Eight men, including several from the Houston area, are accused of using social media to...
Eight men, including several from the Houston area, have been indicted for allegedly using their vast social media following to convince people to buy into a $114 million securities fraud scheme, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
A grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas indicted Edward Constantinescu, 38, of Montgomery; Perry “PJ” Matlock, 38, of The Woodlands; John Rybarczyk, 32, of Spring; Dan Knight, 32, of Houston; Gary Deel, 28, and Tom Cooperman, 34, both of Beverly Hills, California; Stefan Hrvatin, 35, of Miami, Florida; and Mitchell Hennessey, 23, of Hoboken, New Jersey, in connection with the alleged scheme.
The eight men are accused of using their 1.5 million followers on Twitter to share misleading information about securities, which they then used in a"pump-and-dump" scheme, meaning they reportedly hyped up certain securities to inflate the price while concealing plans to then suddenly sell them off at the artificially-inflated prices, officials said.
The men also are accused of running an online site for stock traders, called Atlas Trading, which included a chat room called Atlas Trading Discord, officials said. The men are accused of also using the site and chat to further the securities fraud scheme.
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