A man who promoted himself on social media as an investment guru pleaded guilty in a Manhattan federal court to defrauding his followers.
Kenneth Thom, 42, pleaded guilty to investment adviser fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said Thursday.
On social media, he went by the names “K$” and “K Money,” selling courses and stock tips to followers while calling himself a Wall Street veteran and a “beacon of knowledge,” federal prosecutors said.
Thom did not tell his followers that he had been suspended as a broker by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in 2011 after failing to pay an arbitration award to an investor.
Thom had mixed his money with hers, invested it, lost most of it, made excuses for why she could not withdraw her invested money and ghosted her, federal prosecutors said.
As part of his social media presence, Thom created a Facebook group in which he posted the results of his supposedly successful investments.
Starting in 2023, Thom invited members of the group to invest in shared accounts that he managed in exchange for a share of the profits, federal prosecutors said.
Through the group, Thom raked in about $800,000 from 67 clients. Federal prosecutors said he invested only $350,000 of that sum, spending the remainder on personal expenses, including luxury items, food and travel.
Out of the $350,000 Thom did invest, he lost 73% on trades starting in March 2024. He then gave fake updates to the clients involved in the shared accounts to make it look like his investments were making gains instead of losses, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Thom changed the name of his Facebook group to AYBABTU — an acronym of the Internet meme “all your base are belong to us” — in January 2025.
Thom then stopped responding to his clients.
Thom faces up to five years in prison for investment adviser fraud. He is due to be sentenced on June 25.
