According to the allegations, at least one of the social media influencers has promoted themselves as “successful traders” to get their followers to purchase stocks they have already bought.
The US Attorneys charged seven Social Media Influencers for using Twitter and Discord in a scheme to commit securities fraud. They allegedly reaped approximately $114 Million.
They are said to be social media influencers who promote themselves as traders, and have hundreds of thousands followers in Twitter chat and stock trading chat rooms on Discord.
Daniel Knight was the eighth defendant and charged with helping to facilitate the scheme as part of the US Securities And Exchange Commission’s (SEC), civil complaint.
Knight promoted other defendants through his podcast as experts traders and directed followers to their forums. Knight also made arrangements to trade with other traders and generate regular profits through manipulation.
“Securities Fraud victimizes innocent investors, and undermines our integrity of public markets,” stated Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite from the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
All eight of the defendants were charged by DOJ with conspiring to commit security fraud. The following social media experts were named in the .
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Twitter Handle |
| Perry Matlock | Texas | @PJ_Matlock |
| Edward Constantin | Texas | @MrZackMorris |
| Thomas Cooperman | California | @ohheytommy |
| Gary Deel | California | @notoriousalerts |
| Mitchell Hennessey | New Jersey | @Hugh_Henne |
| Stefan Hrvatin | Florida | @LadeBackk |
| John Rybarczyk | Texas | @Ultra_Calls |
| Daniel Knight | Texas | @DipDeity |
Also, it is claimed that these so-called have promoted themselves as “successful traders” to get their followers to purchase stocks they’ve already bought.
They also sold shares regularly after artificially rising stock and/or trading volumes, but did not inform their followers of their intention to sell the securities.
Both the criminal and civil complaints were filed at the US District Court in Southern Texas.
What is Securities Fraud?
Stock fraud is also called investment fraud or stock fraud. This type of white-collar crime occurs in stock and commodity markets. This is a type of fraud that involves manipulating or lying to make fraudulent trades.
It is intended to profit the perpetrator of fraud, while affecting innocent investors and causing financial market damage.
Insider trading, fraud in securities can take many forms, including front-running and pump-and dump schemes, false advertisement, accounting scams, Ponzi schemes, and pump-and-dump. Insider trading is when someone has access to confidential information that they wish to profit from before the public becomes aware. Front running is the use of information not publicly available to purchase or sell securities at a competitive advantage to other investors.
Protect Against Securities Fraud
Protecting yourself starts with research. Make sure to understand all terms and conditions associated with investments. Ask questions and look through independent information sources such as websites and financial magazines. Make sure to verify the qualifications of financial professionals. Don’t believe anything you hear.
