The Airbnb emblem is displayed on the Nasdaq digital billboard in Occasions Sq. in New York on December 10, 2020.
Kena Betancur | AFP | Getty Pictures
When prosecutors introduced the plea deal late final week of Shamoon Rafiq, who ran a $10 million scheme that duped buyers into shopping for into pre-IPO tech firms like Airbnb, they mentioned the defendant was masquerading as a consultant of a distinguished household workplace.
The household workplace shouldn’t be named within the criticism, however particulars from courtroom filings and on-line data match these of Man Capital, the household workplace of the Mansour household. Man Capital was began in 2010 by billionaire Mohamed Mansour, one in all three brothers behind Egypt’s second largest firm, and his son, Loutfy Mansour.
Rafiq had no connection to Man Capital or father or mother firm Mansour Group. The conglomerate was based in 1952 as a cotton exporter and has since grown to turn into one of many world’s greatest Common Motors sellers and a significant Caterpillar distributor.
A spokesman for Man Capital declined to remark to CNBC, as did the Manhattan U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace, which is prosecuting Rafiq.
Rafiq, 50, pleaded responsible Thursday to 1 depend of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud. He faces a most doable sentence of 5 years in jail.
The U.S. legal professional’s workplace mentioned Rafiq, who was beforehand convicted in 2001 of an identical crime, ran a “brazen scheme” from Singapore in 2020, defrauding U.S. buyers at a time when tech IPOs have been hitting the market at file ranges and peak valuations.
In the summertime of that 12 months, Rafiq allegedly created created faux domains and e-mail addresses masquerading as a senior government on the household workplace.
Mohamed Mansour, president of Mansour Group, poses for {a photograph} following a Bloomberg Tv interview in London, U.Ok., on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016.
Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
Prosecutors say Rafiq pretended to be a detailed affiliate of the CEO of the household workplace, who was described as Sufferer-1, and impersonated one other household workplace government, recognized as Sufferer-2.
CNBC was in a position to establish Man Capital because the unnamed household workplace by means of a sequence of particulars within the prosecutor’s criticism, together with partial domains and web site particulars that precisely matched Man’s on-line presence.
Loutfy Mansour’s title and tenure additionally match the title and tenure of the unidentified Sufferer-1 within the criticism. The Mansour household publicly launched its household workplace in 2020, and disclosed its stakes in Airbnb and different expertise firms.
Rafiq started methodically pitching boutique funding banks and institutional buyers in 2020, a 12 months that featured blockbuster IPOs from tech firms together with Snowflake, Unity Software program and DoorDash, along with Airbnb. Rafiq was claiming he had entry to shares of pre-IPO firms, a doubtlessly profitable alternative given how a lot shares may pop once they hit the general public market.
In July 2020, an unnamed boutique funding financial institution in New York was launched to Rafiq by means of one other enterprise affiliate of a accomplice on the financial institution. Rafiq presupposed to be a detailed pal of the household workplace’s CEO, and was providing to promote $9 million price of Airbnb Collection C shares. The shares did not exist.
Airbnb had introduced plans to go public in 2019, however the Covid pandemic delayed its debut. Shortly after Rafiq first spoke with the funding financial institution, in August 2020, stories surfaced of Airbnb’s plan to confidentially file for an IPO. 4 days after these stories, the unnamed funding financial institution agreed to purchase the fictional shares and wired $9 million to an escrow account.
Airbnb finally held its IPO in December and noticed its inventory rocket 112% in its opening day.
Prosecutors first introduced prices of securities fraud, wire fraud and identification theft towards Rafiq in 2021. He’d dedicated virtually the identical crime 20 years earlier, when he was convicted for attempting to promote pre-IPO shares of Google.
Interior Metropolis Press, a information outlet that covers the Southern District of New York, first reported that Rafiq had been detained in January, following his extradition from Singapore.
“Shamoon Rafiq exploited buyers’ concern of lacking out on the potential positive aspects to be earned from investing in firms earlier than they go public, and solicited hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from buyers by means of brazen lies and deception,” U.S. Legal professional Audrey Strauss mentioned in a press release on the time of the 2021 cost.
The financial institution froze the $9 million in escrow funds and contacted the unnamed household workplace by means of a “trusted middleman,” in response to prosecutors. The household workplace’s authorized counsel reported the scheme to regulation enforcement shortly after it was knowledgeable, in response to the criticism.
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