SEC charges Cryptoaiml and TSAI entities over alleged WhatsApp and AI trading-bot scams
The SEC alleges four overseas-linked entities took more than $15 million from hundreds of retail investors with fake trading platforms, bogus AI signals and bots, and forged SEC filings.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed two fraud complaints on 29 September 2026 against four entities it says took at least $15 million from hundreds of retail investors, many of them in the US, through online investment confidence scams. The SEC says the entities are likely run by people based overseas. The cases are at the complaint stage.
Both complaints were filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. One names Cryptoaiml Ltd. and Cryptoaiml Capital Foundation, which allegedly misappropriated more than $12.5 million. The other names TSAI Pro Ltd. and TSAI Capital Foundation, alleged to have taken $2.8 million.
Cryptoaiml: group chats and AI signals
According to the SEC, from at least August 2024 to March 2025 Cryptoaiml ran WhatsApp group chats in which it posed as investment professionals and issued supposedly AI-generated trading signals. Investors were allegedly steered to open accounts on its trading platform and move crypto assets there. The SEC alleges there was no real platform: no trading took place, the profits shown were fictitious, and investors who tried to withdraw were told their accounts were frozen until they paid further fees.
TSAI: renting AI trading bots
From September 2024 to March 2025, TSAI allegedly promised guaranteed profits to investors who deposited funds to rent AI-programmed trading bots, and told them they could also earn money by recruiting others. The SEC alleges no bots existed and no deposits were used to earn returns.
Both groups allegedly claimed to be regulated by the SEC and displayed falsified Form D filings on their websites. The SEC has since removed both Forms D from its website.
The SEC’s enforcement director, David Woodcock, said the aim in each case was to “promise potential investors outsized returns, claim that they were legitimate entities regulated by the SEC, and then steal their money”.
What it means for traders
A claim of SEC registration, or a document that looks like an SEC filing, is not proof a platform is genuine. The SEC points investors to Investor.gov to check the background of anyone selling them an investment, and to its alerts on group-chat scams. Our round-up of the CFTC’s warning on messaging-app scams covers the same pattern.
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