(Bloomberg) — Eight males who used social media platforms to advertise shares they owned had been charged by federal prosecutors with partaking in a $100 million “pump and dump” scheme.
Edward Constantinescu, identified on Twitter as “@MrZackMorris,” and Perry Matlock, whose Twitter deal with is “@PJ_Matlock,” had been among the many defendants charged in an indictment unsealed Tuesday in federal courtroom in Houston.
Constantinescu and Matlock are co-founders of Atlas Buying and selling, a stock-trading discussion board on the Discord social media platform. Constantinescu has greater than 550,000 Twitter followers, in keeping with the US Securities and Alternate Fee, which sued the eight males yesterday. Matlock has 340,000.
The shares they hyped had been in little-known firms together with GTT Communications Inc., Floor Oncology Inc. and Universe Prescribed drugs Inc., in keeping with the indictment.
Additionally charged had been Thomas Cooperman (“Tommy Coops”) Gary Deel (“Mystic Mac”), Mitchell Hennessey (“Hugh Henne”) Stefan Hrvatin (“LadeBackk”), Daniel Knight (“Deity of Dips”) and John Rybarczyk (“Extremely Calls, “The Inventory Sniper”).
The case is US v. Constantinescu, 22-cr-00612, US District Courtroom, Southern District of Texas (Houston).