In a press launch from the US Department of Justice printed yesterday, eight males have been indicted for a $114 million securities fraud scheme orchestrated by social media, together with Tom Cooperman, one half of the duo Breathe Carolina.
According to the discharge, “A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas returned an indictment that was unsealed yesterday charging eight men with conspiracy to commit securities fraud for a long-running, social media-based ‘pump and dump’ scheme.”
It continues, “According to court documents, [these men] allegedly engaged in a wide-ranging securities fraud conspiracy in which the defendants used their extensive social media presence on Twitter and Discord to hype interest in particular securities by posting false and misleading information in order to ‘pump’ the prices of those securities, while concealing their intent to later ‘dump’ their shares by selling them at the artificially inflated prices. From in or around January 2020 to in or around April 2022, the defendants profited at least approximately $114 million from their scheme.”
“Financial crimes like securities fraud may not be violent, but they certainly are not victimless,” stated Special Agent in Charge James Smith. “The eight individuals arrested today are accused of costing investors, specifically their social media followers who trusted them, millions of dollars by a ‘pump and dump’ market manipulation scheme they allegedly carried out on popular social media platforms. As the lead agency investigating corporate fraud, the FBI was able to uncover their alleged manipulative activity and expose their coordinated pattern of securities fraud.”
The males used their obvious experience in shares and trades to allegedly manipulate their followers into shopping for shares they have been supposedly taken with as they dumped their very own shares as the value rose because of the inflation.
All defendants are charged with one rely of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Cooperman particularly is charged with two counts of securities fraud. You can learn the total indictment right here.