"The SEC's order finds that the defendants' promotional materials used inflated projections of oil production that were contradicted by the company's own internal analysis and misleadingly suggested that Tomahawk possessed leases for drilling sites when it did not," the order continues. "... The order also finds that Tomahawk claimed that token owners would be able to convert the Tomahawkcoins into equity and potentially profit from the anticipated oil production and secondary trading of the tokens." Laurance consented to a permanent officer-and-director bar and a penny stock bar from the SEC, along with a $30,000 fine. The episode comes as U.S. regulators continue a wide-ranging sweep of ICO offerings to ensure their compliance with regulatory statutes. In May, the SEC launched a mock ICO to increase awareness of the most common warning signs of ICO scams. Last month, a study prepared by ICO advisory firm Statis Group found that more than 80 percent of ICOs in 2017 were scams.