Tag: 114
Eight “influencers” charged with securities fraud in $114 million pump-and-dump scam
According to the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, between January 2020 and April 2022, a group of eight social media influencers conspired to target companies buying up thousands of dollars in stock. They then promoted those buys as hot tickets on their social media accounts.
Eight charged in $114 million pump-and-dump stock scheme on Discord and Twitter
The US government just clamped down on a prominent online financial fraud. A federal grand jury and the Securities and Exchange Commission have charged eight men with allegedly operating a stock pump-and-dump scheme on Discord and Twitter between January 2020 and April 2022. They reportedly used their social media presences (including a combined 1.5 million Twitter followers) to artificially inflate the value of stocks, only to sell their shares without disclosing their plans. They made a $114 million profit off the campaign, the Justice Department said.
In addition to tweets, the group supposedly used a Discord server (Atlas Trading) to share misinformation about stocks. One participant, Daniel Knight, also co-hosted a podcast that apparently played a role in the fraud. He brought some of the others on his show and falsely portrayed them as experts, according to the SEC.
All eight are facing at least one charge of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Edward Constantinescu (aka Constantin), Perry “PJ” Matlock, John Rybarczyk, Gary Deel, Stefan Hrvatin, Tom Cooperman and Mitchell Hennessey are facing additional charges that revolve around securities fraud and (in Constantinescu’s case) unlawful monetary transactions. The SEC has further charged Knight with aiding and abetting the scheme.
The conspiracy and fraud charges carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison for each count, while the transactions charge against Constantinescu carries a 10-year maximum. The SEC charges could add financial penalties, including disgorgement of the ill-gotten profits.
The nature of the manipulation isn’t surprising. The meme stock saga on Reddit showed that online communities can influence share prices in the right circumstances. However, the charges suggest a trend — fraudsters now see social media as a viable way to fool many investors with relatively little effort. Don’t be surprised if you see more cases like this going forward.
Switch is Nintendo’s best-selling home console with over 114 million units sold lifetime
Nintendo has released its financial results for the six months ending September 30. It finds the company reaching net sales of ¥657 billion ($4.5 billion).
During the reported six months, the Switch family of systems sold 6.7 million units, bringing the lifetime total to 114.3 million units.
Broken down, the standard Switch sold 2.23 million units, Switch OLED sold 3.53 million total, and Switch Lite moved 92,000 units duringthe period.