Manipulation?

I've always been a bit dubious about allegations of market manipulation, but it's interesting that a man in Scotland, near where I live, has been charged by the US authorities with fraud...see article below, was also reported on UK tv.


"A Scottish man has been charged in the US for allegedly using Twitter to manipulate share prices.

James Alan Craig, from Dunragit, caused shareholders to lose more than $1.6m (£1.1m) after using the social network to spread "fraudulent" information about companies, the Department of Justice said.

According to the DoJ's indictment, the 62-year-old set up Twitter accounts using names similar to real market research firms, before tweeting false news about publicly-traded securities.

When shares in the targeted companies slumped, Craig allegedly bought securities of the firms through his girlfriend’s brokerage account and later sold them at a higher price."