Alerta por campañas de criptofraude en España difundidas en X
Los Ángeles (CA) – La Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) de España tiene en el punto de mira a una serie de campañas publicitarias distribuidas a través de X, anteriormente conocida como Twitter, que pretenden estafar a los consumidores con suculentas inversiones en criptomoneda.
Los anuncios publicados en la red social explotan la imagen y el nombre de reconocidas figuras del mundo del entretenimiento y espectáculo, como los actores españoles Antonio Resines y Martiño Rivas, para captar la atención de los usuarios y seducirlos con falsas promesas.
Para perpetrar la estafa, los anuncios se apoyan en entrevistas y reportajes falsos que suplantan a prestigiosas cabeceras españolas, como el diario El País, y distribuyen contenido usando el nombre de éstas. Los reportajes detallan los beneficios que Rivas o Resines han obtenido a partir de inversiones mínimas en criptomonedas realizadas mediante la plafatorma “Quantum AI”, que funciona con inteligencias artificiales cuánticas.
En esencia, los timos tratan de convencer al usuario de seguir los pasos de estos artistas y realizar una inversión mínima de 250 euros para generar ingresos mensuales superiores a los 100.000 euros.
Según informaciones difundidas en medios de comunicación españoles, la CNMV ya ha abierto un expediente sancionador a la plataforma de Elon Musk por permitir la difusión de anuncios que perpetúan estas engasoñas artimañas.
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Featured image: by Crypto360 is marked with CC BY 2.0.
Former co-CEOs of CA tech startup charged with fraud
Washington D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission this week announced charges against Jake Soberal and Irma Olguin, Jr., the former co-CEOs of Fresno, California-based private technology services startup Bitwise Industries Inc., for misleading investors about the company’s finances. Soberal and Olguin have agreed to resolve the charges against them.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that Soberal and Olguin made material misrepresentations and falsified documents concerning Bitwise’s cash position and historical financial performance while raising approximately $70 million from investors in 2022. According to the complaint, Soberal and Olguin created and provided investors with falsified bank records and a fake audit report that showed, respectively, inflated cash balances and higher revenues than Bitwise actually generated. Soberal and Olguin’s alleged misrepresentations and falsified materials painted Bitwise as a healthy, growing business with favorable financial performance. In reality, and as Soberal and Olguin allegedly knew, Bitwise faced constant cash shortages and was often on the brink of failure because it was unable to generate sufficient funds from its operations. As alleged, Soberal and Olguin’s scheme came to light in May 2023 when Bitwise failed to make payroll and abruptly furloughed—and then terminated—all of its hundreds of personnel.
“We allege that Soberal and Olguin resorted to blatant fraud, including the creation of fake financial documents, to deceive investors and raise money,” said Monique C. Winkler, Regional Director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office. “In one instance, the defendants allegedly conspired to send a purported screenshot to investors of a company bank account showing a cash balance of $23.4 million. In actuality, the account had only $325,100 in it. That’s not a bank error—that’s fraud, and the SEC is taking action to hold the defendants accountable.”
The SEC’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, charges Soberal and Olguin with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. Soberal and Olguin have each agreed to the entry of a partial judgment, subject to court approval, imposing permanent and conduct-based injunctions as well as an officer and director bar, and reserving the issues of disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and a civil penalty for further determination by the court.
In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California (USAO) today announced criminal charges against Soberal and Olguin.
The SEC’s investigation, which is ongoing, is being conducted by Drew Liming and John Roscigno, under the supervision of Rahul Kolhatkar and Jason H. Lee, all of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office. The litigation will be conducted by Marc D. Katz and Mr. Liming. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation.
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Press release by SEC.
Featured image: by FamZoo.
Four Long Island men charged with $2M “free-riding” scheme
Washington D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced fraud charges against Eduardo Hernandez, Christopher Flagg, Daquan Lloyd, and Corey Ortiz, all currently or formerly of Long Island, New York, for perpetrating a multi-year “free-riding” scheme that generated more than $2 million in illicit profits.
The SEC alleges that, from approximately November 2018 through January 2022, the defendants opened brokerage accounts (the victim accounts) that provided the defendants an instant deposit credit once the defendants initiated a transfer of funds to those accounts from related bank accounts, but before the fund transfer was completed. The complaint alleges that, during this short window of time between initiating the transfer and when the bank funds reached the victim accounts, the defendants took advantage of the instant deposit credit feature to purchase illiquid securities from other brokerage accounts that they controlled, for prices at which no rational investor would have purchased them, thereby generating profits in the other brokerage accounts. Later, usually on the same day, the defendants caused those other brokerage accounts to repurchase the same securities from the victim accounts at or near the much lower market price, thereby closing out the positions and leaving the victim accounts with trading losses close to the amount of the instant deposit credits extended to the victim accounts. The defendants then allegedly directed that the victim accounts be abandoned, never actually funding those accounts from the bank accounts. The complaint alleges that, through this scheme in which the defendants controlled both sides of the transactions, they were able to generate guaranteed profits at the victim accounts’ brokerage firm’s expense. All told, during the relevant period, defendants allegedly conducted the fraudulent scheme through at least 600 brokerage accounts.
“As alleged, the SEC uncovered that the defendants sought to enrich themselves by placing losing trades in hundreds of unfunded brokerage accounts that they later abandoned, leaving the brokerage firm to bear the cost,” said Joseph Sansone, Chief of the SEC’s Market Abuse Unit. “This fraudulent conduct undermines the integrity of our markets, and the SEC will continue to use data analysis to identify those who perpetrate these complex schemes and hold them accountable.”
The SEC’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, charges Hernandez and Flagg with violating the antifraud provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Ortiz and Lloyd with aiding and abetting those violations. The SEC also seeks permanent injunctive relief, conduct-based injunctions, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York today announced parallel criminal charges.
The SEC’s ongoing investigation is being conducted by Cynthia Matthews, David Austin, Matthew Lambert, John Marino, Pat McCluskey, and Lindsay Moilanen of the New York Regional Office and the SEC Enforcement Division’s Market Abuse Unit and is being supervised by Mr. Sansone. The SEC’s Office of Market Intelligence provided assistance. The SEC’s litigation will be conducted by Ms. Matthews and Christopher Dunnigan. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the FBI.
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Press release by SEC.
Ayudas para propietarios de viviendas en CA
