Last August, the SEC asserts that Shamim provided investors with a fake bank statement showing that Youplus had over $600,000 in revenue from 35 clients, including Coca-Cola, Kraft, and Netflix. The reality was that the real bank statement revealed only one client and $65,000 in revenue.
YouPlus technology under scrutiny
According to Crunchbase, the Mountain View-based technology start-up was founded in 2014 and has 101-250 employees. They had been raising funds since 2013
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.
