Psychic Who Promised Investors Money and Happiness Accused of Fraud
The Securities and Exchange Commission asserts in a lawsuit that a self-proclaimed psychic who promised investors he could give them “piles of money” and spiritual happiness was wrong on at least the first count.
The securities fraud lawsuit against Sean David Morton says investors forked over $6 million, but he deposited only $3.2 million into trading accounts, the New York Times reports. The rest of the money was allegedly funneled to entities that included Morton’s nonprofit religious group, the Prophecy Research Institute.
The Times headline reads: “For Psychic, Suit Came as a Surprise.” The story begins this way: “He calls himself ‘America’s Prophet,’ a psychic, trained by Nepalese monks in the art of time travel, who can foretell the future of the stock market. But to the authorities, Sean David Morton is simply a fraud—and a really, really bad psychic.”
The Times couldn’t reach Morton for comment. Morton had previously filed a suit, later dismissed, that sought to stop the SEC investigation. It claimed Morton was targeted by “dishonest and incompetent SEC employees, who apparently need to justify a trip to California in order to visit Disneyland and eat In-N-Out burgers at the taxpayers’ expense.”
