E-Scooter Company Go X, Top Brass Misled Investors, SEC Says (1)

The Securities and Exchange Commission is accusing an e-scooter rental company and two executives of misleading about 300 investors through an unregistered securities sale.

Cheetah X Inc., which does business as Go X, made false and misleading representations in its sales pitch to investors when it raised roughly $4 million from July 2021 to November 2023, the SEC alleged in a July 3 complaint filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Investors were told they’d receive a share of the gross profits Go X made from renting e-scooters, even while the company ran a “sharply unprofitable” business, the SEC said.

Go X’s founder and CEO Alexander Debelov and President of Operations Khodr Salam were also named as defendants.

“The poor performance of the Go X investment led to multiple complaints from dissatisfied investors, yet Defendants continued to sell the investment with the same sales pitch,” the complaint said.

The SEC is seeking injunctive relief and civil money penalties against Go X, as well as disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest.

“The SEC’s complaint is not just misleading—it’s a smokescreen,” Debelov said in a statement. “The truth is this: there was no fraud, no personal enrichment, and no investor losses.”

Debelov said the conduct in question wasn’t a securities offering but a “transparent asset sale, confirmed by” state regulators and a no-action letter by the SEC. He said he would be moving to dismiss the case.

Debelov also said the SEC was retaliating against him and that he rejected an offer with the SEC to settle the case “because I didn’t break the law, and I refuse to lie to protect the reputations of regulators who fabricated a case to shield their careers.”

“Every transaction is traceable,” he said. “Every claim is supported by documentation. And we are prepared to publish it all.”

‘Extraordinary Returns’

Debelov’s and Salam’s direct communications with investors, along with information the company posted on its website and in YouTube videos, touted “extraordinary returns in a short period of time with exceptionally low risk,” the SEC said in the complaint.

Go X fraudulently portrayed its program as less risky than investing in the S&P 500, promised “guaranteed” investor refunds upon request, and claimed investor funds would be lost only if the company went out of business, the SEC said.

Go X’s website in August 2022 claimed investors had earned over $3 million in the previous 180 days, but the company had at that point only paid investors roughly $800,000 in returns, the SEC said.

By the end of 2023, the company had paid investors roughly $1.45 million in returns—less than half of the initial amount it raised, according to the complaint.

“Defendants knew, or were severely reckless in not knowing, that the sales pitch to investors was false and misleading because it overstated past performance of the Go X investment, overstated potential future performance of the investment, and understated investment risk,” the complaint said.

The defendants also violated federal securities law by failing to verify investors’ accredited investor status through its general solicitation tactics that involved the use of its public website and YouTube videos, according to the SEC.

Go X operates across the US in cities including Honolulu, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and multiple cities in Florida, according to its website.

The case is SEC v. Cheetah X Inc., S.D. Fla., No. 1:25-cv-23002, complaint filed 7/3/25.