Global Tech Exchange, an Australian startup that was planning to raise $50 million through an initial coin offering (ICO), reportedly had its crowdfunding effort put on hold by the Australia Securities Investments Commission (ASIC).

Global Tech was looking to raise between $10-$50 million in order to fund the development of a cryptocurrency trading desk, according to ICO Bench. The company’s ICO was launched on September 12th and had been scheduled to remain open till December 10th.

At present, Global Tech has not shared how much money its crowdfunding campaign had raised, however, the startup claims to have followed through on ASIC’s orders to issue refunds to those who had invested in its project.

Michael Clarke “No Longer Associated With Global Tech”

Michael Clarke, a former Australian cricketer who is well-known for leading the nation to its 5th Cricket World Cup victory, had endorsed Global Tech’s ICO project in August – which helped it gain more attention from investors throughout the world. Clarke had told his followers on Twitter that he was involved with the company’s crypto-related initiative.

However, the notice posted by the Australian startup now states that “Michael Clarke is no longer associated with Global Tech Exchange.” The company has also completed a de-registration application that has now been filed with ASIC.

Notably, ASIC has put five other ICOs on hold since April of 2018. The Australian securities regulator explained that some of the crypto token sales had been halted because they did not comply with the country’s regulatory policies.

Celebrity Endorsed ICO Scams 

There were also a few other projects that had been identified as potential scams, which ASIC had to shut down permanently. As CryptoGlobe covered in April, retired boxing champion Floyd Mayweather and music artist DJ Khaled had reportedly been involved in endorsing, or promoting, an ICO launched by Centra Tech.

Centra Tech however, was charged with fraud by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its ICO was shut down. At the time, Stephanie Avakian, the co-director of SEC’s Division of Enforcement, had said:

We allege that Centra sold investors on the promise of new digital technologies by using a sophisticated marketing campaign to spin a web of lies about their supposed partnerships with legitimate businesses.

Centra had claimed to have partnered with giant payment processors including Visa and Mastercard and even went as far as creating fake ids for its executives, according to the SEC. Popular news outlet TMZ has reported this incident again recently, however, there appears to be no new, or additional, information related to this ICO scam.