RIVERSIDE (CNS) - A 21-year-old man who gained notoriety for popularizing conspiracy theories online is scheduled to be arraigned in a Riverside County courtroom in October for allegedly selling an unregistered security.
Jacob Wohl made a brief court appearance Wednesday, Riverside County District Attorney's Office public information officer John Hall told the Los Angeles Times.
An arrest warrant was issued for Wohl of Corona, and he was taken into custody Aug. 19, the Daily Beast reported. His father and attorney, David Wohl, told The Times Jacob was released on his own recognizance and the arrest warrant was canceled.
The elder Wohl also told the paper he and his son were unaware of the allegation before seeing the Daily Beast report and claimed prosecutors filed charges against his son without interviewing him and because the statute of limitations for filing charges was about to expire, the Times reported.
Riverside County prosecutors received a complaint in June 2016 from a resident in Arizona that he had invested $75,000 with the younger Wohl and his business partner, Matthew Johnson, and ultimately lost the money, according to court documents released by the District Attorney's Office.
In July 2016, an undercover investigator posed as a real estate agent with a client who wanted to invest money with Wohl and Johnson and had multiple conversations with the two men.
Prosecutors alleged Johnson offered the undercover investigator and a second detective who posed as the client a document calling for the client to invest $100,000 in a one-year note that would give a rate of return of 17% and the money would be used to purchase and flip homes, the Times reported, citing court documents.
Communications between the investigator, Wohl and Johnson stopped in late August 2016.
The next month, a temporary cease and desist order was filed against Wohl, Johnson and Montgomery Assets by the Arizona Corporation Commission. Johnson and Wohl consented to fines and penalties.
In 2018, Jacob Wohl allied himself with Jack Burkman, a lawyer and conservative conspiracy theorist, to allege special counsel Robert Mueller engaged in sexual impropriety. At the time, Mueller was investigating allegations the Trump campaign had conspired with Russian operatives to influence the 2016 presidential election.
The pair gave little evidence for the allegations and the woman described as the accuser told USA Today no such assault had occurred and Wohl approached her under a false identity.
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