For every trade there is a party and a counter party. (sellers/buyers) When an investment group takes money from investors and promises returns, then uses their money to prop up the price (setting walls) in the open market, they are committing fraud against the buyers (non ICO participants) in that market. It doesn't matter that he announced that this was his intention. In fact, that makes it worse because now it can be argued that the ICO investors knowingly participated in the scheme.

To know what happened to Ripple or Bittfinex, Google "Ripple fined" or "Bitfinex fined". I'm not saying they did the same thing, I'm just making the point that crypto is regulated in the US.

An expert tip: Avoid reading the FUD for mental and financial well they are little sanding to you only think in own pockets