Attorney John Deaton files securities fraud class action lawsuit against former Linqto CEO for Ripple and other private company equity sales

according to cryptocurrency journalist Eleanor Terrett, lawyer John E Deaton represents thousands of retail investors and has filed a securities fraud class action lawsuit against Linqto founder and former CEO William Sarris. The lawsuit alleges that Sarris, through undisclosed markups as high as 60%, misleading waiver statements, and unlicensed sales, carried out a years-long fraud scheme on the Linqto platform by selling shares of private companies such as Ripple, Uphold, and Kraken through SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicles). According to the complaint, Sarris received internal legal memoranda in 2023 and 2024 explicitly warning that these issuance activities violated multiple SEC and FINRA regulations, including acting as an unregistered broker-dealer and operating an unregistered investment company, but he chose to ignore them. Deaton stated that this lawsuit is against Sarris personally and is not subject to bankruptcy protection limitations.