XPost: law.court.federal, alt.politics.media, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/21/tech/social-media-pump-dump-discord- twitter/index.html?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc
A federal judge has dismissed a criminal indictment against seven Twitter
users and a podcaster accused of running a $100 million stock manipulation scheme over social media.
The Justice Department did not do enough to describe the influencers’ activities as a “scheme to defraud,” wrote District Judge Andrew Hanen of
the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, in an order
dated Wednesday.
In the indictment, the DOJ had alleged a lucrative “pump and dump” scheme
in which the social media influencers used the messaging app Discord to
promote certain stocks to their followers before selling their positions
after a run-up in the stocks’ prices. The result was an alleged conspiracy
by defendants “to unlawfully enrich themselves by pumping and dumping securities … through false and misleading posts and material omissions on Twitter [and Discord].”
At least one of the defendants whose account CNN previously reviewed had tweeted about Gamestop and AMC, two so-called “meme stocks” that saw significant public interest and trading in 2021.
On Wednesday, however, Hanen wrote that while the defendants may well have intended to separate followers from their money, the evidence did not
support a finding of actual securities fraud or conspiracy to commit
fraud.
“The key question is whether one statement by one of the co-defendants
that ‘we’re robbing … idiots of their money,’ which is alleged in the Indictment, is sufficient,” the judge wrote. “This statement sufficiently alleges ‘intent to defraud’ … but does not on its own sufficiently allege
that Defendants executed, or conspired to execute, a ‘scheme to defraud’ investors of money or property” as defined by court precedent.
Unlike a traditional fraud case, Hanen added, the DOJ merely claimed
investors were deprived of relevant market information — not that the influencers directly stole money from investors.
The indictment was dismissed without prejudice, meaning charges could potentially be amended and refiled.
The DOJ case is distinct from a civil suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission around the same time against those same defendants and
that accused them of violating US securities law. The SEC’s case is
currently on hold, after the Justice Department asked the court in January
2023 to stay that lawsuit while its own criminal case against the
defendants unfolded.
The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for
comment. The SEC declined to comment.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the plaintiff
in the case. It is the Justice Department. The photo has also been
replaced.
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We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.
Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.
Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.
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