A number of companies claiming to offer artificial intelligence-assisted cryptocurrency trading services have been accused by California financial regulators of "fraudulent investment schemes," with two accused of using actors and artificial intelligence to impersonate their CEOs.
On April 19, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation issued an injury against Harvest Keeper, Visque Capital, Coinbot, and QuantFund, five entities that claim to use AI to trade crypto assets, as well as Maxpread Technologies and its CEO, Jan Gregory Cerato.
Two of the companies even faked their CEOs, according to the regulator. So-called technology company Maxpread allegedly used an AI-generated avatar named "Michael Vanes" to act as CEO and market its products, which appeared in a YouTube promotion. Harvest Keeper , which claims to be a crypto trading firm, has been accused of hiring an actor to play the role of its CEO, Markus Peters. Harvest described Peters as a "leader" and "principal idea generator", the DFPI said.
According to DFPI, these entities capitalized on the hype surrounding artificial intelligence by claiming to use the technology to trade crypto assets and using multi-level marketing schemes to lure investors, promising “incredible returns.” Reward investors who recruit others.
"Advocacy is simple," DFPI said, adding: "Investors are told that if they invest their funds, these entities will use their knowledge, skills, experience and artificial intelligence to trade crypto assets and generate substantial profits for investors. these claims are false of."
The DFPI noted that these entities "go to great lengths to appear as legitimate businesses," saying they created professional websites, social media accounts and influential promotions.
The websites of Harvest Keeper and Coinbot are down, but those of the other three companies remain online. Visque Capital offers a range of investment plans on its website, with the most expensive claiming investors can earn returns of up to 3% per day. Based On an initial investment of $50,000, the program is expected to return investors approximately $270,000 after 180 days. The schemes initially appeared to be working well, with early withdrawals processed and account balances steadily increasing, DFPI said.
Ultimately, however, withdrawals are not processed, the website goes offline, and investors cannot access their funds.
