The AI scandal so obvious, even Stevie Wonder would spot it.
Meet Edoardo Paluan – tech bro, buzzword slinger, and the co-founder and director of Lotto Billions, where he claims to be revolutionising lottery betting with his guaranteed jackpots and vague offshore licences.
On Lotto Billions’ press releases, Paluan brags of his previous triumphs as the Head of Product & Growth at Nate, the “AI-powered” shopping app that had about as much technology as a rubber ball and none of the intelligence.
Nate raised $40 million from investors after pitching itself as an intuitive AI-driven, automation miracle.
What did it deliver? A team of tired humans in the Philippines clicking “Buy Now” on behalf of users!
The US Department of Justice has now indicted Nate’s founder, Albert Saniger, for fraud. The “AI” turned out to be a full-blown human-powered con. Automation rate? Zero. Zilch. Nada.
So where was Paluan while this was going on? Front and centre, hyping the “tech” as a revolutionary leap forward. Either he genuinely thought the humans manning the laptops were very realistic robots (awkward), or he was busy polishing dodgy PowerPoints about Nate’s proprietary IP whilst trying to keep a straight face.
Just as Nate’s operations were being called into question, Paluan jumped ship and hopped onto the next lifeboat: Lotto Billions, which he co-founded with Nooreddin Valimahomed. And to make sure that their tech team would impress investors, he brought along Nate’s Product Ops Manager, Abdallah Al Housseini, for another go at fintech fantasy.
They now promise punters a chance to bet on global lotteries from their phones. But scratch beneath the surface, and it appears that this offshore licenced betting service is frantically dancing around regulatory minefields like a Strictly finalist on crack.
Yet even today, the Lotto Billions team trumpets Paluan’s “success” at Nate as a badge of honour. Conveniently forgetting to mention that the “product” he oversaw and grew was non-existent, and the company collapsed under federal indictment.
All of which begs the questions:
• As the Head of Product (the only one Nate promoted), what exactly did Paluan know about Nate’s pretend AI?
• Is Paluan in danger of joining Sainger in the dock?
• Why is he still being marketed as a tech visionary?
• And how many more scams do investors need to fall victim to before they start Googling the people they are investing in?
Final thought:
In the age of AI, it’s staggering how far natural stupidity can get you – especially if you slap on a confident smile and say “disruption” enough times.
Paluan may speak fluent buzzword, but this story doesn’t need a neural net to spot the red flags. Just a bit of common sense… and maybe a broadband connection to Manila!
REFERENCES
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/former-nate-ceo-human-workers-instead-of-ai-fraud
https://fortune.com/2025/04/11/albert-saniger-nate-shopping-app-fraud-ai-justice-department
https://paymentexpert.com/2025/04/14/fbi-nate-philippines-fraud-ai/
https://www.techspot.com/news/107510-founder-nate-app-faces-fraud-charge-using-ai.html
