Indian ex-CEO of Longfin in US charged with $ 66 mn fraud
Indian ex-CEO of Longfin in US charged with $ 66 mn fraud
New Delhi/Washington, June 07 (HS): According to US Attorney Craig Carpenito, Venkata Meenavalli aged 49 and others of Longfin group showed inflated revenues of $ 6.6 crore to get the company listed on US stock exchange-Nasdaq deceiving investors.
This was done in the year 2017 and 2018 in name of “blockchain-empowered solutions and cryptocurrency transactions” company.
After announcement of blockchain solutions, company’s share price increased by 2000 percent in the year 2017. But, in reality, it never realised this revenue which they showed as earned through sale of commodities.
Several entities, were owned and controlled by Meenavalli, that did business with Longfin and these associations were not disclosed to investors. The major business of Longfin was shown as structured trade finance with sale of commodities. Fraud action has also been filed by US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) for fraudulently obtaining listing on exchange.
The involved persons in the fraud can be sentenced to 20 years of prison and can be imposed $50 lakh fine.
