- The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Swedish crypto scammer Roger Karlsson with fleecing over 2,000 investors out of $3.5 million
- Karlsson defrauded the investors by promising “astronomical” returns on their investments into his company
- Karlsson bought a $1.5 million property with the money
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged a Swedish cryptocurrency scammer who they claim fleeced “thousands of retail investors” out of millions of dollars with fraud. The SEC says that Roger Nils-Jonas Karlsson defrauded his victims through investment into his company, Eastern Metal Securities, with the promise of huge returns on their investments.
Karlsson Promised Gold in Return for Investment
The SEC alleges that Karlsson operated a “massive global…fraud” through a Pre-Funded Reversed Pension Plan, claiming that his was the first such offering to be conducted online. Investors were promised “astronomical returns resulting from nominal investments in securities” according to the SEC, which Karlsson had not registered with them.
These returns would come, Karlsson promised them, in the form of an eventual payout of 1.15 kilograms of gold per share, which at the time ran to five figures, even though the cost of each share was only $98.
SEC Claims at Least $1.5 Million Misappropriated
At least 2,200 investors from around the world decided they wanted in and sent money to Karlsson via Bitcoin and other payment methods, with more than $3.5 million being transferred globally to Eastern Metal Securities between December 2017 and June 2019. One of these investors was a group called ‘the Deaf Group’ who intended to use the returns to fund their retirement.
The SEC alleges that Karlsson misappropriated at least $1.5 million of that for his own use, including buying property in Thailand. Karlsson was arrested on that very property in June 2019 and extradited to the U.S in December. In its charge, the SEC states that it wants Karlsson to return the money to investors and pay a fine, although how much investors’ money is actually left is not yet known.
