[socillion]

Right now the prevailing attitude is that it's legal and nobody will get prosecuted for it. It's certainly possible for this to change, but premined altcoins (creators mine a % before making it public) and other alleged scams such as Quarkcoin (Max Keiser & Bill Still) have happened repeatedly.

My statement was from the angle that if you get ripped off in a situation like this, there is no recourse for you, and not legal advice that you cannot get in trouble for participating in these activities.

[DennisP]

I wouldn't expect premines to legally qualify as fraud, since by their nature they can't be done in secret. If someone releases a coin and you see it already has a long blockchain, you know it's premined and can make your investment decision accordingly.

[socillion]

You're right, that was a poor example.

[fnordfnordfnord]

>Right now the prevailing attitude is that it's legal and nobody will get prosecuted for it.

Probably because that's how it appears to go in regulated markets as well.

[dror]

While historically pump and dump was focused on penny stock, I wander if doing it with altcoins violate some of the laws mentioned in http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2009/lr21053.htm