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CEO secretly kept human workers at a Philippines call centre for his ‘AI’ shopping app
Albert Saniger misled investors and the public about his shopping app Nate's AI capabilities, relying on human workers in the Philippines.
The founder and former CEO of a US-based e-commerce firm was charged with making false claims about his company’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology when he actually employed human workers at a call center located in the Philippines.
Albert Saniger, who founded Nate, which claims to be a "magic shopping app", allegedly fabricated his company's purported artificial intelligence capabilities while covertly employing humans behind the scenes, the US Department of Justice said.
Saniger, 35, promoted his product to investors and the public as a universal shopping cart app that simplified online shopping because people could buy items from any e-commerce site with a "single tap" using the Nate app. The app promised users to take care of the rest of the checkout process, including billing and shipping information, using AI.
In reality, Saniger, who is originally from Barcelona, relied on hundreds of contractors at a call centre in the Philippines to manually complete purchases made by users over the Nate app.
Saniger promoted a “scheme filled with smoke and mirrors”, said the FBI.
“As alleged, Albert Saniger misled investors by exploiting the promise and allure of AI technology to build a false narrative about innovation that never existed," said Matthew Podolsky, the acting United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.
"This type of deception not only victimizes innocent investors, it diverts capital from legitimate startups, makes investors skeptical of real breakthroughs, and ultimately impedes the progress of AI development. This Office and our partners at the FBI will continue to pursue those who seek to harm investors by touting false innovation.”
The former CEO has been slapped with charges which carry upto 20 years in prison, the Department of Justice said.
Albert Saniger, who has an MBA from London Business School, founded Nate in 2018 after a brief stint with Amazon in London.
He raised over $50 million from various investors, according to a TechCrunch report.
In 2023, he was no longer the CEO of Nate, according to his LinkedIn profile. He is currently a managing partner at a New York-based firm, as per the his LinkedIn.
Around January 2023, Nate ran out of money and was forced to sell its assets, leaving its investors with near-total losses.
