The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accuses 8 influencers of stock fraud. According to the regulator, they have fooled their communities on Twitter and Discord to manipulate the stock price.
Influencers accused of stock fraud
The regulator has charged 8 US influencers in connection with stock fraud worth more than $100 million. These influencers introduced themselves as “ experienced stock traders “. Actually, they just did it use their popularity play on the value of some stocks. Twitter and Discord were the two platforms most used by influencers in relation to this scam.
While Bercy wants to regulate influencer practices, fraud is on the rise around the world. This type of stock exchange scam has a name: the ” pump and dump This happened in three stages. First, the influencers bought shares at a fairly low cost. They then promoted these shares in their communities by announcing price targets and positive news about the company. Last step: the sale of the shares, with a profit achieved thanks to the massive purchase of their subscribers.
Even if these 8 influencers are not “ big names on the web they had amassed over 2 million followers across all their platforms, where they posted regularly images of their wealth, including sports cars and exotic landscapes. Among the accused influencers are “ PJ Matlock whose real name is Perry Matlock. He has deactivated his accounts since Wednesday 14th December following this allegation. His Twitter account still had 340,000 followers.
Daniel Knight, whose online nickname is ” DipDeity “, was accused of having” helped and favored the alleged system after co-hosting a podcast who was promoting influencers involved in SEC investigation. The other defendants are Edward Constantin, known under the pseudonym ” Mr. Zack Morris », Thomas Cooperman, or « ohheytommy », Gary Deel, called « Mystical Mac on Twitter, Mitchell Hennessey, known under the pseudonym “ Hugh Lei “, Stefan Hrvatin, ou” Chargeback », and John Rybarcyzk, known as « The standard sniper ».
Each of them has at least 100,000 Twitter followers. The SEC also said the criminal charges were filed by the Fraud Branch of the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for South Texas. On Discord, a room called ” Atlas trade “, would have been used in particular by interested influencers to manipulate many Internet users. On Wednesday morning, this show had more than 233,000 members. This was supposedly the main forum for fraud.
