US: 8 social media influencers posing as fin experts rip off $114mn from unsuspecting users; booked

United States prosecutors on Wednesday charged eight social media influencers with fraud over the allegations of illegally pushing stocks on novice traders via Twitter and Discord.Reportedly, the individuals ripped off about $114 million of unsuspecting followers by purporting to be successful traders on the social media platforms.

As per an AFP report, prosecutors in the Southern District of Texas said that the accused were engaged in a so-called "pump and dump" scheme in which they would hype particular stocks to their followers with the intent of dumping them once prices jump.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as per Reuters report, said that it has filed civil charges against the defendants, claiming that seven of them used Discord and Twitter to boost stocks. The eighthone has been charged with aiding and abetting the scheme via a podcast he ran.

Investigators said that the influencers mainly focused on penny stocks.

As per Forbes, penny stocks "are shares of publicly-listed companies that have a very low price value" that generally trade at really low prices of a dollar or less. Most of these shares were in companies with a market capitalisation of less than $100 million.

Mitchell Hennessey of Hoboken, New Jersey, Texas residents Edward Constantinescu, Perry Matlock, John Rybarczyk and Dan Knight, along with California residents Gary Deel and Tom Cooperman, Stefan Hrvatin of Miami havebeen named as the defendants.

Of these Matlock has pleaded not guilty.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite of the Justice Department's Criminal Division said that "Securities fraud victimises innocent investors and undermines the integrity of our public markets."

(With inputs from agencies)

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