SEC Charges Swedish National with Global Scheme Defrauding Retail Investors, Including Deaf Community Members

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a Swedish national living in Thailand with conducting a multi-million dollar online offering fraud that victimized thousands of retail investors worldwide, including hundreds of investors from the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Hearing Loss communities. The SEC’s complaint alleges that from November 2012 to June 2019, Roger Nils-Jonas Karlsson, through his entity, Eastern Metal Securities, defrauded over 2,000 retail investors in nearly every state in the United States, as well as in over 45 countries around the world. According to the complaint, Karlsson solicited investors for what he described as a “Pre Funded Reversed Pension Plan,” falsely claiming that the investment platform was run by award-winning economists and promising a payout based on the value of gold.