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by Mike Caswell

Andrew Hackett, the Toronto man jailed in the United States for a scheme to boost a supposed social media listing though phone rooms and manipulative trades, has lost his appeal. Prosecutors claimed that Mr. Hackett and others were behind a scheme to boost an OTC Markets company called Arias Intel Corp. in 2017. He was part of a group charged for multiple pump-and-dumps run through a touting website called TheMoneyStreet.

The loss for Mr. Hackett is contained in a memorandum released on Wednesday, Dec. 18, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The appeal judges have upheld Mr. Hackett's conviction and the 46-month sentence that he received for the scheme. In doing so, they have found no "clear legal error" by prosecutors.

The decision comes over three years after Mr. Hackett's 2021 trial, which saw him convicted on charges of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. The evidence included testimony of a boiler room operator as well as text messages in which Mr. Hackett and others agreed on a target price for Arias Intel. The jury convicted him on Aug. 2, 2021, and he has since completed his prison term.

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