If they arrest everyone who does a wash transaction to generate the appearance of revenue there aren't going to be many founders left standing in 2026.
randycupertino 42 minutes ago [-]
> they defrauded investors and lenders by fabricating "virtually all" of the now-bankrupt company's customer relationships and revenue.
> According to the indictment, the defendants used forged sham contracts to make it seem that iLearning's customers were real, and used "round trip" transfers of investor and lender funds -- meaning they sent money to purported customers, who then returned it to iLearning -- to manufacture revenue.
> At least 90% of iLearning's $421 million of reported revenue in 2023 was fabricated, the indictment said.
> The company went public in April 2024, and its market value on the Nasdaq peaked at $1.5 billion before a prominent short-seller questioned its reported revenue.
For the record the short sellers who blew up the fraud were Hindenburg Research. This is the second AI company they've discovered that is a scam, the other being Super Micro with their chip-selling scam: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2026/03/20/super-mic...
walrus01 39 minutes ago [-]
Supermicro isn't an "AI company", it's a Taiwanese origin x86 server/industrial/embedded hardware manufacturer with roots that go back 30 years.
ethanwillis 7 minutes ago [-]
Unfortunately, in 2026 even shoe companies are "AI companies"
vrganj 2 minutes ago [-]
We will never learn our lesson. Humanity just keeps repeating the same mistakes. Remember Long Island Ice Tea / Blockchain?
nickpinkston 3 minutes ago [-]
Play with fire, and you get burned...
These scams are all too frequent today, and putting these guys and others like them in prison would act as a deterrent.
We'll see if our system can actually hold any white collar criminals accountable though...
gnabgib 2 hours ago [-]
iLearningEngines .. hindenburg did some research ILearningEngines: An AI SPAC with Artificial Partners and Artificial Revenue (2 years ago) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41390619
dmix 24 minutes ago [-]
Federal investigations always take forever.
bandrami 3 minutes ago [-]
It's a real problem at this point. People still say "nobody went to jail for the GFC" even though over 200 people did in the US; it's just it took a decade and nobody actually paid attention a decade later when they went to jail.
mandeepj 16 minutes ago [-]
Using the right channels, they can buy a pardon. Let's see how it unfolds.
da_chicken 6 minutes ago [-]
No, that seems unlikely. They committed the cardinal sin of stealing from the rich.
valianteffort 54 minutes ago [-]
[flagged]
miltava 22 minutes ago [-]
How many big fraud cases happened in the US over the last decade? I can think of many of them. Would u say that it’s a cultural thing in the US because of that? So ur statement is more about prejudice than anything.
hennell 22 minutes ago [-]
Someone call the Olympics because this is the largest jump I've ever seen.
gnz11 28 minutes ago [-]
I suppose it's a cultural thing for Americans then too, given the current White House occupant? I don't know, maybe every culture just has their share of shitty people.
mandeepj 19 minutes ago [-]
> given the current White House occupant
Just listen to him speak from a podium in a red state while claiming start of a golden age, revenue of $18 trillion from tariffs, and we won in Iran, at least 50% of the crowd starts clapping. Makes me feel either I'm living in an alternate world or they are.
himata4113 24 minutes ago [-]
there's x evil people per million in every country, india just happens to have a lot of people. china tends to keep things within their borders.
Rendered at 00:26:28 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
> According to the indictment, the defendants used forged sham contracts to make it seem that iLearning's customers were real, and used "round trip" transfers of investor and lender funds -- meaning they sent money to purported customers, who then returned it to iLearning -- to manufacture revenue.
> At least 90% of iLearning's $421 million of reported revenue in 2023 was fabricated, the indictment said.
> The company went public in April 2024, and its market value on the Nasdaq peaked at $1.5 billion before a prominent short-seller questioned its reported revenue.
For the record the short sellers who blew up the fraud were Hindenburg Research. This is the second AI company they've discovered that is a scam, the other being Super Micro with their chip-selling scam: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2026/03/20/super-mic...
These scams are all too frequent today, and putting these guys and others like them in prison would act as a deterrent.
We'll see if our system can actually hold any white collar criminals accountable though...
Just listen to him speak from a podium in a red state while claiming start of a golden age, revenue of $18 trillion from tariffs, and we won in Iran, at least 50% of the crowd starts clapping. Makes me feel either I'm living in an alternate world or they are.