SEC Charges E-Commerce Startup and CEO With Defrauding Investors

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a San Francisco-based e-commerce startup and its chief executive officer with misleading investors about purported contracts with well-known consumer brands. According to the SEC's complaint, from 2018 to 2020, Andrew J. Chapin, the founder and CEO of Benja Inc., told investors that Benja was a successful online advertising platform that generated millions of dollars in revenue from popular consumer clothing brands and retailers. In reality, as the complaint alleges, Benja never did business with the companies. The complaint further alleges that in order to secure investments, Chapin enlisted one or more associates to help induce investments from venture capital investors by impersonating representatives of Benja's purported customers and the supposed founder of a venture capital fund who falsely claimed to have made a large investment in Benja.