New York, NY, April 30, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Uphold HQ, Inc (“Uphold”) yesterday entered into a settlement agreement with the New York Office of the Attorney General (“OAG”), to resolve the OAG’s civil inquiry into the collapse of Cred, LLC (“Cred”), a third-party firm, and Cred’s CredEarn program, due to the fraud perpetrated by Cred executives in 2020.
Yesterday, the OAG issued a statement about this settlement, which misrepresents key facts.
Uphold categorically rejects any suggestion that it knowingly promoted Cred’s fraudulent scheme. To the contrary, Cred deliberately and repeatedly misled Uphold. Uphold, like its customers and CredEarn’s other users, was a victim of Cred’s deception. The U.S. Department of Justice identified Uphold as a victim in its criminal prosecution of the Cred executives.
Any statements in the OAG’s press release should not be read to suggest that Uphold acted knowingly or otherwise acted to intentionally deceive customers. Uphold expressly rejects those characterizations and did not agree to them or admit any liability in its settlement with the OAG.
“We are deeply disappointed by the New York Attorney General’s statement, which is profoundly inaccurate and misrepresents the facts of the case,” said Simon McLoughlin, CEO of Uphold.
“Uphold acted with integrity throughout its relationship with Cred LLC, a third-party lending firm that ran into financial difficulties in 2020. As soon as Uphold became aware of the issues at Cred, we demanded that Cred notify its regulators, shut down access to the service, and acted to protect our customers immediately.
“The U.S. Department of Justice, in its criminal investigation of Cred, correctly found that Uphold was a victim of Cred and was not in any way to blame for that company’s actions.”
Uphold and the OAG jointly agreed the factual basis upon which any public statements would be issued. What was published by the OAG yesterday misrepresents those facts and is inconsistent with the parties’ agreement.
As acknowledged by the OAG in the settlement agreement, Uphold did not know of the liquidity issues at Cred until October 2020. Uphold was also unaware that Cred’s statements about the financial viability of its CredEarn product were false, and that Cred was taking active steps to deceive Uphold and CredEarn users.
Critically, as soon as Uphold became aware of Cred’s liquidity issues it acted decisively to protect customers. Within hours, Uphold froze Cred’s access to Uphold, cutting off Cred from
continuing to offer its product on Uphold’s platform. Uphold immediately demanded that Cred self-report the losses of customer funds to its regulators, issuing an ultimatum that Uphold itself would notify regulators if Cred failed to do so. These actions brought Cred’s misconduct to light and halted its ability to continue taking in customer funds.
Without Uphold’s intervention, Cred would have continued soliciting and receiving funds while concealing its losses. Uphold put an end to that conduct and thereafter cooperated extensively in federal law enforcement’s prosecution of Dan Schatt and other Cred executives, which resulted in significant prison sentences and financial restitution orders for the victims.
These facts fundamentally contradict any narrative suggesting passive or complicit behavior by Uphold.
Uphold voluntarily cooperated with regulators throughout the investigation and entered into an Assurance of Discontinuance with OAG in good faith to resolve regulatory issues relating primarily to marketing and registration matters—without any admission of liability. That agreement does not contain any allegation that Uphold knew of any fraudulent scheme or that it caused investor losses.
Uphold remains focused on transparency, regulatory compliance, and protecting users.
About Uphold
Uphold is a financial technology company that believes on-chain services are the future of finance. It provides modern infrastructure for on-chain payments, banking and investments. Offering Consumer Services, Business Services and Institutional Trading, Uphold makes financial services easy and trustworthy for millions of customers in more than 140 countries.
Uphold integrates with more than 30 trading venues, including centralized and decentralized exchanges, to deliver superior liquidity, resilience and optimal execution. Uphold never loans out customer assets and is always 100% reserved.
The company pioneered radical transparency and uniquely publishes its assets and liabilities every 30 seconds on a public website (https://uphold.com/en-us/transparency).
Uphold is regulated in the U.S. by FinCen and State regulators; and is registered in the UK with the FCA and in Europe with the Financial Crime Investigation Service under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania. Securities products and services are offered by Uphold Securities, Inc., a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and a member of FINRA and SIPC.
To learn more about Uphold’s products and services, visit uphold.com.
CONTACT: Marc Sparrow marc(at)eurekabox.net
