FCA action on "finfluencers": their crackdown on illegal ads
As the FCA’s prosecutes “finfluencers” Charles Hunter, Kayan Kalipha and Luke Desmaris, who will appear before Southwark Crown Court this week, leading audit, tax and consulting firm RSM UK says regulators will struggle to combat the growing tide of AI-generated illegal financial content.
Angela Toner, Financial Services Partner, RSM UK said: “This is the first of a series of prosecutions being brought against finfluencers for misleading and unauthorised financial promotions, in this case for foreign exchange (forex or FX) trading of high-risk products known as contracts for difference.
“The charges follow the FCA’s announcement in June 2025 of coordinated global enforcement action targeting illegal financial promotions by finfluencers across multiple jurisdictions.
“The legal consequences for high-profile individuals will likely illustrate to others that unregulated adverts on social media carry significant penalties, hopefully reducing the willingness of others to offer unregulated financial advice or promotion.
“However, the criminals behind these investment scams can now use AI to generate huge amounts of realistic and convincing content – often using deepfakes of celebrities – and flood social media with it. Regulatory enforcement is racing to try to keep up with this influx, which often comes from outside the UK from jurisdictions where the FCA has no influence. It remains to be seen whether these prosecutions will do anything to hold back the deluge of illegal adverts.”