It looks like Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis have found themselves in hot water all over again — and this time, it's going to cost them financially. Mila and Ashton's animated series Stoner Cats has been hit with a massive $1 million fine from the Securities & Exchange Commission, or SEC, after they funded the show with money raised by selling more than 10,000 NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. Now that they're on the line for that fine, it might be safe to say that September is just not their month.
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'Stoner Cats' is an animated series that stars Ashton and Mila.
The show, which debuted in 2021, is about cats who live with an owner who uses marijuana to ease an Alzheimer's disease diagnosis. Mila is a producer on Stoner Cats, which also stars Seth MacFarlane, Jane Fonda, Dax Shepard, and Chris Rock.
The series was found to have violated the Securities Act of 1993.
In a press release, the SEC shared that it had fined Stoner Cats $1 million after it was determined the show had been "conducting an unregistered offering of crypto asset securities."
Over 10,000 NFTs were sold for a total of $8 million to fund the show, but the sale hadn't been registered, even though that was a required part of the process.
The way the sale went down didn't follow procedure.
In fact, the SEC found that those behind the marketing of Stoner Cats used their "expertise as Hollywood producers, its knowledge of crypto projects, and the well-known actors involved in the web series, leading investors to expect profits because a successful web series could cause the resale value of the Stoner Cats NFTs in the secondary market to rise," according to a statement from the SEC.
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'Stoner Cats' has agreed to pay the fine.
As the commission's statement went on to say: "Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, SC2 agreed to a cease-and-desist order and to pay a civil penalty of $1 million. The order establishes a Fair Fund to return monies that injured investors paid to purchase the NFTs. SC2 also agreed to destroy all NFTs in its possession or control and publish notice of the order on its website and social media channels."
Ashton and Mila have been in the spotlight over the past couple of weeks.
After their letters to the judge in support of That '70s Show costar Danny Masterson went public when he was sentenced to 30 years to life behind bars after he was convicted of two charges of rape, Ashton and Mila have been in hot water with fans.
The couple has since apologized for the letter in a video they shared on Instagram, telling their followers, "we support victims, we have done this historically through our work and will continue to do so in the future."
