According to Eleanor Terrett, lawyer John E Deaton has filed a securities fraud class action lawsuit on behalf of thousands of retail investors against Linqto founder and former CEO William Sarris. The lawsuit alleges that Sarris used the Linqto platform SPV to sell shares of private companies such as Ripple, Uphold, and Kraken through undisclosed markups of up to 60%, misleading exemptions, and unlicensed sales strategies, and ignored internal legal warnings for 2023 and 2024, allegedly violating multiple SEC and FINRA regulations. Deaton stated that this lawsuit is against Sarris personally and is not subject to bankruptcy protection, and any compensation will be used to compensate the affected investors.