旧金山科技公司GameOn创办人夫妇被起诉：被控多年诈骗投资者逾6000万美元
美国加利福尼亚州旧金山市县（旧金山为市县合一）2025年1月21日解封一份共25项罪名的起诉书：旧金山科技公司 GameOn（又名 GameOn Technology 或 ON Platform）创办人、前首席执行官 Alexander Charles Beckman（41岁）与他的妻子、律师 Valerie Lau Beckman（38岁）被控共谋、电汇诈骗、证券诈骗、身份盗窃等多项罪名，Lau 另被控妨碍司法。两人均为旧金山居民，1月21日被捕并在旧金山联邦法院首次出庭。
GameOn 是一家总部位于旧金山的私营公司，产品是一款自称具备超级智能（SI）功能、能模拟人类对话的聊天机器人软件，客户包括美国知名职业体育联盟与球队以及奢侈时尚和零售品牌。起诉书指控，2018年9月至2024年7月间，Beckman 从 GameOn 投资者手中募集了超过6000万美元；两人被控将超过400万美元投资者资金用于个人开支，包括在旧金山购置住宅、支付私立学校费用和支付两人的婚礼场地费用。Lau 自2016年至2024年为 GameOn 处理公司与交易法律事务，两人于2023年10月结婚。
起诉书称，Beckman 向投资者陈述的内容经常包括不存在的收入、虚增的现金余额以及虚假和夸大的客户关系。为推进骗局，他被控未经许可冒用至少七名真实人物的姓名——包括伪造的电子邮件和签名——散布虚假的 GameOn 财务与业务材料，被冒名者包括 GameOn 的一名财务主管、两名银行雇员和一名大型职业体育联盟的雇员。他还被控盗用知名会计师事务所（包括一家「四大」会计师事务所）的名称、签名和商标伪造两份 GameOn 审计报告，并散布十余份伪造的 GameOn 银行对账单。
Lau 于2021年9月加入一家风险投资公司。起诉书指控，她向 Beckman 提供了从自己雇主处取得的真实审计报告，Beckman 据此伪造 GameOn 的审计报告；Lau 还亲自将一份她明知是伪造的审计报告通过电子邮件发给一名 GameOn 投资者的代表，以诱使对方追加投资。2024年6月，Lau 将一份伪造的 GameOn 账户对账单送到旧金山一家银行网点——对账单谎称 GameOn 在该金融机构的余额超过1300万美元，而公司真实余额只有25.93美元——并请银行职员将装有对账单的信封留在银行，供 Beckman 当天晚些时候取走。2024年8月，当 Lau 的雇主就 GameOn 事务向她问询、且大陪审团对 GameOn 的调查正在进行时，她被控向雇主撒谎，并试图从雇主的记录中删除数百份与她为 GameOn 所做工作有关的文件。
代理联邦检察官 Patrick D. Robbins 说：「湾区是了不起的创新和勤奋创业者的家园，但创新不能靠诈骗生长。被告被控的这类骗局威胁我们的金融市场、欺骗投资者。」联邦调查局代理特别探员主管 Dan Costin 说，诈骗破坏资本市场的诚信、侵蚀投资者信任，联邦调查局将追究从事欺骗行为者的责任。
本案案号为 25-CR-00012，由助理联邦检察官 Patrick O'Brien 负责起诉，调查由联邦调查局执行。起诉书仅为指控，所有被告在被证明有罪之前均推定无罪。若罪名成立，被告每项电汇诈骗及共谋、证券诈骗罪最高可判20年监禁，证券诈骗共谋最高5年，银行诈骗共谋与对银行虚假陈述每项最高30年，以特定非法活动所得财产进行货币交易罪最高10年，加重身份盗窃每项最高2年且须与其他刑期连续执行；Lau 的妨碍司法罪最高可判20年。
（来源：美国司法部加州北区联邦检察官办公室）
GameOn Founder and His Attorney Wife Indicted in San Francisco: Accused of Defrauding Investors of More Than $60 Million
A 25-count indictment unsealed on January 21, 2025, in San Francisco, California — a consolidated city-county — charges Alexander Charles Beckman, 41, the founder and former CEO of the San Francisco technology company GameOn, Inc., also known as GameOn Technology or ON Platform, and his wife, attorney Valerie Lau Beckman, 38, with conspiracy, wire fraud, securities fraud, identity theft and other offenses. Lau is also charged with obstruction of justice. Both defendants, who live in San Francisco, were arrested on January 21 and made their initial appearances in federal court in San Francisco.
GameOn is a San Francisco-based private company offering a chatbot software program that claims super-intelligence (SI) functionality mimicking human conversation; its customers included prominent American professional sports leagues and teams and leading luxury fashion and retail brands. According to the indictment, from September 2018 to July 2024 Beckman raised over $60 million from GameOn investors, and the couple allegedly used over $4 million of investor funds on personal expenses, including purchases of residences in San Francisco, payments to private schools and payments to their wedding venue. Lau worked on GameOn corporate and transactional matters from at least 2016 to 2024, and the couple married in October 2023.
The indictment alleges that Beckman's statements to investors often described non-existent revenue, inflated cash balances and fake or exaggerated customer relationships. He allegedly used the names of at least seven real people — including fake emails and signatures — without their permission to distribute false GameOn financial and business documents; those whose names were used included a GameOn CFO, two bank employees and an employee of a major professional sports league. He also allegedly fabricated two GameOn audit reports using the names, signatures and trademarks of reputable accounting firms, including one of the Big Four, and distributed over a dozen fake bank statements.
Lau joined a venture capital firm in September 2021. She allegedly provided Beckman with genuine audit reports she obtained from her own employer, which he then used to create fake audit reports for GameOn, and she personally emailed one fake audit report to a GameOn investor's representative, knowing it was fake, to induce further investment. In June 2024, Lau allegedly delivered a fake GameOn account statement to a bank branch in San Francisco — one she knew falsely listed GameOn's balance at the financial institution as over $13 million when the true balance was just $25.93 — and asked a bank employee to keep it in an envelope at the bank for Beckman to pick up later that day. In August 2024, when her employer approached her about GameOn while a grand jury investigation was pending, Lau allegedly lied to her employer and attempted to delete hundreds of files relating to her GameOn work from her employer's records.
"The Bay Area is home to incredible innovation and hard-working entrepreneurs, but innovation cannot grow through fraud. Schemes like the ones that defendants are charged with threaten our financial markets and cheat investors," said First Assistant United States Attorney Patrick D. Robbins. FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Dan Costin said fraud undermines the integrity of capital markets and erodes investor trust, and that the FBI will hold accountable those who engage in deceptive practices.
The case, No. 25-CR-00012, is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick O'Brien and resulted from an FBI investigation. An indictment merely alleges that crimes have been committed, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy and for securities fraud; five years for securities fraud conspiracy; 30 years for each count of bank fraud conspiracy and false statements to a bank; 10 years for engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity; and two years for each count of aggravated identity theft, to run consecutively to any other term. Lau also faces up to 20 years for obstruction of justice.
(Source: U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California)
来源：美国司法部加州北区联邦检察官办公室
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：位于旧金山的菲利普·伯顿联邦大楼暨美国联邦法院外观，GameOn 案在此审理。（Marincyclist 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons） / Photo: The Phillip Burton Federal Building and United States Courthouse in San Francisco, where the GameOn case is being heard. (Marincyclist, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
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