Wolves From Twitter: A Group of Social Media Influencers Manipulated Stock Market in $114 Mln Fraud

The scheme is known as “pump and dump”, when a trader creates hype around several stock he owns (“pump”) and when their prices increase – he sells them (“dump”).

The American Department of Justice and Security Exchange Commission charge eight social influencers with artificially increasing the value of stocks in order to dump them later.

"The defendants used their social media credibility to maximize their own profits at the expense of their followers," prosecutors claim.

Eight American men aged 23-38 created hype around stocks they owned without informing their followers of the plan to sell the stock once the prices rose. They posted photos of their extravagant lifestyle, promoting themselves as successful traders and urging fans to buy the stocks they own. Each of them had around 100,000 Twitter followers. When prices rose, they secretly sold the stocks.

The group also created an online community for traders, known as Atlas Trading and a chat-room Atlas Trading Discord, where they spread “false and misleading information”, showed joint investigation by Security Exchange Commission and Department of Justice.

The alleged crimes took place between January 2020 and April 2022. Now the social media influencers face charges that carry a maximum 25 years in prison.