A fintech startup that raised $ 40 million based on its artificial intelligence capabilities, fuel by human labor, allegedly cheated investors lured by new technology of federal prosecutors, federal prosecutors. Said this week In a statement.
In 2018, the former NAT CEO and founder 35 -year -old Albert Sainigar, who is from Barcelona, ​​Spain, was inspired to be engaged in a plan to alleged investors in the southern district of New York and make a wrong statement to make a wrong statement about his company’s AI abilities.
An e-commerce company NAT launched the NAT app, which claimed to make the online shopping checkout process effective through a single AI-operated tap option. But the app was not operated by advanced AI technology, according to this Prosecution,
With the promise of the custom-made “Deep Learning Model”, which would allow the app to purchase goods directly on product pages in less than three seconds, the Sanigger picked up more than $ 40 million. While instructing employees to have nuts dependence on foreign workers, he picked investors an AI-managed product capable of 10,000 daily transactions.
Instead, the app allegedly trusted foreign workers in two different countries who manually processed the transaction, which users believed that were being done by automation. Meanwhile, Sainiger reportedly told investors and public that the transaction was being completed by AI.
The US Department of Justice said, “Saniger allegedly misused the integrity associated with its former position, which is to end the smoke and mirror -filled scheme as CEO.” Said In a statement.
Court documents stated that in the absence of technology, Sainigar allegedly trusted hundreds of workers at a call center in the Philippines. When a Deadly tropical storm In October 2021, the country said, NAT set up a new call center in Romania to handle the backlog of customer services. Investors were never exposed to Lulla in the transaction as Saniger directed that the transactions should be given priority to avoid doubts.
After the company’s collapse in 2023, the investors were left with near-column loss, the prosecution said.
American private AI investment increased Last year $ 109.1 billion – And the United Nations Trade and Development Branch said that the market is ready to climb share $ 4.8 trillion by 2033,
AI is widely considered free from human intervention but reality paint a more complex picture. NAT is not the only company that has imposed capital on AI through cheap labor abroad.
In 2023, Washington Post exposed ‘Digital sweets’ in the Philippines where employees worked on materials to refine the American AI model for a company called Scale AI, which includes multinational technology groups such as the use of meta, microsoft, and openiAI.
CBS news reached the US Attorney Office and Sainiger for the comment.
