Opporty consented to the entry of the final judgment, which provides for permanent injunctive relief under Sections 5, 17(a)(2), and 17(a)(3) of the Securities Act.
The final judgment also ordered Gryrbniak to pay a civil money penalty of $100,000, imposed a conduct-based injunction against him, and ordered both Grybniak and Opporty to comply with various undertakings.
