- Cooper Morgenthau pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $5 million from two SPACs.
- SEC charged him claiming that he had been amassing money from African Gold and Strategic Metals.
- He is alleged of concealing unauthorized withdrawals by falsifying the bank account statement of African Gold.
Cooper Morgenthau, the former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of two Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs), SPAC-1 and SPAC-2, reportedly pleaded guilty to illegally amassing more than $5 million from the two companies. The defendant admitted that he has lost almost the whole amount trading meme stocks and crypto. He confessed his guilt before U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer.
On Tuesday, Daniel Williams, the United States Attorney of the Southern District of New York announced that:
Cooper Morgenthau, the former CFO of two SPACs, has admitted that he breached the trust that he owed to his public and private investors, stealing millions of dollars from them to trade meme stocks and cryptocurrencies. This Office remains committed to rooting out fraud in the SPAC market and to protecting Main Street investors from abuses on Wall Street.
Significantly, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Morgenthau “for orchestrating a scheme” by which he stole a huge amount.
According to the allegations, Morgenthau has embezzled money from the two SPACs, the African Gold Acquisition Corporation and the Strategic Metals Acquisition Corporation from June 2021 through July 2022.
To be specific, The SEC announced that:
The SEC’s complaint alleges that, from June 2021 through July 2022, Morgenthau embezzled money from African Gold and stole funds from another SPAC series called Strategic Metals Acquisition Corp. I and II to pay for his personal expenses and to trade in crypto assets and other securities.
In addition, SEC announced that Morgenthau “concealed unauthorized withdrawals by falsifying African Gold’s bank account statements.” Further, he presented those falsified statements to the auditors for African Gold’s SEC filing.
Possibly, Morgenthau would be sentenced to prison for about six to seven years. In addition, the court has ordered him to pay a penalty of $5.11 million and an equal amount in restitution.
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