# Silicon Valley investors duped out of $500M by grifters using fake projections, false bank statements and brazen lies
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Investors have been fleeced out of more than $500 million by scammers who claim to be selling shares in Silicon Valley’s hottest companies.
The AI gold rush has attracted plenty of grifters, who have used fake sales reports, doctored bank statements or inflated share prices to dupe investors chasing the next tech jackpot, according to federal prosecutors.
The feds have brought fraud cases against pre-IPO investment platform Linqto, AI startup SKAEL and chatbot company GameOn. Former executives at the first two companies have pleaded guilty; the founder of GameOn remains under indictment, awaiting trial.
Francine McKenna, a CPA who teaches accounting at Montclair State University, warns that companies are “just saying whatever they want” to potential investors to get them to spend. Courtesy of Francine McKenna
“This is the worst we’ve seen in the 40 years I’ve been auditing and observing the industry—companies just saying whatever they want, in particular in pre-IPO situations,” Francine McKenna, a CPA and former PricewaterhouseCoopers internal auditor who teaches accounting at Montclair State University, told The Post.
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The cases offer a warning as Anthropic prepares for a blockbuster IPO later this year and OpenAI also pursues a listing — which would put the AI boom within reach of ordinary investors.
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