NEW YORK — The founder of an artificial intelligence company that provided school districts in Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta with a chatbot to create learning plans for students was arrested Tuesday on fraud charges and accused of spending investor money on himself while his company went south. bankruptcy.

Joanna Smith-Griffin, 33, of Raleigh, North Carolina, was arrested in her home state and charged with identity theft as well as securities and wire fraud.

He founded the artificial intelligence technology company ALLHere Education Inc. Chatbot “Ed”. The Los Angeles Unified School District was among those who used the product for a time before shutting it down, citing the financial collapse of Smith-Griffin’s company.

Officials say the company’s products are also used in other large school districts such as New York City and Atlanta.

An indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday accused Smith-Griffin of making false statements to investors that allowed him to illegally raise millions of dollars since 2020.

It is stated that he used some of the money he fraudulently obtained from investors to make the down payment on his house in North Carolina and to pay for his wedding. After the company collapsed and employees were laid off, it entered bankruptcy proceedings and a board of trustees took over the company’s finances, officials said.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement that he “orchestrated a deliberate and calculated scheme to deceive investors in AllHere Education, Inc., inflating the company’s financials to secure millions of dollars under false pretenses.”

It was not immediately clear who would represent him when he appeared in court this afternoon in North Carolina.

James E. Dennehy, head of the New York FBI office, said he misrepresented the structure of his newly formed company and “impersonated a financial advisor to continue the scheme when inconsistencies were discovered.”

He said his “selfish prioritization of personal expenses” over the company’s needs undermined the potential for improved learning environments in large school districts, according to the statement.