The Texas Securities Commission joined several state regulators in issuing a cease and desist order against Horatiu Charlie Caragaceanu and his organizations The Shark of Wall Street and Hedge4.ai for promoting two cryptocurrencies called TruthGPT Coin and Elon Musk AI Token. orders are aimed at cracking down on what they claim is a fraudulent securities scheme that seeks to capitalize on the growing buzz surrounding artificial intelligence (AI).
The TruthGPT coin is marketed as a cryptocurrency that uses an artificial intelligence system called Elon Musk AI. The AI model is said to examine multiple digital assets, predict future cryptocurrency values, and distinguish profitable investments from fraudulent ones. The parties involved have also advertised TruthGPT Coin as a highly profitable venture, even claiming that it could increase in value by 10,000 times. The emergency cease and desist order states that investors were falsely informed that Elon Musk supported the TruthGPT token and used animated avatars and images of Musk to show his support . The promotional media also revealed the alleged involvement of other public figures, including Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao “CZ” and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
Securities Commissioner Travis Ayers warned that “bad actors continue to seek to exploit this broad public interest.” He explained: “They are devising plans to create the appearance that they have developed sophisticated AI platforms but these products are not rooted in AI and are often nothing more than fraudulent.” Joe Rotunda, executive director of the Texas Securities Commission, advised investors to remain vigorous and “set aside emotion and evaluate each offering objectively especially when an unknown individual is promoting it over the Internet.”
