Market manipulation is nothing new, of course, but both the SEC and DOJ pursued a social media-age method of illegally moving the market last week when they brought securities fraud charges against a Scottish trader whose allegedly used “false tweets” to caused the stock prices of two companies to plunge.
According to the SEC, the trader attempted to capitalize on the declines he created in the stock prices but “waited too long each time to trade the stock and therefore only profited approximately $100 collectively from his manipulations.” Despite his inability to actually cash in, the alleged false tweeter, James Alan Craig of Dunragit, Scotland, now faces an SEC action as well as criminal charges filed Thursday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California. Craig’s actions are alleged to have caused more than $1.6 million in losses to shareholders.
