A group of people on social media have been charged with conspiring to manipulate stock prices in order to make more money.
Prosecutors say that the eight men lied to their followers about their plans to sell securities once prices went up.
The people with the age of 23-38 posted pictures of their lifestyles.
There is a maximum of 25 years in prison for conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
According to the SEC and DOJ, seven of the men are charged with other financial crimes in the alleged pump-and-dump scheme.
The group promoted themselves as successful traders on social media.
The DoJ prosecutors said that they posted false, positive information about each stock to artificially drive up its price.
They concealed the sale of their own shares after the price had gone up.
Between January 2020 and April 2022. As of this month, each of the accused had over a hundred thousand followers.
Prosecutors say that social media followers were encouraged to share in their financial rewards by theinfluencers.
Prosecutors said that the defendants used their social media credibility to maximize their own profits.
Atlas Trading was an online community that was run by the group. They ran a chat room called Atlas Trading that they used to make up false and misleading information for their followers.
FBI Special Agent in Charge James Smith said that securities fraud is not victimless.
They were named as the defendants.
They were charged in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
The group hasn't commented on the charges. Some of them have been reached out to on the social networking site.
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