Stop using photo of Justice Ginsburg to portray your ethics advisers, cryptocurrency company is told
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
A company that promotes cryptocurrency trading software is told to take down a photo of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and other legal luminaries that purports to represent members of its “CodeOfEthics Association.”
The Texas State Securities Board issued a cease-and-desist order on Monday to the company calling itself LeadInvest, report the Dallas Morning News and the National Law Journal.
The LeadInvest website said its CodeOfEthics Association is responsible for contract law, due diligence and corporate law, according to the order. The photo that purported to depict its members included Ginsburg; former deputy Solicitor General Maureen Mahoney; and former U.S. Solicitors General Theodore Olson, Seth Waxman and Paul Clement.
The photo ran in a 2005 article about a symposium at George Washington University law school that honored the legacy of the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. The law school did not give LeadInvest permission to use the photo.
Other photos on the LeadInvest website showed lawyers who had no connection to LeadInvest, according to the cease-and-desist order.
The National Law Journal contacted some of the lawyers in the photo, including Olson. He said the company’s use of his picture was obviously “all bogus.” He also said he has no in-depth understanding of cryptocurrency.
“Especially at my age, I’m giving a wide berth to anything involving crypts,” he told the National Law Journal.
As of Friday afternoon, the URL for the LeadInvest website points to another site based in Germany.