A fast-food worker named Deyonte Jahtori Anthony tricked his online broker into giving him $200,000 in advance credit, which he then invested in stocks like Tesla, Nvidia, GameStop, and AMC Entertainment. He did this by falsely claiming he earned a higher income on his brokerage application. He linked his trading account to a nearly empty bank account but managed to initiate unfunded deposits totaling $1 million. This gave him access to the $200,000 credit, which he promptly used to buy stocks.
His investments included $85,000 in Apple, $78,000 in GameStop, $22,000 in Nvidia, $13,000 in AMC Entertainment, and $700 in Tesla, among others. His broker uncovered the fraud the next day, froze his account, and sold all his holdings. Surprisingly, Anthony's brief investments were profitable, earning the broker about $7,000 in profit. Unfortunately for Anthony, he couldn't withdraw any money, and his deposits were reversed due to insufficient funds.
He was fired from his job at Auntie Anne's and admitted to making the deposits and misleading his broker under oath during an investigation. He claimed it was a "joke" and didn't see it as fraud. The SEC labeled his actions as a "free-riding" scheme and is seeking to ban him from trading without sufficient funds and require him to disclose this incident if he opens another brokerage account in the future.
Source:
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/tesla-nvidia-gamestop-amc-meme-stocks-sec-fraud-retail-trader-2023-8If you're gonna fake it, at least make sure you can cash out!
