BitClout Founder Charged with Fraud and Embezzlement

BitClout founder charged with fraud and unregistered offering of crypto asset securities, misusing investor funds for personal expenses.

### SEC Charges BitClout Founder with Fraud and Unregistered Offering
* 🔍 The SEC charged BitClout founder Nader Al-Naji with **fraud** and **unregistered offering of crypto asset securities**.
* 💰 Al-Naji raised over **$257 million** from unregistered offers and sales of BitClout, while falsely telling investors the proceeds would **not be used for personal gain**.
* 🏠 The complaint alleges Al-Naji spent **over $7 million of investor funds on personal expenditures**, including rental payments for a Beverly Hills mansion and cash gifts to family members.
* 🔒 To avoid regulatory scrutiny, Al-Naji portrayed BitClout as a **decentralized project with no company behind it**, claiming it was "**just coins and code**".
* 🗣 Al-Naji responded with a statement on Twitter, focusing on his **commitment to decentralization** and claiming **persecution by regulators**.
* 🤷 When asked to clarify the allegations, Al-Naji did not directly address the specific accusations, repeating his belief that he acted in **good faith**.
* 📝 The SEC complaint includes quotes from Al-Naji suggesting that **fake decentralization was used as a strategy to confuse regulators and avoid scrutiny**.
* ⚖ The SEC's charges are accompanied by a sealed complaint from the Southern District of New York, accusing Al-Naji of **wire fraud**.

I've got some good news that we have to talk about, ladies and gentlemen. When you've had the month I've had, we need good news here, okay. One of our previous investigations into BitClout has just been resolved because the SEC just charged the founder with fraud and unregistered offering of crypto asset securities. We called this a mile away, technically three years away. Back in 2021, we exposed this scam. It was a platform where you could create coins. They pre-loaded a bunch of celebrities' profiles onto this platform and said it's going to be like the decentralized Twitter or whatever, and you could buy Creator coins. Now, at the time, I had a huge problem with some of their wording and how it was built. You had to pay Bitcoin to get their, like, their new tokens they just invented, and one of the things that really annoyed me was the idea that they were going to take your money, and they kept saying like, We're this decentralized organization, and I was like, Yeah, but the money has to go somewhere, right? But they

insisted, no, no, no, no, no, we're just coins and code. You can see that right here. It's just coins and code. Have you ever heard this before? Hey, this thing got created. Whoa, jump scare. Talk about a glow up, you guys. What happened? Uh, okay, okay, let's just continue on. But no one's behind it. Who could be behind it? We don't know. There's investors, but they must not be behind it because apparently it's just coins and code. Hm, where's all that money go then? That's turning the bitcloud into Bitcoin. Good point, good point, good point. Is that going to anybody? If so, it's owned by that person who's getting all the rewards. Yo, if you get, okay, uh, anyways, I, I, we used to be a little more unhinged out here. Uh, okay, so now we move on. We, we had that video, then we followed up with a video about how much money they had raised. I was obviously skeptical of where that money was going to go, but, but here's that video now. Get some free

money, and they've so far accumulated about $200 million in Bitcoin. No, I did not stutter, $200, okay, $200 million. And then the final act to this story was when the founder, who claimed to be anonymous at first, remember their coins and code, they had an anonymous founder, they were trying to do the Satoshi Nakamoto thing. Later, the guy revealed himself in this big unmasking. It was this guy, Nader Al-Naji. And this is where they claim they weren't going to use their money for, you know, personal expenditures or financial incentives. They weren't going to pay themselves. And I was skeptical. Here it is, wow, already looking a little bit better. Diamond hands assured to crypt that neither he nor BitCloud's developers would use it to pay themselves, saying their financial incentives are instead tied to the success of the BitClout token. So basically, they have now, it's like $200 million, all this money sitting in a bank, a Bitcoin wallet. And they said, guys

trust us, we're not. Hey, hey, trust us. Don't worry, we're not going to do anything with it, all right? You can see the general disbelief. And lo and behold, with all that, uh, that setup, that preamble of what we talked about three years ago, the SEC just charged him with fraud and unregistered offering for crypto asset securities. Uh, this is really the important part. He raised over $257 million from unregistered offers and sales of BitCloud while falsely telling investors the proceeds would not be used to compensate him or other BitCloud employees. That's what we just read. Um, in reality, the complaint alleges Al-Nai spent more than $7 million of investor funds on personal expenditures like rental payments for a Beverly Hills mansion and extravagant cash gifts to family members. So, uh, can't say that I'm surprised because we called this a long time ago, but I am very happy. It is always a big win when we see this stuff, uh, come to fruition in actual Federal complaints. So cool to see the SEC's

complaint further alleges that to avoid regulatory scrutiny Al Na G portrayed bitcloud as a decentralized project with no company behind it just coins and code again that is the same thing that we uh we talked about extensively in our own reporting so very happy to see this. I love to celebrate the wins as they come. Update before you go to turns out that nater has now responded on Twitter and I asked him some questions as well. Let me first start with his statement. I saw this right before I was going to post this video. He said he posted I'm bat crypto is my home Doo is my life's work that's the new name for big clout and I will never stop fighting for Freedom decentralization as long as I live stay strong stand up for what you believe in don't forget why you're here watch my public statement below. Uh it's pretty boring because he doesn't actually address any of the real claim against him the allegations instead he makes a bunch of statements about like crypto is

being persecuted, and other people have been persecuted by the SCC and DOJ. So that must mean I'm a good guy too. Like that I'm like fighting for a decentralized internet. But that's not what you're being accused for. You're not getting in trouble because you fought for a decentralized internet. You're getting in trouble because you are accused to have used this, uh, money you took and basically embezzled it for your family and friends. Um, so that doesn't really hold up, but I wanted to know if there was more to this statement than just a boilerplate. Like I've been kind of harassed. Hold on, let's just watch a bit of the statement so you can see what I mean. Hey everyone, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Nate, and I'm the creator of the Doo blockchain. Last week was tough on the Doo community, and I know that many of you are concerned about me and the future of Doo. UPF front, let me put those concerns to rest. I'm

not going anywhere, and you might be going somewhere also. I apologize for calling him nater. I wasn't so clear about the pronunciation. It's n. If anything, I'm more motivated than ever to continue working toward the vision of a more decentralized internet. I want to be clear, crypto is my home, the doo blockchain is my life's work, and I will never stop fighting for freedom and decentralization for as long as I live. I first got excited about do because I felt it was the most important idea that I could work on, and I still believe that today. The internet is currently controlled by roughly five. So you get the idea. He's just like, basically like, ah, I'm fighting for uh, the decentralized internet. Then he says that, you know, a lot of people have received the SEC is the targeting the most deliberative and Innovative uh projects in the space. So, that's basically what he says. And then later below, you can see him say, um, I thought it was clear from the video.

but after reading the comments, because people are like, you didn't address it, I wanted to clarify. I believe I have abided by both the letter of the law, the spirit of the law, and more. What's more, have acted, uh, generally, acted cautiously with sound counsel, and most importantly, in good faith. Now, like I said, this was not a satisfying explanation. I was like, this is garbage, you don't actually address it. It's not. I think this person, uh, actually put it really well. He says, no one is doubting the Doo project. People are concerned about the allegations against you. That is what you have to address. And I felt the same way. So, I reached out, uh, to Nate, uh, because he's told me before, like, hey, if you're going to make a video about me, reach out. And I said, yeah, happy to do that. I've done that in the past. So, I reached out to him. I said, hello, this is Coffeezilla. Um, he had agreed to try to answer some of my questions. I'll send over a short list.

of the most important questions I have due to this topic can't be uh it will all be on the record. I can't do background or off transparently. I uh thought you wouldn't be able to talk, but when you made a Twitter video, I wanted to reach out and see if you had anything you could share. Yes, Man, please. I understand. Thank you for doing that. I really appreciate it. I'm chatting with my lers to see what I can share here. So here were my questions. Um, $257 million was raised in bitcloud. You stated publicly that it wasn't going to be used for personal interest, but the SEC and FBI alleged you directed a great deal of this money towards your personal gains and tried to conceal that. Do you have any response? You're accused of enriching yourself, uh, for money that should have been in the deso foundation. I won't go through all of this because ultimately, uh, he after telling me like, Yeah, dude, I can maybe answer some of your questions. Thank you for reaching out. He answers.

none of my questions, and he repeats the same thing he said on Twitter. I believe I both abided by the spirit, letter, and spirit of, and what's more, acted generally cautiously. Blah blah blah. Um, so a nothing burger. No response from him despite saying he's like going to, you know, he. It's basically I'm innocent, I'm not guilty response, which of course he's going to say. Um, so, but I just wanted to include that to let you guys know that we did try to reach out. We did try to hear a side of the story, and I'm not surprised his lawyers don't want him to talk, but I was surprised that he had first told me that maybe he could share a bunch of, you know, stuff about it, and then of course after getting my questions decided. No, in fact, he can't. Um, I think this one question is actually pretty important though. I'll read it because this is why I'm, if you notice, I'm not very. I'm pretty skeptical of nater's claims, and that's because in

the past, I've talked to him about this project and where that $257 million went. Uh, this was when I was trying to further investigate BitClout. I was trying to go to him and get more on the record, like, because he had kept, he had kind of come to me privately and said, Hey, I understand you made these videos about me, but you don't understand, I'm a really good guy, you know. Uh, why don't you talk to me, you'll change your mind? So I did talk to him and he told me that the BitClout sales were going to be used for something called the Doo Foundation, that it was not for anything else, it was for this, um, basically nonprofit that he had set up in Delaware. Now later, I looked up the nonprofit, it looked like it was not in good standing, and I wasn't really sure that it did what he described. Uh, so I kind of confront him on, as I said, You told me in our last phone call that the money raised by BitClout sales was to be

solely uh used solely for the dies foundation's purposes, which you described as a nonprofit. The SEC FBI are now accusing you of essentially lying about this to me by their accusations. That you've used some of the funds for personal or Family Enrichment or otherwise improper purposes. Would you like to clarify what if any the uh money the doo Foundation received which is exact like so that's a huge problem for me if you're going to tell me cuz basically the FBI and SEC bring up this whole other company that he had been funneling this bit clout money into that he had never talked about nobody knew it was called intangible Holdings I guess because uh he didn't want anyone to to know it was um tangible for him so he called it intangible Holdings which is a hell of a shell company name but uh he never told that to anybody he certainly did not tell that to me when he was confronted about it so I'm a little skeptical of this idea that he acted

what does he say? I've abided by both the letter and spirit of the law. You know, I think actually some of this SEC complaint is worth also reading directly because, um, he says some pretty shocking stuff. In my call with him, I remember him telling me that like he had all these top tax opinions and oh, I've got the best tax people and you know, I know everything about the SEC because I had a previous company which I had to shut down because the SEC was going to come after us and that made me learn all my lessons so I know that I won't, uh, fall into the trap again. So with that in mind, read this which is in the SEC complaint. This is a quote from Nater Ali who said this to one P, uh, crypto industry participant and prospective investor. Alaji explained his reasoning attempts to avoid regulatory scrutiny, My impression is that even being fake decentralized generally confuses regulators and deters them from going after you. In the case of the SEC, it

gives you a strong argument with respect to Howie. That's a Securities test, but more broadly, when you break the mold of a company with money in the bank, the case becomes riskier in terms of litigation, which makes it less likely some career public servant will make it their mission to take you down, which is exactly what I said, dude. I knew it, this whole fake decentralization thing was a big scheme. I told people that in the beginning, and it turned out that that was true. So, absolutely stunning, but I just wanted you guys to know that we've been following this guy a long time. We've been on multiple phone calls, well actually one phone call with him where he lied to us. Now we've been in text with him trying to get his response, trying to get his lawyer's response. I told him, Your lawyers can tell me. And now he is, you know, he says how much he likes us. I want to finish with this because I say this is the most lawyered. Hold on, let me move

me because I say this is the most lawyer uh lawyered non-answer of all time. I will read it if you want, but is the same thing as saying not guilty. It is a platitude everyone expects you to say and contributes nothing to the extremely serious criminal allegations against you. I'm really sorry man. I wish you could say more. I really wish I could answer your questions now as I think it would clear up a lot of confusion, but they're insistent and I just have to wait, and I will listen to them, but I do really want to thank you for reaching out, even though I can't take the questions right now. Really means a lot that you took time to get my input, and your professionalism is not taken for granted. So he likes us. I don't know. I don't know like if he'll like us after this, but I am very skeptical. Uh, he's going to have to have a lot of very clever explanations to get out of this, a lot of clever opinions from lawyers or um very

Curious what he meant by fake decentralization. That was another question we asked that he did not answer. So, um, just wanted to update that, let you guys know. And yeah, we will see how this progresses. Uh, by the way, it's not just an SEC investigation. I know I said that at the beginning. There also was a sealed complaint by the Southern District of New York where they're actually accusing him criminally as well of wire fraud. So I just wanted to make that clear as well. Um, there are several allegations of him, like, basically wiring money improperly and lying about it, to like, lying about where money went. Uh, but anyway, you can read it if you want. I'll link it down below. Okay, that's basically it. Had to have some good news for today. I'll put them on the Wall of Shame when we get back in the $10 million studio. Um, and we will follow this case very closely. Okay, bye-bye.

actually good news

for other things that don't fit the main channel. 
if i had more time, I'd have made a shorter video.


voidzilla

The SEC has charged the founder of BitClout with fraud and unregistered offering of crypto asset securities, resolving a previous investigation.

BitClout, a platform for buying creator coins, raised about $200 million in Bitcoin, despite claiming not to use the money for personal gain.

The founder, Nader Al-Naji, who initially claimed to be anonymous, later revealed himself, stating that their financial incentives are tied to the success of the BitClout token.

The SEC has charged the creator of BitCloud with fraud and unregistered offering of crypto asset securities, alleging that he raised over $257 million from investors falsely claiming the proceeds would not benefit him or other employees.

The complaint also accuses him of spending more than $7 million of investor funds on personal expenses.

In response to the allegations, the creator made a statement on Twitter, focusing on crypto persecution rather than addressing the actual claims against him.

Clarifying the Stance on Decentralized Internet and SEC Allegations

The individual is reaffirming their commitment to the decentralized internet and the Doo blockchain project.

They are addressing allegations of misusing funds raised in BitCloud, expressing a willingness to respond to questions on the matter.

The person reached out to Coffeezilla to potentially address the SEC and FBI's claims of directing money towards personal gains.

Unanswered Questions About the Use of BitClout Funds

The speaker tried to reach out to Nater to hear his side of the story, but received no response.

Nater's previous claims about the use of BitClout funds for the Doo Foundation are being questioned by the SEC and FBI, raising concerns about the use of the money for personal gain.

The speaker remains skeptical of Nater's actions and explanations regarding the funds.

Alleged Deception to Avoid Regulatory Scrutiny

Nater Ali, a crypto industry figure, is accused of advocating fake decentralization to confuse and deter regulators.

The SEC complaint quotes Ali discussing how this strategy can reduce the risk of litigation and regulatory action.

The complaint also refers to a previous company of Ali's being targeted by the SEC, suggesting a pattern of behavior.

The speaker avoids directly addressing the criminal allegations against them.

They express skepticism about the situation and the individual's explanations.

The update includes additional information about a sealed complaint by the Southern District of New York.