BitClout Founder Faces Charges Over $257 Million Fraud Scheme

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have accused Nader Al-Naji of orchestrating a multimillion-dollar crypto-asset fraud scheme involving social media platform BitClout and its native token, BTCLT. The complaint by U.S. securities regulators shows that in November 2020, Al-Naji raised more than $257 million through unregistered BTCLT offerings and sales. In the process, the executive allegedly misled investors by claiming that the funds would not be used for his or other BitClout employees' compensation. Al-Naji described BitClout as a decentralized project to avoid regulatory scrutiny and to give the impression that there was no company behind it, according to the SEC.