According to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, lawyer John E Deaton filed a securities fraud class action lawsuit against Linqto founder and former CEO William Sarris on behalf of thousands of retail investors. The lawsuit alleges that Sarris implemented a years-long fraud scheme by selling shares in private companies such as Ripple, Uphold, and Kraken through SPVs (special purpose vehicles) on the Linqto platform through undisclosed markups of up to 60%, misleading waiver statements, and unlicensed sales. According to the complaint, Sarris received internal company legal memoranda in 2023 and 2024 explicitly warning that the offerings violated multiple SEC and FINRA regulations, including acting as an unregistered broker and operating an unregistered investment firm, but he chose to ignore them. Deaton said the lawsuit is against Sarris himself and is not subject to bankruptcy protection.