Stock-Trading Influencers Charged With $100M Fraud Scheme

(Bloomberg) — Eight men who used social media platforms to promote stocks they owned were charged by federal prosecutors with engaging in a $100 million “pump and dump” scheme.

Edward Constantinescu, known on Twitter as “@MrZackMorris,” and Perry Matlock, whose Twitter handle is “@PJ_Matlock,” were among the defendants charged in an indictment unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Houston.

Constantinescu and Matlock are co-founders of Atlas Trading, a stock-trading forum on the Discord social media platform. Constantinescu has more than 550,000 Twitter followers, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which sued the eight men yesterday. Matlock has 340,000.

The shares they hyped were in little-known companies including GTT Communications Inc., Surface Oncology Inc. and Universe Pharmaceuticals Inc., according to the indictment.

Also charged were Thomas Cooperman (“Tommy Coops”) Gary Deel (“Mystic Mac”), Mitchell Hennessey (“Hugh Henne”) Stefan Hrvatin (“LadeBackk”), Daniel Knight (“Deity of Dips”) and John Rybarczyk (“Ultra Calls, “The Stock Sniper”).

The case is US v. Constantinescu, 22-cr-00612, US District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston).