A Wisconsin woman has been charged with theft over accusations she tried to profit from Facebook's much-anticipated plans to go public by selling fake stock in the social media giant.
In a criminal complaint on Thursday, prosecutors said Marianne Oleson told acquaintances she obtained $1 million in stock because her daughter was an acquaintance of Facebook's founder, and persuaded several people to buy fictitious Facebook stock over a four-month period.
The Oshkosh woman was charged with 31 counts of theft, forgery and making misleading statements.
Facebook unveiled plans on Wednesday for the biggest-ever Internet IPO. Facebook said it was seeking to raise $5 billion, but analysts estimated it could tap investors for $10 billion.
The complaint against Oleson said one of the people to whom she was accused of selling fake stock was a contractor who did work at her house in September. Oleson paid the contractor for the work with $13,980 worth of fake Facebook stock, the complaint alleged.