Major US private equity firm Ripplewood found itself at the centre of a bizarre hoax today after a phoney press statement appeared on the London Stock Exchange’s bulletin board.
The statement explained that New York firm Ripplewood, which has offices in London, intended to invest US$1 billion in OpenAI, the developer of high-profile artificial intelligence model ChatGPT.
Ripplewood “would like to set up the software as a driving force in the fund… The AI-supported investment opportunity is intended to be a user-friendly and cost-efficient solution to optimize investors’ portfolios”, read the statement.
But speaking with the Evening Standard this afternoon, Ripplewood’s chief executive Tim Collins called out the statement as fake. “This is illegal, we have contacted the authorities,” he said.
The Standard noted that the fake press release is suspected of being an attempt to deceive people into handing cash to scammers posing as corporate advisers.
The London Stock Exchange has removed the announcement.
German news wire EQS, which initially distributed the announcement on behalf of an account holder, stated: “Due to the negative feedback after the publication today we decided to deactivate the account for now. We will further investigate.”