By PAUL O’DONOGHUE, Senior Correspondent
A UK fraudster used ChatGPT to forge takeover documents in a £154m bid to manipulate shares at Touchstone Exploration, a London-listed oil and gas company.
Christopher Woolcott received a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years. He must also complete 200 hours of unpaid work and pay £4,627.73 in costs.
Woolcott first built a sizeable stake in Touchstone Exploration Inc. He then launched a bogus takeover bid to drive up its share price, creating false identities to make the offer appear legitimate.
“To give the bid credibility, Mr Woolcott invented several identities [and] forged takeover documents using Chat GPT,” the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said.
“Had his plan succeeded, he stood to gain as much as £70,000 through the sale of his shares.”
Woolcott even met Touchstone’s chief executive at a central London hotel, using a false name during the meeting. The company ultimately established that the takeover bid was not genuine.
“The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) used a combination of its transaction reporting data, phone records, receipts, CCTV footage and evidence seized to identify Mr Woolcott as the person behind the fraud,” the FCA said.
Christopher Woolcott fake bid for Touchstone Exploration
Investigators traced three phone numbers used by the supposed bidders to contact Touchstone Exploration to the same handset. They also used voter-register information, open-source research and FCA trading data to narrow down potential suspects.
A parking payment placed Woolcott’s car near a Ryman store. The forged documents had been sent from that location.
“Searches of Mr Woolcott’s home and workplace later recovered the mobile phone linked to the fabricated identities. [This] included a purported private equity partner, his supposed colleague and a fictitious solicitor,” the FCA said.
Therese Chambers, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said: “Mr Woolcott’s fake takeover bid was a calculated attempt to profit by manipulating the market.”
“Our investigators followed an extensive evidence trail, exposed the fraud and identified the person behind the ruse.”
Judge Karu described the operation as deliberate, sophisticated, and planned. He said Woolcott used four false identities and forged documents to deceive Touchstone.
Woolcott pleaded guilty in September 2026 to one count of fraud by false representation and three counts of making a false instrument. The court imposed concurrent 14-month custodial sentences for the forgery offences, alongside the suspended two-year sentence.
The FCA launched its criminal investigation in March 2025 and secured guilty pleas within 18 months. Touchstone, which trades on AIM and the Toronto Stock Exchange, was not under investigation in connection with the case.
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