John DeMarr allegedly staged his own disappearance in Montenegro to avoid disgruntled investors. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged three people with defrauding hundreds of retail investors out of more than $11 million through two fraudulent and unregistered digital asset securities offerings. According to the SEC’s complaint, Kristijan Krstic, the founder of online companies Start Options and Bitcoiin2Gen, and John DeMarr, who was the primary US-based promoter for the companies, fraudulently induced investors to buy digital asset securities over the course of a year and a half ending in May 2018. The SEC alleges Krstic and DeMarr touted Start Options’ purported digital asset mining and trading platform, falsely claiming it was “the largest Bitcoin exchange in euro volume and liquidity” and had been “consistently rated the best and most secure Bitcoin exchange by independent news media.”