NEW YORK, Feb 22 (Reuters) - CoinEx was sued on Wednesday by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who accused the cryptocurrency exchange of conducting business transactions illegally because it failed to register with the state.
In documents filed with a New York state court in Manhattan, James accused CoinEx of having "engaged in repeated and persistent fraudulent practices."
He said that CoinEx's failure to register as a commodity broker, broker-dealer, or securities dealer before buying and selling tokens violated the Martin Act, a powerful state law used to combat financial fraud.
James also said that CoinEx posed without state permission as a global cryptocurrency "exchange" and failed to comply with its subpoena last month to testify about its digital asset trading activities.
โThe days of cryptocurrency companies like CoinEx acting like the rules don't apply to them are over,โ James said in a statement.
CoinEx did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Hong Kong-based company was founded in 2017 and is also known as Vino Global Ltd, according to court documents.
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James' civil lawsuit seeks restitution and a ban on access to the CoinEx mobile app, website and services from New York.
In January, New York and nine other US states. secured up to $24 million from cryptocurrency company Nexo Inc and an affiliate to resolve civil claims that they filed without proper registration and lied about their registration status.
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Edited by Chris Reese and David Gregorio
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