Co-Founder of Social Media App IRL Charged with Securities Fraud

Aug. 28, 2025, 3:54 PM UTC

The co-founder and former CEO of now-shuttered technology startup Get Together Inc. is facing criminal charges over claims he misled investors about the promise of social media app IRL.

Federal prosecutors accuse Abraham Shafi of misleading investors about IRL’s user base and marketing spending in the lead up to a Series C fundraising round that raised around $170 million from investors.

Shafi has been defending a related civil lawsuit by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for over a year. And Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp., which invested around $150 million in the social media company, sued Shafi and others in ...

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