SEC Sues Four Firms Over Alleged $15 Million Crypto Scams Run Through WhatsApp Chats

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged four entities on Tuesday over two alleged schemes that used WhatsApp group chats and fake crypto trading platforms to take at least $15 million from retail investors, many of them in the U.S.

The agency filed both complaints in federal court in Manhattan. It said the entities are likely run by people overseas, and the Cryptoaiml complaint describes its owners as “persons unknown.” No individuals were charged.

Both operations allegedly claimed to be regulated by the SEC, pointing investors to Form D filings, a routine notice for exempt securities offerings, that the agency says were falsified. The SEC has since pulled both filings from its website.

The schemes aimed to “promise potential investors outsized returns, claim that they were legitimate entities regulated by the SEC, and then steal their money,” the SEC’s enforcement director, David Woodcock, said in the agency’s announcement.

Get Unchained’s crypto news in your inbox with the free Unchained Daily newsletter.

According to the complaint against Cryptoaiml Ltd. and Cryptoaiml Capital Foundation, WhatsApp groups run by the defendants between August 2024 and March 2025 posed as real finance professionals, including the president of Citadel Securities and an adviser linked to Raymond James. The SEC said none of those people or firms had any involvement.

The chats shared supposedly AI-generated trading “signals,” boasting 98% accuracy, and sent members to deposit crypto on the Cryptoaiml site. Balances there showed steady gains, but no trades occurred, the SEC alleged. Four main wallets collected nearly $12 million in crypto from more than 300 victims, according to the complaint. People who asked for their money back were told their accounts were frozen and pressed to pay fees, sometimes by wire to U.S. bank accounts, the complaint said. The SEC puts the total at $12.5 million.

The second complaint targets TSAI Pro Ltd. and TSAI Capital Foundation. Investors allegedly “rented” AI trading bots by depositing bitcoin, ether, USDT or USDC, with packages ranging from $100 to $500,000. The priciest promised $6.3 million over 360 days. Members could also earn commissions for recruiting others.

When withdrawals stalled, investors were told to pay “taxes” or verification fees, and the site went dark by March 23, 2025, the complaint said. The SEC alleges TSAI took about $2.8 million from roughly 1,715 investors, around $2.7 million of it on the Bitcoin blockchain.

The agency is seeking injunctions, disgorgement and civil penalties in both cases.

In December, the SEC charged three purported crypto trading platforms and four WhatsApp investment clubs over a similar scheme it said took more than $14 million. In April, the Treasury Department sanctioned a Cambodian senator it accused of running and shielding scam compounds that defrauded Americans through crypto.

Related Listen: How Zcash and NEAR Are Driving This Crypto Bull Run

{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@id":"https:\/\/unchainedcrypto.com\/sec-sues-four-firms-over-alleged-15-million-crypto-scams-run-through-whatsapp-chats\/#arve-youtube-muxtge5nxdm","@type":"VideoObject","embedURL":"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/muxtGE5nxDM?feature=oembed&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&autohide=1&playsinline=1&autoplay=0"}

The post SEC Sues Four Firms Over Alleged $15 Million Crypto Scams Run Through WhatsApp Chats appeared first on Unchained.