Seven people involved in manipulating the CLEU.US (CLEU.US) stock price fraud of US$214 million were indicted by the US federal government

The Zhitong Finance App learned that recently, the US judicial department officially filed criminal charges against 7 people involved in the investigation of a major financial fraud case. This case involved a stock fraud method known as “Pump-and-dump” (Pump-and-dump). During the investigation, federal law enforcement authorities seized approximately US$214 million in suspected illegal proceeds.

According to an indictment published last Thursday in the U.S. Federal Court for the Northern District of Illinois, those involved manipulated the stock price of CLEU.US (CLEU.US) through misleading propaganda and coordinated stock trading between November 2024 and February 2025. The company is registered in the Cayman Islands and mainly provides education services in China. The people involved in the case allegedly impersonated US investment advisors through social media and communication platforms, falsely promised huge returns from investing in the company's shares, attracting a large number of investors to enter the market and driving up stock prices. When the stock price reached a certain high point, those involved in the case quickly sold their shares in large quantities, making huge profits of millions of dollars. Subsequently, stock prices fell sharply, causing many ordinary investors to lose a lot, and some of them lost almost all of their invested capital.

The seven defendants indicted were Cedric Lim Xiang Jie, a 50-year-old Malaysian; Ming-Shen Cheng, a 36-year-old Taiwanese; Ko Sen Chai, a 57-year-old Malaysian; King Sung Wong, a 39-year-old Malaysian; Siong Wee Vun, a 37-year-old Malaysian; Chien Lung Ma, a 54-year-old Taiwanese; and Kok Wah, a 56-year-old Malaysian. Wong. They are facing charges of wire transfer fraud and securities fraud. They have not yet been arrested, and the court has issued an arrest warrant for them.

During the investigation, US federal law enforcement agencies have seized about 214 million US dollars of funds involved in the case. Currently, the funds are supervised by the US government. The federal attorney's office in Chicago has filed a civil lawsuit requesting that the funds be permanently confiscated so that they can eventually be returned to the aggrieved investors.

Acting federal attorney Morris Pasqual for the Northern District of Illinois and Douglas S. DePodesta, a special agent in the Chicago branch of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, jointly announced news relating to the prosecution and seizure of funds. The investigation of the case also received significant assistance from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Boston Regional Office and the SEC Inspector General's Office. Currently, Assistant Federal Attorney Jared Hasten is in charge of litigation in this case. Under US law, each crime of securities fraud is punishable by up to 25 years in prison, and each charge of wire transfer fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.