The securities regulator claims Nader Al-Naji defrauded traders after elevating over $200 million for a social-fi blockchain.
The Securities and Change Fee (SEC) charged BitClout Founder Nader Al-Naji with perpetrating a multi-million greenback fraud scheme, and the providing of unregistered securities.
Al-Naji led the Social-Fi venture Bitclout, which raised over $200 million from notable traders similar to a16z, Winklevoss Capital, and Alexis Ohanian’s Seven-Seven-Six.
The SEC alleges that Al-Naji portrayed Bitclout as a decentralized venture with “no firm behind it” and misled traders into believing that the platform was totally autonomous, whereas he ran it from behind the scenes.
Grubis Grewal, the director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement stated, “as alleged in our criticism, Al-Naji tried to evade the federal securities legal guidelines and defraud the investing public, mistakenly believing that being ‘faux’ decentralized typically confuses regulators and deters them from going after you.”
The criticism additionally alleges that Al-Naji spent $7 million of investor funds personally, together with rental funds for a mansion in Beverly Hills.
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