Trage Tech, aka Trage Applied sciences, has obtained a securities fraud stop and desist from the Georgia Commissioner of Securities.
The Commissioner’s order additionally cites Eric Ture Muhammad, a serial fraudster and Trage Tech promoter.
An investigation by the Georgia Commissioner revealed;
Trage started working in early 2024 and is now providing funding in an automatic cryptocurrency arbitrage buying and selling program that purportedly pays profitable earnings each day.
Trage and its principals and promoters … are touting the legitimacy of Trage by claiming it’s registered with the USA Securities and Trade Fee.
In reality and reality, Trage shouldn’t be registered with the USA Securities and Trade Fee.
The Commissioner has discovered grounds to conclude that Respondents might have engaged in act or practices constituting violations of the Georgia Uniform Securities Act of 2008.
[Trage Tech’s] crypto arbitrage investments are securities as that time period is outlined in [the] Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA).
Respondents are violating OCGA by providing securities on the market in Georgia at a time when the securities will not be registered with or permitted by the Securities Commissioner.
Respondents are participating in fraud in reference to the supply for the sale of securities in violation of OCGA.
Respondents named within the Commissioner’s December sixteenth order are:
- Trage Applied sciences
- Grame Gary Hearn
- Michael “Mike” Holoway” and
- Eric Ture Muhammad
The Commissioner’s order, because it applies to the above Respondents, is as follows:
It’s hereby ordered:
- Trage Applied sciences instantly stop and desist all violations of the Georgia Uniform Securities Act of 2008
- Trage Applied sciences instantly stop and desist from providing on the market any safety in Georgia till the safety is registered with the Commissioner of Securities or is obtainable on the market pursuant to an exemption from registration below Georgia Uniform Securities Act, as amended
- Michael “Mike Holloway instantly stop and desist all violations of the Georgia Uniform Securities Act of 2008, as emended.
- Graeme Garry Hearn instantly stop and desist all violations of the Georgia Unfiform Securities Act of 2008, as amended
- Eric Ture Muhammad instantly stop and desist all violations of the Georgia Uniform Securities Act of 2008, as amended
Respondents Trage, Holloway and Hearn collectively and severally, pay a civil penalty within the quantity of 5 hundred thousand {dollars} ($500,000).
Respondent Eric Ture Muhammad pay a civil penalty within the quantity of 5 hundred thousand {dollars} ($500,000).
As researched and reported in BehindMLM’s TrageTech assessment, Michael Hearn is a fictional CEO performed by Thailand-based UK expat Daniel Poole.
After BehindMLM’s assessment was printed in August 2024 outing Poole, TrageTech rolled out “Michael Holloway”, an Australian expat additionally believed to be residing in Thailand.
The above slide is from a separate Trage Tech securities fraud desist and chorus order, issued by California’s DFPI in November 2024.
Texas additionally issued a Trage Tech fraud enforcement order citing Eric Muhammad in October 2024.
Muhammad shouldn’t be registered in any capability with the Georgia Secretary of State and has by no means made filings with the Commissioner to supply or promote securities.
Muhammad is at present below an Emergency Stop and Desist Order issued by the Commissioner on January twenty second, 2024 and is barred from conducting broker-dealer agent actions.
The January 22, 2024 Order ordered Muhammad to pay a penalty of 5 hundred thousand {dollars} which is at present in default.
Muhammad at present is selling Trage and its investments in digital asset buying and selling, in violation of the January 22, 2024 Order.
The Division subsequently found that Muhammad is concerned with a number of pyramid schemes and Ponzi schemes for the reason that entrance of the January 22, 2024 Order.
On Might 13, 2024, the Commissioner brought on a subpoena to be issued to Muhammad.
The subpoena requested paperwork and data referring to Muhammad’s violations of the Georgia Securities Act, [and] requested Muhammad to seem to supply testimony below oath.
The deadline to reply to the subpoena was June 14, 2024.
On June 13, 2024, Muhammad acknowledged in an electronic mail to Division enforcement workers, “I should not have any paperwork”.
On June 14, 2024, Muhammad appeared remotely to supply testimony below oath. Muhammad didn’t present any paperwork requested within the subpoena.
When requested if he would complement his testimony with documentation he acknowledged, “If I felt the necessity, I’d take that below authorized advisement.”
In testimony below oath, Muhammad was questioned about a number of monetary deposits despatched to him from buyers.
Muhammad acknowledged the Division must ask the people instantly why they’d ship him funds.
In the middle of the investigation, the Division found that investor funds have been used to pay for Muhammad’s son’s faculty tuition.
When requested about this throughout testimony below oath, Muhammad instructed the Division he was “suspending” the testimony.
In the course of the testimony below oath, Muhammad was requested if his monetary assertion have been out there for the Division to assessment.
Muhammad acknowledged, “[N]othing out there to you”. He went on say, “I simply don’t have them to supply.”
The Division requested Muhammad about his Quickbook account.
Muhammad acknowledged, “I may need. I don’t know.” Nonetheless in the course of the course of the investigation, the Division found that Muhammad had a Quickbook account bookmarked on his browser that he would share throughout his promotional actions.
In the course of the testimony below oath, it was decided that Muhammad has actively selling a number of funding schemes.
Muhammad exited the testimony below oath whereas nonetheless being questioned.
The Division tried to reschedule Muhammad to renew his testimony however he failed to reply and failed to seem for extra testimony.
On September 9, 2024, Muhammad posted a video convention name and made a number of misrepresentations to buyers collaborating within the video convention name.
Muhammad misrepresented the settlement phrases of the January 22, 2024 Order and instructed buyers that he had reached a settlement with state securities regulators.
Nonetheless, Muhammad didn’t enter right into a settlement with any state securities regulators. The January 22, 2024 Order issued on Muhammad continues to be energetic.
Attorneys for Muhammad’s co-Respondents within the January 22, 2024 Order confirmed that they didn’t signify Muhammad and that they weren’t negotiating that settlement on Muhammad’s behalf.
Muhammad acknowledged in a video to buyers and potential buyers;
“Earlier than this was settled I needed to seem earlier than the Secretary of State of Georgia by the use of subpoena.
I instructed them very clearly. I requested them did they know something about hell that means the situation or the place that subscribe to it.
People, I stated it’s at all times referred to as scorching, it’s at all times referred to as full of fireplace. It’s talked about with insufferable warmth and all that good things that’s hell, in closing remark earlier than I turned my again on you, I’m going to let you know will probably be a superb day in hell earlier than you get something out me a lot as a dime or a bit of as a penn.
This struggle you’re making an attempt to struggle a false struggle that doesn’t belong to us, it belongs to god that backs us”.
Whereas Muhammad appeared for testimony below oath remotely, per his request, he by no means made the above assertion or any iteration of the above assertion at any time to Division workers.
A number of instances in the course of the course of the investigation, the Division urged Muhammad to hunt the counsel of a certified securities legal professional to advise him on how his actions represent violations of the Georgia Uniform Securities Act and his authorized obligations below the subpoena.
Regardless of data that his actions have been in violation of Georgia legislation, Muhammad started selling Trage.
After misrepresenting the settlement phrases to buyers on the September 9, 2024 video, Muhammad launched buyers to Respondent Trage.
Muhammad begins the introduction of Trage by itemizing the earlier unlawful schemes he promoted which had been, as he claims, “snuffed” by regulation.
Muhammad continues by studying a boiler-plate “buying and selling disclaimer” which states that buying and selling in monetary devices carries threat.
Nonetheless, Muhammad proceeds to make ensures in regards to the funding stating that Trage has a month-to-month return on 36% on an funding of $10,000.
Muhammad tells buyers on the September 9, 2024 video that “you would possibly need to hold that very same line of succession coming from GSB”.
GSB refers to Gold Commonplace Financial institution, the dad or mum firm of GSPartners.
GSPartners was a fraudulent funding scheme that Ture promoted.
GSB Proprietor Josip Heit is at present in the midst of a settlement with US authorities, via which he’s agreed to pay again GSPartners buyers.
The Georgia Commissioner collectively fined Muhammad and a number of other GSB Respondents $500,000 again in January. That is the “high quality in default” beforehand referenced by the Commissioner above.
Muhammad additional states to buyers “when that cash comes again,” referring to the GSB settlement, “it’s going to want a house to give you the results you want.”
Trage Applied sciences collapsed once more on December twelfth. The corporate disabled its web site and locked buyers out of their accounts.
BehindMLM famous TrageTech initially collapsing in late October. This collapse additionally noticed TrageTech pull down its web site.
As of November 2024, SimilarWeb tracked ~293,000 visits to TrageTech’s web site. This represents a 72% discount month on month.
The US is/was the highest supply of visitors to Trage Tech’s web site, representing 75% of all guests for November 2024.
The Georgia Commissioner has pegged Trage Tech investor losses at “over $7 million”.
Eric Ture Muhammad continues to violate the Commissioner’s orders. In varied December 2024 social media posts Muhammad could be seen selling RideBNB via “Workforce Consider”:
Muhammad promotes RideBNB below the guise of “cryptocurrency coaching”. In precise reality RideBNB is an unlawful MLM crypto gifting scheme.
Muhammad has till January fifteenth, 2025 to pay his new Trage Tech $500,000 high quality.
It stays to be seen what motion the Georgia Commissioner will take subsequent if the high quality, like Muhammad’s earlier $500,000 GSPartners high quality, additionally goes unpaid.