This week, the SEC announced charges against a broker-dealer, a transfer agent, and three individuals for their roles in the creation of over a dozen undisclosed “blank check” companies from 2009 to 2014. In its complaint, the SEC alleges that broker-dealer Spartan Securities Group, Ltd. and transfer agent Island Capital Management LLC, which does business as Island Stock Transfer, helped
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This week, The Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained final judgments against a microcap company and its two undisclosed promoters who were charged with running a $3.3 million microcap fraud. In September 2017, the SEC charged Jason McDiarmid, Kenneth George Cedric Telford, and Stop Sleep Go, Inc., formerly known as Interactive Multi-Media Auction Corp, with running a pump-and-dump scheme in
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A stock promoter and a former chairman of a Massachusetts-based medical diagnostics company previously called Endeavor Power Corp were sentenced in a federal court in Boston, Massachusetts in a related criminal case brought by the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office. The Securities and Exchange Commission previously charged all three defendants with a scheme to defraud potential investors in Endeavor’s publicly traded
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Last week, Dr. Philip Frost, a biotech billionaire, agreed to a proposed settlement with the SEC related to what the SEC called “lucrative market manipulation schemes” worth $27 million. According to a press release from OPKO Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPK), a public company that Dr. Frost serves as Chairman and CEO; “Dr. Frost agreed, without admitting or denying the SEC’s
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Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought additional charges against a Long Island, New York-based boiler room previously sued for defrauding elderly and unsophisticated investors. The latest charges allege that First Choice Healthcare Solutions Inc. CEO Christian Romandetti, the boiler room, and four others, manipulated the company’s shares generating more than $3.3 million of illegal profits and more than
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The Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained a preliminary injunction and continued asset freeze against two individuals and their companies involved in a scheme that generated more than $165 million of illegal sales of stock in at least 50 microcap companies. The court originally entered a temporary restraining order and asset freeze on October 2, 2018. The preliminary injunction and
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On October 10, 2018, a U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York entered a final judgment on consent against Philip Kueber, who was charged with orchestrating a fraudulent investment scheme using microcap issuer Cynk Technology Corp. The SEC’s complaint, filed July 31, 2015, alleged that Kueber concealed his control of Cynk and its purportedly non-restricted shares through
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This week, the orchestrator of a microcap fraud scheme who defrauded investors by directing the issuance of false press releases about the microcap company’s prospects and hiding his secret control of the company has been barred by a federal court from participating in penny stock offerings and ordered to pay an $80,000 penalty. In October 2017, the SEC charged John
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Yesterday, two South Florida men agreed to lifetime bars from participating in penny stock offerings to settle charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that they facilitated a pump-and-dump scheme involving shares of a Sunrise, Florida company that purported to be in the beauty products business. The SEC alleges that attorney Mark E. Fisher of Boca Raton, Florida
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Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained a final judgment against the former CEO of a penny stock company, whom the SEC charged with making false and misleading statements in the company’s SEC filings and press releases and with manipulating the company’s stock. The SEC alleged that Andrew J. Kandalepas, the former CEO of Wellness Center USA, Inc., took
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