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Founder of collapsed social media site charged with fraud
US authorities allege Abraham Shafi made misleading statements to investors about IRL's growth.
As well as accusing Mr Shafi of defrauding investors, the SEC also says he concealed his and his fiancée’s extensive use of company credit cards to pay for personal expenses. Monique C. Winkler, Director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office, said: “As we alleged, Shafi took advantage of investors’ appetite for investments in the pre-IPO technology space and fraudulently raised approximately $170m by lying about IRL’s business practices. Mr Shafi has not responded to the charge, but in a post on LinkedIn a year ago, amid widespread reports that as many as 95% of IRL's customers were actually bots, he defended his role in the company.
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