SEC-LR-26173

Ian Mitchell
(SEC) Litigation Release No. 26173 / November 19, 2024
SEC v. Ian Mitchell, No. 24-civ-8741 (S.D.N.Y. filed November 18, 2024)
SEC Charges NY Man Claiming to be a Billionaire with Offering Fraud

• Excerpt: The SEC today announced it charged Ian Mitchell, a resident of Queens, New York, with defrauding investors in an offering fraud scheme. Mitchell agreed to settle the SEC’s charges.In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the SEC alleges that between July 2021 and February 2022, Mitchell solicited investors by misrepresenting his identity, family background and wealth, ability to access private placement stock, and what he intended to do with the investors’ funds. In particular, the SEC alleges that Mitchell used a fictitious name and falsely claimed to be the nephew of an African billionaire, and told the investors that he planned to use their money to purchase pre-IPO stock of two privately owned companies. The SEC also alleges that two investors gave Mitchell approximately $325,000 to purchase stock based on Mitchell’s misrepresentations. According to the complaint, Mitchell did not use any of the investors’ funds to purchase the stock, and instead, he used the funds to pay his personal expenses.

• SEC-PR-2411
• Offering Fraud
• Defrauding Investors