it's not just US persons. Germany has securities laws, France has securities laws, etc. I mean that German equivalent of SEC can go after those selling securities to Germans without following German securities laws
Being that token sales are international, it would seem there is absolutely nothing illegal about opening a company in that country and offering securities. Even if the owners of the company are US citizens. Then you have the company pay YOUR company as its main supplier, as opposed to its parent.
Is anyone on HN familiar with such a country?
There's a reason why some crypto-companies (and not crypto actually) are based in the Cayman Islands (BitMEX), British Virgin Islands (Bitfinex), etc... Crypto Valley [0] in Switzerland is also gaining momentum. BTW, Fred Wilson wrote an interesting piece about this recently [1].
But the issue here is that if you plan to sell "tokens" to US nationals, you now know that you must play by the SEC rules. That or you shouldn't offer them to US individuals. Nothing rare about it, for instance CFDs [2] are financial instruments banned in the US, but traded without problems in the rest of the world. My guess is that ICOs will be like CFDs, offered around the world, but not to US citizens.
[0] https://cryptovalley.swiss/
The main question is, are the exchanges considered foreign if the ICO is of a foreign company? How do you trade stuff if the securities are not transferrable?
Perhaps the ICOs don't pass the Howey test!
For example can Israel's Securities Authority retroactively go after companies by classifying ICOs as securities? Or in this case, ALL securities can still currently be sold by Israeli companies to foreigners?
Also, what are the rules for Cyprus and Bulgaria? Where do you get the information about their popularity and their applicable securities laws?
Actually the US regulates companies that so much as offer securities to US citizens. Try getting an account with a forex broker that's based outside the US and you'll see what I mean. The CFTC doesn't limit itself to US companies.
I haven't seen the same attempts being made on other kinds of securities but the framework is clearly there as the CFTC is using it.