The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Securities Division has received a complaint from a Washington resident regarding a potential pump and dump scheme impersonating Capital Wealth Planning, LLC and its employees.
The investor received ads on Instagram falsely representing themselves as Kevin Simpson, the founder of Capital Wealth Planning. Once the investor clicked on the ad it directly linked him to a WhatsApp group. Multiple members of the WhatsApp group impersonated Capital Wealth Planning employees. The impersonators claimed that they would take 5% of investors’ profit in exchange for daily trading recommendations. Additionally, they claimed that they would reimburse 80% of losses on their recommendations, if they occurred. Initially, they only recommended large American companies with stable stock values. However, in August of 2024, the impersonators sent the WhatsApp group a message that they had a “Star investment opportunity.” For this investment, the impersonators claimed that investors would make 200-300% returns on their investment if they bought and held the stock of a Chinese company, U-BX Technology LTD ($UBXG), for two weeks. Investors were instructed to invest from their personal brokerage accounts. The week the impersonators made the recommendation, stock of $UBXG was trading at $20 to $30 a share. However, when the market opened on Friday of that week, the stock price fell to ~$2 a share, wiping out the majority of investors’ investments, including around $140,000 for the Washington investor. When the Washington investor contacted the impersonators for his refund, they tried to offer the refund in the form of another stock recommendation. The Washington investor did not invest in the stock, but he noted that the recommendation was for another Chinese company that’s share price plummeted in value after the recommendation.
Capital Wealth Planning has issued a press release warning that there are being impersonated. The Press release can be found here: https://capitalwealthplanning.com/press-release-6-7-2024/.
DFI cautions consumers to beware of persons previously unknown to them offering investment advice, even if they purport to be legitimately licensed investment professionals. Scammers can impersonate investment professionals and offer advice that benefits scammers and is harmful to consumers.
To check the licensing status of an investment professional, please visit FINRA Brokercheck. After confirming that the investment professional is appropriately licensed, attempt to independently verify that you are indeed speaking with the real person. Try contacting the licensed individual using online resources such as Brokercheck or the firm website, rather than through the communication channels they provided to you directly. If you have any doubt about the authenticity of the person soliciting you, contact the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions, Securities Division at (360) 902-8760. If you live outside of Washington State, contact your state securities regulator.
If a consumer believes a person or company has violated state law or acted improperly regarding an investment product or service, they may file a complaint with the Securities Division.
Additional Resources
Information regarding Pump & Dump schemes and how to protect yourself