A federal indictment alleges that a disgraced lobbyist paid a writer to promote a bitcoin in publications such as Investor’s Business Daily, reports Will Sommer of The Daily Beast.
Sommer reports, “Much of the SEC complaint focuses on articles that appeared to have been written by Peter J. Ferrara, a senior fellow at the conservative Heartland Institute. Prosecutors allege that Abramoff and Andrade paid for positive articles in 2017 and 2018 that match the description of articles Ferrara wrote about AML Bitcoin for The American Spectator, Investor’s Business Daily, and the Washington Times.
“In 2017, for example, SEC lawyers allege that Abramoff and Andrade paid a writer to exaggerate the significance of a meeting between AML Bitcoin’s promoters and Panama Canal officials in an attempt to suggest the digital coin was on the verge of being adopted in Panama.
“‘Abramoff arranged for NAC to compensate an author, who did not disclose that he was being paid by NAC, to publish an article on September 20, 2017 stating that NAC had ‘commenced groundbreaking discussions with the Panama Maritime Authority to use AML BitCoin in their payment structures,’ the SEC complaint reads.
“That publication date and quote matches a commentary piece bearing Ferrara’s byline that appeared in Investor’s Business Daily.”
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