Vegas Firm’s Options Trading Bots Didn’t Really Exist, SEC Says

Las Vegas-based 5 Fruits Enterprises LLC defrauded investors in an options trading scheme purporting to use bots that didn’t exist, regulators said.

Calvin Guess and Marcus Ligon falsely claimed their company used automated “bots” for trading securities, promised incredible returns, and guaranteed investments would be used for options trading, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a lawsuit. Guess and Ligon did not have any automated trading technology, failed to generate promised returns or return initial investments, and spent most of the $4.7 million raised from over 140 investors on personal expenses and Ponzi-like payments, the agency says.

The complaint, ...