SEC Charges Founder of American Bitcoin Academy Online Crypto Course with Fraud Targeting Students

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Brian Sewell and his company, Rockwell Capital Management, agreed to settle fraud charges in connection with a scheme that targeted students taking Sewell’s online crypto trading course known as the American Bitcoin Academy. The SEC alleges that the fraudulent scheme cost 15 students $1.2 million. According to the SEC’s complaint, from at least early 2018 to mid-2019, Sewell encouraged hundreds of his online students to invest in the Rockwell Fund, a hedge fund that he claimed he would launch, and which would use cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and trading strategies involving crypto assets to generate returns for investors.