An AI firm founder/CEO and his Chinese American lawyer wife indicted for defrauding over $4 million investor funds

SAN FRANCISCO — Alexander Charles Beckman, founder and former CEO of GameOn Technology Inc., and his Chinese American lawyer wife, Valeria Lau, were indicted by a federal grand jury and charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for defrauding investors of the artificial intelligence (AI) firm for more than $4 million funds spending on their personal expenses including purchases of residences in San Francisco and their wedding.

Beckman, 41, and Lau, 38, were indicted by a federal grand jury on January 21, 2025 related to an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on January 23, 2025 respectively.

The indictment was unsealed on January 23, 2025 after both Beckman and Lau were arrested on that day and made their initial appearances in federal court in San Francisco. The couples both were granted bail for $1 million each at the court hearing.

Both Beckman and Lau were indicted with conspiracy, wire fraud, securities fraud, identity theft, and other offenses. Lau was also charged with obstruction of justice in the 25-count indictment.

The couple were also charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with violations of the Exchange Act and the Securities Act. The Commission also sought permanently enjoining both of them from participating in the sale of any security, permanently barring them from having a class of securities registered with the Commission, and ordering them to pay civil monetary penalties.

According to the federal indictment returned by a grand jury and the criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Beckman was one of the co-founders of GameOn Technology established in 2014 to be a San Francisco-based AI startup company.

GameOn offered a software program claiming artificial intelligence functionality that mimics human conversation and interaction, commonly known as a chatbot or “chat.” Its customers included prominent American professional sports leagues and teams and leading luxury fashion and retail brands, according to the federal agencies.

Beckman was GameOn's CEO and a member of its Board of Directors until his resignation from both positions on July 1, 2024. The GameOn was renamed as ON Platform Inc. in December 2023.

Over the course of the alleged scheme, from September 2018 to July 2024, Beckman raised over $60 million from GameOn investors. Throughout this period, GameOn was frequently in financial distress, routinely received overdraft notices from its banks, and regularly failed to generate enough cash to pay its operational expenses.

Beckman married Lau on or around October 30, 2023. According to court documents, Lau is an attorney who worked on GameOn's corporate and transactional matters from at least 2016 to 2024. The couple had been active in the San Francisco Bay Area technology community.

Lau graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor degree in biochemical sciences and later completed her law degree at Georgetown University. Lau also studied medicine for three years at UC Davis.

Lau speaks multiple languages including Cantonese, Mandarin, and French. She had been admitted to the State Bar of California on December 1, 2015 as an antitrust, trade, business and venture capital attorney.

After working at law firms, Lau joined a venture capital firm in September 2021 as its Vice President and General Counsel overseeing the firm's legal operations.

"Beginning on a date unknown, but no later than in or about April 2022 and continuing through in or about July 2024, Lau knowingly joined in a conspiracy with Beckman to defraud GameOn investors and also knowingly devised, intended to devise, participated in, and engaged in a scheme, plan, and artifice to defraud GameOn investors as to a material matter, and to obtain money and property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises, and by omission and concealment of material facts with a duty to disclose," the indictment wrote.

Beckman and Lau allegedly used over $4 million of GameOn investor funds on personal expenses, including purchases of two residences in San Francisco in December 2020 and April 2022, payments to private schools, and payments for their wedding.

As alleged in the indictment, Beckman made false and fraudulent financial statements to GameOn investors about non-existent revenues, inflated cash balances, and fake and exaggerated customer relationships.

In one incident in June 2024, Lau delivered a fake GameOn bank statement to a bank on which she claimed the account had a balance of $13 million. In fact, the true balance of a GameOn account was just $25.93.

Lau walked into the branch in San Francisco in person in June 2024 and asked a bank employee to print that statement with its bank letterhead and keep the fake statement in an envelope at the bank for Beckman to pick up later that day. Beckman walked in the bank later in the day and picked up the fake statement with a GameOn director who represented a major investor on GameOn’s board.

"Beckman also sent multiple investors fake bank statements that falsely showed millions of dollars in cash on hand and fictitious payments to GameOn from supposedly key customers," the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wrote in its complaint against Beckman and Lau. "Numerous investors, including individuals, institutions, and venture funds, purchased GameOn’s securities after receiving false financial records."

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revealed in the complaint that Beckman and Lau's scheme unraveled in early July 2024 when GameOn’s Board obtained access to the company’s actual bank accounts and determined that prior financial statements that Beckman provided were false and that the company had insufficient funds to pay its employees.

Beckman subsequently resigned under pressure from the Board in July 2024. GameOn laid off nearly all of its employees.

If convicted, both Beckman and Lau will face maximum sentences of 30 years for each count of bank fraud conspiracy and false statements to a bank; 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, and obstruction of justice.