Fake letters, ChatGPT and fake employees: how a British man concocted a fictitious takeover of a company to cash in on growth shares.
44-year-old Londoner Christopher Walcott came up with a non-existent deal to buy oil and gas company Touchstone Exploration for £154m to take advantage of the growth in its shares. To carry out the scheme, he created fictitious managers and consultants, and forged business correspondence and bank documents using ChatGPT.
Walcott held shares in the company and expected to receive around £70,000 after news of the proposed takeover pushed the share price up. To convince Touchstone's management that he was serious, he even arranged a personal meeting with the CEO at a luxury hotel in London, where he introduced himself as a potential buyer and spoke with an American accent.
However, the company's management noticed inconsistencies in the documents and questioned the reality of the deal. The information was passed on to the UK financial regulator FCA, who identified the fraudster using SIM cards, CCTV footage and payments via a parking app.
What conclusion did the court reach? In the material "RBC Investments.