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Mitchell Hennessey, 24, used his extensive social media following to hype interest in particular securities by posting false and misleading information on Twitter and Discord, according to prosecutors in the Southern District of Texas.
The influencers and self-proclaimed traders artificially inflated the prices of the securities by hyping them up on their platforms, only to "dump" them after the fact, prosecutors said.From in or around January 2020 to in or around April 2022, the group reportedly profited around $114 million from the purported scheme.
Hennessey used the Twitter handle @Hugh_Henne to promote the scheme, as well as running an online community called Atlas Trading, which the group claimed was one of the largest free online communities for individual stock traders.
As of Monday, December 5, Hennessey had not seemed to acknowledge his role in the scheme, posting “you don’t learn to walk by following rules" in a tweet that cited co-defendant Daniel Knight of Houston:
If you believe you are a victim in this case, please contact the Fraud Section’s Victim Witness Unit toll-free at (888) 549-3945.
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