Eight personal finance influencers were charged with fraud on Wednesday after authorities said they made $100 million by promoting stocks they planned on dumping, taking advantage of their followers., the group of influencers, who primarily have followings on Twitter, Discord, and podcasts, would collectively agree to buy one small-valuation stock, driving up the price, then use their platforms to recommend the stock to their followers.
“The defendants used social media to amass a large following of novice investors and then took advantage of their followers by repeatedly feeding them a steady diet of misinformation, which resulted in fraudulent profits," Joseph Sansone, chief of the SEC enforcement division’s market abuse unit, said in a statement on Wednesday.