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In May 2019, Shamim accepted the  Grand Webit Award at a lavish ceremony in Sofia, Bulgaria. On his LinkedIn page, Shamim describes himself as a repeat entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and technologist.

YouPlus was supposed to be the world’s "first video opinion search engine using artificial intelligence." Using machine-learning, the tool was supposed to analyze videos on the internet. It is uncertain if the AI tool was ever developed.

The U.S. Attorney's Office of the Norther District of California alleges that Shamim boasted that he had developed an AI technology that could tell companies how their brands were trending online by analyzing video reviews posted on public websites.

Shamim claimed that it was “similar to how Google is indexing the textual web by looking inside and indexing keywords, Youplus is using computer vision, audio, and text analysis to look inside videos” to understand market trends. 

The criminal complaint alleges that instead of using AI, YouPlus paid workers in India to watch videos and record their impressions. 

Shamim could face up to 20 years in prison plus fines and restitution if convicted of wire fraud. He also faces 20 years in prison and $5 million in fines if convicted of the securities charges.

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