US charges UK twins over stock robot fraud

Published:  23 Apr at 6 PM

As reported by the BBC, twin brothers from the UK are facing US civil charges for supposedly swindling investors out of $1.2 million (£745,000) through a sham stock-picking robot.

Thomas and Alexander Hunter, from Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, were just 16 when, in 2007, they invented the robot scheme, dubbed Marl, report US officials. The stocks "picked" were in reality firms which paid the twins impressive fees, says the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Hunters allegedly defrauded about 75,000 investors, mainly in the US. Last November, Newcastle Crown Court instructed Alexander Hunter to repay nearly $1 million after he admitted offering unregulated financial advice. Mr Hunter received a suspended 1-year prison sentence.

According to a New York federal court affadavit filed on Friday, investors were paying $47 for newsletters that listed Marl's robot stock picks and $97 for the software’s "home version". The firm’s website promised that the longer the robot was allowed to run on the computer, the “more advanced” he would become.

However, the home version was just a programme which grabbed ticker symbols given by the Hunters, who allegedly live with their mother and father in Whitley Bay.

The twins collected another $1.9 million from firms which paid to appear on the newsletters and on the software programme, according to the court document.