Rhode Island's "G Money" Fires Back at SEC in Federal Court
GoLocalProv News Team
Rhode Island's "G Money" Fires Back at SEC in Federal Court
In May, GoLocal reported how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a 23-page complaint against Alomari — who markets under the name “G Money.”
The entrepreneur says he is “known as one of the most sought-after social media marketing and Investment consultants in the online business community,” and boasts nearly 100,000 Instagram followers.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThrough his consulting business, he urges potential clients to “learn the principles of success that took me from pizza delivery guy to multi-mllionaire before 30.”
The SEC did not buy Alomari’s claims.
In fact, the SEC said it brought the action against Alomari and his business MCM Consulting for “touting, fraudulently recommending while selling stock without adequately disclosing the intent to sell, and other violations related to his stock promotion services.”
Now, Alomari is firing back.
"G Money" Seeks to Dismiss Several Claims
In response to the SEC complaint, Alomari’s lawyers state, ”According to the allegations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Alomari, by and through MCM Consulting, worked as a stock promoter. Mr. Alomari never sought to conceal his work in this regard. His handle on social media and investor chats, the media by which he distributed the vast amount of his promotional material, was “IBuyCheapStocks.’”
Almori’s response continued, “The Complaint is devoid of allegations that would suggest Mr. Alomari’s lawful promotional activities had crossed into improper behavior: the Complaint contains no allegations that Mr. Alomari concealed funds through false bank accounts, no allegations that he engaged in manipulative trading, no allegations that he sought to distance himself from his companies, and no allegations that he ever purported to act as an independent or unbiased investment adviser.”
"Taken as a whole, the thrust of the SEC’s allegations is that Mr. Alomari did not completely disclose his compensation and trading activity while promoting stocks on the Internet, by text message, and over social media. All told, these allegations simply do not satisfy the pleading standards under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure and certainly do not surmount the high bar for pleadings of fraud required," added Almori's attorney.
Before the SEC hit Ahmed in May, Alomari was a self-proclaimed marketing machine.
According to Alomari’s website, he grew up in Detroit before moving with his family to Yemen, where “he had NBA dreams” — before dropping out of college to pursue music, and then moving to Rhode Island where he started a family and his own businesses.
He said in the period of next two years, he “built 3 more seven-figure businesses and co-founded two multi-million dollar startups in the education and lifestyle spaces.”
Since the SEC filed its complaint against Alomari in May, he no longer uses his social media for promoting stocks. His posts are now of family trips and boxing videos.
A Forbes contributor featured him in 2022 in an article titled, "Three Upscale Rhode Island Restaurants Perfect For Business Meetings, According To Entrepreneur Ahmed Alomari."
It was his promotion of penny stocks in 2019, however, that garnered the attention of the SEC.
“Alomari is a self-described social media marketing guru who was hired and compensated to promote the stock offerings of at least five companies that were 'microcap stocks.' Some of these companies had stock that traded for prices less than $5 per share, which are commonly known as 'penny stocks,’” wrote the SEC in their lawsuit.
"Over the next 2 years I took $15,000 and turned it into nearly $3,100,000 by building one of the largest social media influencer arb networks in the World," according to his website.
Alomari’s Attorneys Claim His Twitter Account’s Name Shows Disclosure
Alomari’s attorneys contest the SEC’s claims that he failed to disclose he was personally gaining and misleading investors of his relationship with some of the companies that he was promoting,
“To the contrary, his social media handles were “IBuyCheapStocks” and his Twitter page included the disclosure ‘Make your OWN trading decisions. I could be buying or selling any stocks mentioned.’ Any individual who came across Mr. Alomari’s posts on the Internet would be aware, from Mr. Alomari’s screen name alone, that he could be personally invested in these stocks,” wrote Alomari’s attorney in their response to the SEC.
In the response, Alomari's attorney asked that three of the five counts be dismissed and "Pursuant to Local Rule 7(c) for the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island, the Defendants hereby request oral argument and estimate that one hour will be required for argument."
In an email to GoLocal in May, Almori said, in an email to GoLocal that he was being prosecuted while people like Nancy Pelosi go unscathed.
According to Alomari, who issued this statement to GoLocal on Tuesday morning, “This whole thing is about the SEC interested in civil technicalities on disclaimers. Nothing more. I think it’s important for the public to know this is not a criminal case or complaint. There are zero victims and nobody has ever been hurt. 90% of these allegations are completely false allegations for a headline by the SEC. Ask anybody who has ever met me, and they will let you know about my ethics, integrity, and the type of person that I am. I have built the majority of my successful businesses outside of the world of paid promotion. I am a father of six small children.”
“More than half of these false allegations will certainly get thrown out and I find it disgusting the hall monitors at the sec are reaching this far. If my a business in my wife’s name is considered fraud while Nancy Pelosi and others are inside trading on a daily basis making tens of millions of dollars on the public’s back then there is a problem with the system. The system is meant to keep us all down and from making money. This is not a criminal case. These are minor disclosure technicalities,” said Alomari.
“Unfortunately, people will share this read [article] the SEC’s clickbait headline and temporarily judge me instead of seeing my great achievements and successes in life against all odds. But I suppose I shouldn’t be concerned with those fickle people anyway. Life isn’t about what happens to you. It’s about how you react to it, and I know the person that I am. It’s just another chapter and a part of life. Hopefully, once allegations get dropped and things get settled, there will be an article about it as well,” Alomari added.