US Authorities Charge 8 Social Media Influencers In Securities Fraud Scheme (reuters.com) 25
U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday said they have charged eight individuals in a securities fraud scheme, alleging they reaped about $114 million from by using Twitter and Discord to manipulate stocks. Reuters reports: The eight men allegedly purported to be successful traders on the social media platforms and then engaged in a so-called "pump and dump" scheme by hyping particular stocks to their followers with the intent to dump them once prices had risen, according to prosecutors in the Southern District of Texas.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it has filed related civil charges against the defendants in the scheme, claiming that seven of the defendants used Twitter and Discord to boost stocks. It said the eighth was charged with aiding and abetting the scheme with his podcast. The individuals charged were Texas residents Edward Constantinescu, Perry Matlock, John Rybarczyk and Dan Knight, along with California residents Gary Deel and Tom Cooperman, Stefan Hrvatin of Miami and Mitchell Hennessey of Hoboken, New Jersey.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it has filed related civil charges against the defendants in the scheme, claiming that seven of the defendants used Twitter and Discord to boost stocks. It said the eighth was charged with aiding and abetting the scheme with his podcast. The individuals charged were Texas residents Edward Constantinescu, Perry Matlock, John Rybarczyk and Dan Knight, along with California residents Gary Deel and Tom Cooperman, Stefan Hrvatin of Miami and Mitchell Hennessey of Hoboken, New Jersey.
"Influencers need to die die die" (Score:5, Insightful)
Wanna be a real influencer? Do something useful instead of hyping crap on the internet. You know, like get a job stocking shelves. Or working in a hospital. Even something as lowly as changing bedpans can have an influence for good.
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Because hanging them only once isn't good enough. Revive them, kill them again.
Wanna be a real influencer? Do something useful instead of hyping crap on the internet.
Complain about people hyping crap and yet you come forth with this shit-fueled opportunity? Hilarious.
I'd venture more would take that job, if the pay were less shitty than your sense of irony.
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I'm guessing you're too young to remember the newsgroup Barney must die die die. Oh well.
No, just missed it. Was probably busy trying to deter the actual Barney from coming on my TV in those days.
I'm guessing you're too young to understand the irony of pushing a bedpan job while bitching about others hyping crap. Oh well.
Oh and speaking of influencers whose answer to cutting a lawn is send in the drones, I'm sure the challenge of changing a bedpan will be addressed soon. I mean, if they can make an automatic cleaner for a cat litter box, how hard is it to make like a big one, right? Check ou
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Ever gone into a care home to assist someone for weeks and weeks? Changing a bedpan is not just "changing a bedpan." There's a lot of observational stuff that you have to do to help the person, by taking note of things they won't tell you, and asking them. Then fixing the problem. And getting people moved between bed and wheelchair is complicated, unless you know exactly what you're doing. Otherwise, you end up using one of those stupid hoists that has them hanging in the air like a piece of meat in a butc
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Introduce them to prison, where they can discover new what their pronouns *really* mean.
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Hate to rain on your parade, but it turns out everyone is an influencer. You can't really avoid influencing people around you.
It's a start. (Score:2, Interesting)
Now when are they going after the likes of Kardashian and the FaZe clan who had a shitload more reach and played in similar waters?
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paging Elon Mush, will Mr Mush please report to the twatter fraud department before it is disbanded.
Influencers are not the problem, chumps are. (Score:3)
Influencers monetize morons.There is no inoffensive way to describe people who crave to be "influenced". They merit no respect and should rightly be considered a prey species.
As humans are apex predators preying on species lower in the food chain, intelligent humans often monetize lesser people. Consent is key for without the bottoms there would be no tops. I contend people misled by influencers do not want to think for themselves. That abdication is infinitely more despicable than lightening their wallets.
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PS> We are seeing similar things happening in the crypto world today too, people finally learning that while you can make good money speculating with magic crypto beans, it eventually comes crashing down and the last owners of the the beans l
Influencers (Score:2)
Can't be all that influential - I haven't heard of a single one of these shmucks.
Establishment strikes again. (Score:3)
It's a target-rich environment today (Score:2)
"The eight men allegedly purported to be successful traders"
Seems they were successful, for a while. Just woefully unetihical, not that that is a very high bar.
"Wanna be a real influencer? Do something useful"
How can that be a measure of influence? Doing it just for vanity, I suppose, is useful to the influencer themselves, so all influence is useful. To someone. Huh.
"people misled by influencers do not want to think for themselves."
Perhaps, despite your sad and all too common outlook, some are misled by cl
how does "pump & dump" even work? (Score:3)
So hypothetically some people make claims about a particular stock. Then others listen to those people and become interested. A reasonable person would then investigate, look at the financial statements of past quarters and make an educated guess as to the stability and growth potential of that business.
Unless of course you're an idiot and if someone says "buy WXYZ and you'll be RICH", you immediately go and do that because obviously this famous person is a good dude and wants you to be rich.
There's two components to this fraud. The fraudster and the rube. The rube gets punished by losing money, and we keep reporting on this happening and the rubes don't seem to learn. Once in a while we catch the fraudster and they are publicly shamed and maybe even criminally charged. But as long as rubes refuse to learn we'll have people showing up to take advantage of them.
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A reasonable person would then investigate, look at the financial statements of past quarters and make an educated guess as to the stability and growth potential of that business.
The scam depends on unreasonable people. There's no shortage. The idea is that you convince them that the numbers don't tell the whole story, and they believe your bullshit.
Basis for prosecution (Score:2)
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