A US businessman was charged with defrauding 15 students by persuading them to invest in a fund that promised high returns using AI.

Brian Sewell lured students of his online course American Bitcoin Academy into parting with significant sums of money that would be invested in his supposedly 'artificial intelligence and 'machine learning'-powered Rockwell Capital Management crypto fund. 

But Sewell never launched the fund, instead purchasing USD 1.2 million worth of Bitcoin with the students' money, all of which he lost when his BTC wallet was hacked and wiped clean, according to US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The incident was seen to show the SEC clamping down on individuals and companies using 'attention-grabbing' technologies to attract and defraud investors.