On April 30, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved a plan of distribution for the Rimar Capital Fair Fund under Release No. 34-105345, directing the $310,000 collected in civil penalties from Itai Royi Liptz and Clifford Todd Boro to be distributed to the 45 investors who purchased Simple Agreements for Future Equity in Rimar Capital USA, Inc. between May 2022 and April 2023. The underlying enforcement action was settled on October 10, 2024, when the Commission found that Liptz, CEO and approximately 93 percent owner of Rimar USA, and Boro, a board member and consultant who held approximately 5 percent, had raised nearly $4M from those investors through materially false and misleading statements about an artificial intelligence-driven trading platform that did not function as advertised, assets under management that were a fraction of what was claimed, and investment performance that was fabricated. Liptz was also found to have misappropriated SAFE proceeds for personal expenses. The plan distributes available funds to harmed investors based on their out-of-pocket losses during the relevant period.
An AI Trading Platform That Claimed Coders and Infrastructure Belonging to Companies It Did Not Own
Rimar Capital, LLC presented itself as a state-registered investment adviser offering a range of automated trading strategies driven by artificial intelligence, covering equities, futures, and crypto assets. According to the SEC’s October 2024 order, the firm’s marketing materials and solicitation communications repeatedly described an AI-driven platform for trading stock and crypto assets. Pitch decks and emails sent to the 45 SAFE investors described an extensive infrastructure of coders and data processing capabilities that Rimar LLC claimed as its own. Those capabilities belonged to overseas entities in which neither Rimar USA nor Rimar LLC had any ownership interest. The firm claimed assets under management of between $16M and $20M. Its actual assets under management were less than $2M.
Liptz and Boro made these representations across multiple channels, including pitch decks, emails, and posts in a members-only investment group online. The SAFE offering itself promised investors equity in Rimar USA upon any equity financing and a share of proceeds upon a liquidity event such as an IPO. As an additional incentive, SAFE investors were offered the opportunity to become advisory clients of Rimar LLC. At least 20 of the 45 investors took that offer, becoming clients of the same firm whose capabilities had been misrepresented to them as investors.
Liptz Claimed Assets He Did Not Have, Returns He Did Not Generate, and Spent Investor Money on Himself
The SEC’s findings cover three distinct categories of misrepresentation. The first was the AI platform itself: Rimar LLC never had the technology it claimed, and had no trading application at all at the time of the fundraising. The second was performance and scale: the claims of $16M to $20M in AUM were false, as was the investment return data provided to prospective investors, which was derived from a single proprietary account rather than the client accounts it purported to represent. The third was personal misappropriation: Liptz used a portion of the SAFE proceeds for his own personal expenses.
The SEC’s Asset Management Unit described the conduct as “AI washing.” Andrew Dean, Co-Chief of the unit, said “Through entities he controlled, Liptz lured investors and clients with multiple fabrications, including with buzzwords about the latest AI technology. As AI becomes more popular in the investing space, we will continue to be vigilant and pursue those who lie about their firms’ technological capabilities and engage in ‘AI washing.’” The NFA separately ordered Rimar Capital and Liptz to withdraw from NFA membership for 30 months, finding they had traded ahead of customer accounts and used deceptive communications with prospective customers.
A $310,000 Fair Fund and a Five-Year Bar for Liptz as the Distribution Plan Is Approved
Liptz consented to the October 2024 order without admitting or denying the findings. He was ordered to pay disgorgement of $202,604 and prejudgment interest of $11,007.25, a payment the Commission deemed satisfied by offsets against capital advances Liptz had previously made to Rimar USA and Rimar LLC. He was also ordered to pay a $250,000 civil penalty, subject to a five-year associational bar from the investment industry, and prohibited from serving with any investment company. Boro was ordered to pay a $60,000 civil penalty. Together, the $310,000 in civil penalties forms the Fair Fund now approved for distribution. Rimar LLC was censured.
The April 30, 2026 order approves the proposed distribution plan published on March 10, 2026. The plan distributes the Net Available Fair Fund to investors based on their out-of-pocket losses on SAFEs purchased between May 1, 2022, and April 30, 2023. No comments were received during the public comment period.
Conclusion
Rimar Capital’s AI trading platform was a marketing construct built on language borrowed from technology it did not own and performance figures it did not generate. Forty-five investors purchased SAFEs in a holding company whose stated purpose, developing an AI-driven investment adviser, was based on fabrications at every level: the technology, the scale, and the returns. The $310,000 Fair Fund approved for distribution on April 30, 2026 is what remains after Liptz’s disgorgement was offset against advances he had already made to his own companies. The investors who accepted the offer to also become advisory clients of a platform that did not work as described will receive distributions proportional to their losses. Liptz is barred from the industry for five years and separately barred from NFA membership for 30 months.
