Para Bay Area accused of $ 60 million fraud regarding the start of AI – Santa Cruz Sentinel

A representative of the investment company met with the General Director of the Startup of Artificial Intelligence at the Bank in Chinatown in San Francisco in June last year, expecting that he would receive a statement directly from the bank showing how much startup, Chatbot Company Gameon, he had on his accounts.

The investment company introduced $ 5.7 million in Gameon in 2021. A representative – playing with a member of the board – received a statement, showing a healthy balance of USD 13.4 million.

But according to claims in the federal indictment of fraud this week against CEO Gameon and co -founder Alexander Beckman and his wife Valerie Lau Beckman, everything was not the way it seemed. At the beginning, the bank balance was USD 25.93. Mrs. Beckman went to the bank, sent E -Mila to a false statement to the bank’s employee and asked the employee to place him in the envelope so that her husband could pick up the indictment.

While most of the fraudulent behavior of the alleged couple by federal prosecutors adopted the form of allegedly forged financial statements and identity turnover, the section in the bank included gambit on a place that appeared-at the beginning of work, submitted a request on Tuesday. .

The investor’s representative “believed that the statement was true and made available to his photos with other members of the Gameon board,” said the indictment.

This afternoon in June last year was the culmination of many years of fraud by a couple, which cost investors and a company over $ 60 million, some of which were used by Beckmans to buy houses, luxury cars and jewelry, and to pay private schools, he participated in the fact that the Lord’s children Beckman, an indictment at the US District Court in San Francisco.

The couple was arrested on Thursday, said the US Department of Justice. Mr. Beckman’s lawyer did not answer the requests for comment. It was impossible to reach Mrs. Beckman.

Gameon, a company from San Francisco, which was launched in 2014, served customers, including American professional sports teams, leagues and associations, as well as outstanding fashion and retail brands. His product was Chatbot AI, which was aimed at making contact with fans, clients and consumers of his clients. Which teams of the first league were clients are not specified in the indictment.

However, the National Football League Los Angeles Chargers in 2020 He announced that he was using chatbot Gameon. Posts by Gameon on the social media platform x AND The company publishes advertising partnerships With the New York York Yankees Major League, Las Vegas Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars NFL teams, Detroit Pistons from the National Basketball Association, Las Vegas Aces and Chicago Sky with National Basketball Association, Great Britain Titan Titan Arsenal -artists. Gameon Press Emplases also won partnerships with luxury brands Valentino and Armani.

No offenses are alleged against Gameon customers.

The indictment describes the company constantly shaky on the edge of failure, because Beckmans allegedly asked and obtained investments through false financial documents that dramatically overestimated the sale, profit and banking balances of the company.

“Gameon depended on new investors’ funds to act, burned down funds, received notifications in the current account from banks, arrived in paying some clients and was often on the edge that he did not have enough money in the bank to act and make pays”, the accusation reported .

The investment company, whose representative went to the bank that day, was one of four such companies – two in San Francisco, two in New York – allegedly fraudsters by Beckmans. The other two alleged victims of fraud were people from North California.

The company – identified as “Investor 1” in the indictment – in April 2021 she received the message e -mail from Mrs. Beckman with a table showing $ 4 million sales and $ 1.9 million profit for this month, but sales for the whole year never never She exceeded $ 1 million, the indictment claimed. The act of the accusation said that the investment company sent Gameon $ 2.5 million three days later.

In the next month, Mrs. Beckman sent the company a spreadsheet from Mr. Beckman, indicating that Gameon had almost $ 9 million in two banks, while in fact he had a negative balance in one of the banks and USD 2,350 in the second. After Mrs. Beckman followed in September with an allegedly inflated number of sales and profits, the investment company sent another USD 3.2 million, claimed the indictment.

Similar transactions were in line with the same pattern, with Gameon claims that for one investor he earned $ 72.4 million and $ 56.8 million in profits from January to September 2023, when the company reached less than $ 1 million of profit by profit by The whole year, as the indictment claimed.

To provide investors with false information, Beckman created false email addresses for real Gameon employees: contractor, consultant and part-time financial director, the indictment claimed. Apparently, he “fabricated two Gameon audit reports using names, signatures and trademarks of reputable accounting companies,” said the indictment.

The couple used $ 4.2 million from incorrect profits for the purchase of real estate in San Francisco-W Posh Presidio Heights indicate that court files have set another USD 360,000 USD investors on another house in the city, as the file claims. Hundreds of thousands went to a private school, a social club in which Beckmans were married in November 2023, and the indictment stated that over $ 100,000.

Technical site VentureBeat reported in July 2024 The fact that Beckman gave up Gameon at the beginning of this month, a few days after the survey through the Start -Up board, said that the bank account, which should have $ 11 million, had only 37 cents.

Beckmans, both gave a deposit for $ 1 million on Thursday, according to court files, they may meet with years of prison if they are convicted.

Originally published: January 24, 2025 at 16:08 pst