U.S. charges 8 in social media ‘pump-and-dump’ stock scheme

By Matt Ott Associated Press

Posted December 14, 2022 3:50 PM

WASHINGTON — The government on Wednesday charged eight men of earning more than $100 million in illicit stock market profits by manipulating their novice-investor followers on social media.The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission said that from early 2020 to around April of this year the men, who had combined following of over 1.5 million on Twitter, ran a “pump-and-dump” scheme.Seven of the social-media influencers promoted themselves as successful traders on Twitter and in …

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