January 24, 2025/US SEC
On January 23, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Alexander Beckman, the former CEO of San Francisco-based GameOn Inc., with defrauding investors out of more than $60 million by falsely inflating the financial performance and commercial success of GameOn. The SEC also charged Beckman’s wife, Valerie Lau, a licensed attorney, with fraud.
As alleged in the SEC’s complaint, Beckman, of San Francisco, California, falsely represented to investors that GameOn, an AI chat technology startup company that later changed its name to The ON Platform Inc., had generated tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue and positive net income from dozens of contracts with high-profile customers. According to the complaint, the company’s actual annual revenue never exceeded $500,000 and the company was never profitable. Beckman allegedly provided investors with false financial statements, forged bank statements, and fake revenue reports that falsely reflected significant revenue. As alleged in the complaint, Lau, who was the General Counsel of a venture capital firm, participated in Beckman’s deceptive scheme by, among other things, helping Beckman create and disseminate a fake audit report with the logo and signature of a prominent “Big Four” accounting firm. To perpetuate the fraud and conceal GameOn’s true financial status, Beckman also allegedly created fake email accounts impersonating several of GameOn’s financial consultants and bankers and used those fictitious accounts to send false information to GameOn’s Board of Directors and to investors after the Board raised questions about the company’s financial statements and cash position. Lau also allegedly emailed a counterfeit bank statement to a bank employee, which was ultimately handed to a GameOn Board member, in an elaborate scheme to deceive the Board member into believing the company had funds in its account when the balance was close to $0.
The SEC’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, charges Beckman with violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”), Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 (“Securities Act”). Additionally, the complaint charges Lau with violating Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act, Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and Sections 17(a)(1) and (a)(3) of the Securities Act. As to both defendants, the complaint seeks permanent injunctions, including conduct-based injunctions, disgorgement plus prejudgment interest, civil penalties, and an officer-and-director bar.
The SEC’s investigation of this matter was conducted by Eli Greenstein and Mitchell Davidson and was supervised by Ruth L. Hawley and Jason H. Lee, all of the San Francisco Regional Office. The litigation will be conducted by Mr. Greenstein, Sheila O’Callaghan, Bernard Smyth, and Marc Katz, also of the San Francisco Regional Office.
