Alberto Saniger Mantinan, a/k/a Albert Saniger

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 26282 / April 11, 2025

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Albert Saniger, No. 1:25-cv-02937 (S.D.N.Y. filed Apr. 9, 2025)

SEC Charges Founder and Former CEO of Artificial Intelligence Startup with Misleading Investors

On April 9, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Albert Saniger, the founder and former CEO of Nate, Inc., a privately held technology startup, with fraudulently soliciting investments in Nate and raising over $42 million through the sale of Nate stock by making false and misleading statements about the company’s use of artificial intelligence (“AI”).

According to the SEC’s complaint, between spring 2019 and December 2022, Saniger, who resided in New York, NY during the relevant time, marketed Nate as a mobile shopping application that used AI to process transactions. Saniger allegedly told investors in both Nate’s Seed and Series A fundraising round that Nate’s application used automated technology that relied on AI to complete purchases made through the app without human involvement. In reality, and as Saniger allegedly knew, Nate relied in large part on contract employees to manually input orders placed by users on the app, Nate’s success rate in completing transactions was lower than what he represented to investors, and Nate’s app was not able to use AI to complete purchases.

The SEC’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, charges Saniger with violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The SEC seeks permanent injunctions, conduct-based injunctions, an officer-and-director bar, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Natasha Bronn Schrier and Ellen Chen and supervised by Rahul Kolhatkar and Jason H. Lee of the San Francisco Regional Office. The litigation will be led by Christopher Dunnigan of the New York Regional Office and Ms. Bronn Schrier and supervised by Daniel Loss.