UK teens hatched stock-picking fraud using non-existent 'robot' program
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a suit against British twin brothers alleging a cunning variation on the classic 'pump and dump' stock fraud that used the prowess of a non-existent computer program to con over $3 million from eager investors.
Extraordinarily, the pair, Thomas and Alexander Hunter from seaside town Whitley Bay near Newcastle, are said to have set up the fraud in 2007 when they were only 16 years old, not even young enough to vote or legally drink alcohol.
According to a lengthy SEC charge filed at the Southern District of New York, the teens, now 20, accepted fees from penny stock promoters for specific companies which they then recommended to investors through three newsletters, Doublingstocks.com, daytradingrobot.com and the later equitypromoter.com. To make the recommendations sound convincing, the pair claimed to have used a sophisticated 'stock-picking robot' with deep analytic powers called 'Marl' that turned out not to exist.
