Tagged: fraud

May 19, 2017 @ 2:33 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed fraud charges agains Robert W. Murray, a mechanical engineer from Virginia. Murray allegedly cooked up a bogus regulator filing in an attempt to manipulate the share price of Fitbit. In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the… Read More

May 8, 2017 @ 12:10 pm By JD Alois  |  

Do you remember the Ezubao Ponzi scheme that ended in the single largest peer to peer lending fraud of all time? Investors, saw approximately 50 billion CNY or about USD $7.2 billion flushed down the tube. Reportedly 900,000 investors were impacted as an astounding 95%… Read More

April 16, 2017 @ 3:01 pm By JD Alois  |  

First Successful Arbitration Settlement Against a Crowdfunding Scofflaw Prominent crowdfunding marketing firm Funded Today is perhaps the most successful agency in their space today. Having helped to direct more than 300 perk-based crowdfunding campaigns to financial success, Funded Today has now been instrumental in raising… Read More

April 10, 2017 @ 1:22 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has initiated enforcement actions against 27 individuals and entities behind promotional articles that did not disclose they were paid analysis cloaked as independent research. The SEC said investors were duped into believing they were reading unbiased articles when in… Read More

March 30, 2017 @ 2:25 pm By JD Alois  |  

ONAGOFly, a top-twenty Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign and the 2nd most funded drone project ever on the platform, has been hit with a class action lawsuit filed in United States District Court in California on March 27, 2017. The lawsuit was filed by Allan Black, Christopher… Read More

March 27, 2017 @ 12:10 pm By JD Alois  |  

In what is being described as Shanghai’s “first and high profile” peer to peer lending fraud case, 41 people associated with Baiyin Wealth Co. have been imprisoned according to China News. The case included the theft of approximately 700 million yuan or about USD $10.2… Read More

March 22, 2017 @ 5:07 pm By Timothy Li  |  

The first FinTech Fraud Summit 2017 hosted by E&Y and San Francisco Association of Certified Fraud Examiners took place on March 17th, 2017. Keynotes by Prosper’s President Ron Suber. Financial Technology, or Fintech,  has experienced what can only be described as explosive growth. Fintech is… Read More

March 22, 2017 @ 2:29 pm By JD Alois  |  

Acts of fraud have been around since the dawning of time. How fraud occurs is a never-ending, shape-shifting challenge for individuals, companies and public authorities. There will always be a new scam. There will always be another Ponzi or Madoff looking to separate hard-earned money… Read More

March 7, 2017 @ 1:35 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) announced on Tuesday its latest data found that as personal loan delinquency rates rise, online fraud, which includes loan stacking, continues to make significant contributions to these increases. The credit information and information management service company noted that serious delinquency rates (90+… Read More

January 25, 2017 @ 10:11 am By JD Alois  |  

Breathometer, the “world’s first smartphone breathalyzer”, raised $138,437 on Indiegogo back in 2013. The following year, Breathometer visited the studios of Shark Tank where founder Charles Michael Yim “blew the sharks out of the water.” He asked for a mere $250,000.  And what happened? All… Read More

December 16, 2016 @ 11:28 am By JD Alois  |  

The trial against Ezubao, once a high-flying peer to peer lending platform, has commenced.  The Beijing People’s Protectorate has started proceedings against Ezubao and its parent company Yucheng Holdings and Yucheng Global.  This is according to a report in China News. Apparently, 10 individuals will… Read More

December 13, 2016 @ 10:37 am By JD Alois  |  

uFundingPortal (UFP, LLC), disappeared from the ranks of approved Reg CF crowdfunding platforms in early November. Before their removal, a multitude of crowdfunding industry insiders questioned the operation and the investment offers posted on the site. The posted investments lacked transparency while proposing valuations and… Read More

December 12, 2016 @ 8:12 am By JD Alois  |  

uFundingPortal (UFP LLC) went off-line last month after receiving regulatory approval to operate as a Reg CF funding portal earlier this year.  Crowdfund Insider reported the disappearance of the site in November as questionable companies were listed with bare bones information and outlandish valuations. Industry… Read More

December 4, 2016 @ 8:35 am By Jessica Pham  |  

In a follow-up to the Ezubao (Ezubo) shutdown, five people affiliated with the Chinese P2P lending platform that is accused of a Ponzi scheme are on trial for gold smuggling.  This is the first court case that is a part of a scandal that robbed investors of between… Read More

October 19, 2016 @ 11:16 am By JD Alois  |  

This past weekend, Crowdfund Insider reported that China government officials published a list of restrictions for peer to peer lenders. These were largely a rehash of previously revealed regulations directed towards internet finance and more specifically peer to peer lending. But the Chinese government is… Read More

October 18, 2016 @ 10:38 am By Xu Gao  |  

CreditEase is Confronted with Another Tuition Loan Fraud Earlier this month, Chinese p2p lending platform CreditEase was confronted with another tuition loan fraud. TOEIC English, a TOEFL training institution which launched a collaborative tuition loan product with CreditEase, was found shuttered with no reason. Students… Read More

October 6, 2016 @ 7:31 am By Erin Hobey  |  

TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) announced the launch of its Fraud Prevention Exchange, an industry collaborative designed to combat online fraud at the Lend360 conference. The Fraud Prevention Exchange will leverage the power of collective data and help lenders face challenges brought on by originations fraud, including synthetic identity and loan stacking. TransUnion… Read More

September 25, 2016 @ 3:18 pm By JD Alois  |  

Shanghai Daily is reporting that global consultancy EY has gotten sucked into the collapse of peer to peer lender Jinxing Investments. According to the report, the Shanghai offices of EY has endured several protests becoming surrounded by angry investors who were under the impression that… Read More

August 20, 2016 @ 7:19 pm By JD Alois  |  

The case of the Ascenergy crowdfunding fraud came to light just as Reg CF or Title III crowdfunding rules were announced to the public in October of 2015.   Ascenergy, an aspiring oil and gas operation, had raised about $5 million from approximately 90 investors,… Read More

August 8, 2016 @ 4:11 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last month it was reported that Skully, a company launched to create a super cool augmented reality motorcycle helmut, had jettisoned its founders as investors had enough of the lack of progress and mismanagement. Yesterday, TechCrunch reported that Skully is no more. While the very… Read More