Far-right smear merchant Jacob Wohl was charged with unlawful sale of securities in California, The Daily Beast reports.
The Daily Beast first reported on Wednesday that an arrest warrant in Riverside County was issued for Wohl and former business partner Matthew Johnson in August. The outlet later reported that the warrant was recalled after Wohl appeared in court on Wednesday and released on his own recognizance until he is arraigned in October.
The charges stem from Wohl’s stint as as financial fraudster. A warrant application showed that the three-year statute of limitations was set to run out before prosecutors obtained the warrant.
“In 2016 Jacob Wohl and Matthew Johnson represented themselves as members of a company called Montgomery Assets,” the warrant application says, according to The Daily Beast. “On July 27, 2016 through August 27, 2016 Jacob Wohl and Matthew Johnson offered for sale unqualified securities in violation of California Corporations Code 25110 which has a three year statute of limitations and must be tolled by the issuance of an arrest warrant.”
Wohl previously scammed clients out of thousands:
Before becoming a far-right, pro-Trump scam artist, Wohl was a teenage financial scam artist who launched a firm claiming to be a trading prodigy.
Wohl was investigated by the National Futures Association after a client complained that Wohl told him that he increased his $75,000 investment to $89,000, but when the client tried to cash out, Wohl only sent him $44,000.
“The investigators noted in a report that Wohl’s promotional materials for the company claimed that Wohl had nine years of trading experience. That claim meant that Wohl, then 17 or 18 years old, would have been trading since he was 8 or 9 years old,” The Daily Beast reported. “Wohl withdrew from the NFA ahead of the investigation, and eventually received a lifetime ban from the group.”
Wohl was also ordered by the Arizona Corporation Commission to pay nearly $33,000 in restitution and $5,000 for violating securities law.
Wohl could be in hot water for other stunts:
Wohl could also face legal trouble from other stunts he’s pulled since leaving finance and diving into pro-Trump politics.
“In November 2018, Wohl teamed up with Washington lobbyist Jack Burkman for a spectacularly failed attempt to concoct a bogus sexual assault smear against then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The pair also attempted to fake a similar allegation against Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg, which flopped after The Daily Beast obtained audio of Wohl and Burkman trying to pressure a potential ‘victim’ into making a false allegation against Buttigieg,” The Daily Beast reported. “In February, Wohl faked a death threat against himself, then reported the bogus crime to Minneapolis police. This summer, a phone number associated with Wohl was used to threaten a former GOP campaign worker, although Wohl denied involvement in the incident.”
