Technology

‘Cash-flow’ podcaster made off with millions in Ponzi scheme, SEC alleges

Published

2 years ago

September 25, 2023

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People exit the headquarters of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C., on May 12, 2021.

Andrew Kelly | Reuters

An Ohio podcast host ran an $11 million Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 50 investors with false claims of helping them become a “real estate investing badass,” the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged Monday.

Matt Motil described himself as the “Cash Flow King,” according to his social media presence, and promised to help teach investors how to leverage “rental real estate investments to help you get paid and live a lifestyle you actually love.”

But Motil’s self-described success was an elaborate façade, according to regulatory filings and Ohio bankruptcy proceedings. In a 29-page complaint, the SEC laid out how Motil issued “promissory notes” fully collateralized by property across Ohio to dozens of investors. Motil told his investors that those notes were collateralized by “first mortgages” on properties, suggesting that no other investor had a more senior claim to the property, the complaint said.

“Nearly everything about his scheme was a lie,” the financial regulator’s complaint read.

CNBC has reached out to Motil for comment.

In one instance, according to the SEC, Motil managed to get more than $1 million from 20 different investors for just one single-family home valued at no more than $130,000. Motil targeted a wide array of investors, from a cancer researcher to an active-duty U.S. armed forces officer, the complaint alleged.

Motil filed for bankruptcy in March 2022 in Ohio but has evaded the SEC’s administrative subpoenas since then, the regulator said. All the while, Motil relied on social media and his own website to advertise and entice other investors, the regulators said.

Motil and his wife, Amy, profited handsomely from the scheme, the SEC alleged. Motil claimed that the promissory notes would go toward renovating and reselling the properties, a practice commonly known as “flipping.”

Motil also forged signatures and misused a notary’s seal to continue his fraud, the SEC alleged, which is a crime in Ohio. Motil attempted to file for bankruptcy in Ohio in an effort to discharge the money he owes his investors, but his case has been contested by the U.S. Trustee.

Federal regulators have stepped up their scrutiny of smaller-scale scammers who do significant financial harm to investors and the public. Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission leveled civil charges against an Amazon e-commerce “automation” company that defrauded investors out of millions. That case is still proceeding.

Technology

ServiceNow in talks to acquire cybersecurity startup Armis in potential $7 billion deal, Bloomberg reports

Published

4 hours ago

December 14, 2025

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ServiceNow in talks to acquire cybersecurity startup Armis in potential billion deal, Bloomberg reports

Software company ServiceNow is in advanced talks to buy cybersecurity startup Armis, which was last valued at $6.1 billion, Bloomberg reported.

The deal, which could reach $7 billion in value, would be ServiceNow’s largest acquisition, the outlet said, citing people familiar with the situation who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.

The acquisition could be announced as soon as this week, but could still fall apart, according to the report.

Armis and ServiceNow did not immediately return a CNBC request for comment.

Armis, which helps companies secure and manage internet-connected devices and protect them against cyber threats, raised $435 million in a funding round just over a month ago and told CNBC about its eventual plans for an IPO.

Armis CEO Yevgeny Dibrov and CTO Nadir Izrael.

Courtesy: Armis

CEO and co-founder Yevgeny Dibrov said Armis was aiming for a public listing at the end of 2026 or early 2027, pending “market conditions.”

Armis’s decision to be acquired rather than wait for a public listing is a common path for startups at the moment. The IPO markets remain choppy and many startups are choosing to remain private for longer instead of risking a muted debut on the public markets.

Founded in 2016, Armis said in August it had surpassed $300 million in annual recurring revenues, a milestone it achieved less than a year after reaching $200 million in ARR.

Its latest funding round was led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives’ growth equity fund, with participation from CapitalG, a venture arm of Alphabet. Previous backers have included Sequoia Capital and Bain Capital Ventures.

Read the complete Bloomberg article here.

Technology

Here are 4 major moments that drove the stock market last week

Published

20 hours ago

December 13, 2025

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Here are 4 major moments that drove the stock market last week

Technology

Oracle says there have been ‘no delays’ in OpenAI arrangement after stock slide

Published

2 days ago

December 12, 2025

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Oracle says there have been 'no delays' in OpenAI arrangement after stock slide

Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk appears on a media tour of the Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas, on Sept. 23, 2025.

Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Oracle on Friday pushed back against a report that said the company will complete data centers for OpenAI, one of its major customers, in 2028, rather than 2027.

The delay is due to a shortage of labor and materials, according to the Friday report from Bloomberg, which cited unnamed people. Oracle shares fell to a session low of $185.98, down 6.5% from Thursday’s close.

“Site selection and delivery timelines were established in close coordination with OpenAI following execution of the agreement and were jointly agreed,” an Oracle spokesperson said in an email to CNBC. “There have been no delays to any sites required to meet our contractual commitments, and all milestones remain on track.”

The Oracle spokesperson did not specify a timeline for turning on cloud computing infrastructure for OpenAI. In September, OpenAI said it had a partnership with Oracle worth more than $300 billion over the next five years.

“We have a good relationship with OpenAI,” Clay Magouyrk, one of Oracle’s two newly appointed CEOs, said at an October analyst meeting.

Doing business with OpenAI is relatively new to 48-year-old Oracle. Historically, Oracle grew through sales of its database software and business applications. Its cloud infrastructure business now contributes over one-fourth of revenue, although Oracle remains a smaller hyperscaler than Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

OpenAI has also made commitments to other companies as it looks to meet expected capacity needs.

In September, Nvidia said it had signed a letter of intent with OpenAI to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia equipment for the San Francisco artificial intelligence startup. The first phase of that project is expected in the second half of 2026.

Nvidia and OpenAI said in a September statement that they “look forward to finalizing the details of this new phase of strategic partnership in the coming weeks.”

But no announcement has come yet.

In a November filing, Nvidia said “there is no assurance that we will enter into definitive agreements with respect to the OpenAI opportunity.”

OpenAI has historically relied on Nvidia graphics processing units to operate ChatGPT and other products, and now it’s also looking at designing custom chips in a collaboration with Broadcom.

On Thursday, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan laid out a timeline for the OpenAI work, which was announced in October. Broadcom and OpenAI said they had signed a term sheet.

“It’s more like 2027, 2028, 2029, 10 gigawatts, that was the OpenAI discussion,” Tan said on Broadcom’s earnings call. “And that’s, I call it, an agreement, an alignment of where we’re headed with respect to a very respected and valued customer, OpenAI. But we do not expect much in 2026.”

OpenAI declined to comment.

WATCH: Oracle says there have been ‘no delays’ in OpenAI arrangement after stock slide