| To: V$gas.Com who wrote () | 2/11/2000 3:37:00 PM | | From: TideGlider | | | |
This is more REAL fraud!
Twenty-one brokers indicted in IPO scheme
NEW YORK, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Twenty-one brokers have been indicted
in the government's expanding case against defunct brokerage Sterling
Foster and its use of deceptive sales tactics to lure investors into
buying shares of little known companies sold in public offerings.
The six count securities fraud indictment, which was unsealed on
Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, alleges that the former Sterling
Foster brokers were involved in illegal stock sales as part of six
public offerings between June 1994 and June 1997.
Sterling Foster was the lead underwriter for five of the offerings.
The Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a related civil
suit on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court against 18 of the brokers.
Sterling Foster, which was based in Melville, N.Y., closed in 1997
after the FBI raided its officers in search of evidence about the
alleged fraudulent sales practices.
The brokers named in the unsealed indictment held managerial or supervisory
positions that included vice president, branch manager and account
executive. They allegedly used fraudulent and deceptive practices
to sell shares, known as ''house stocks,'' in the public offerings.
The alleged activity included ''bait and switch'' tactics in which
the brokers opened customer accounts with ''blue-chip'' or better
known stocks and then switched the customer's investment into house
stocks.
They also allegedly used high-pressure or ''boiler-room'' scripted
sales techniques, made unauthorized purchases in customers' accounts
and failed to take and execute customers' orders to sell house stocks.
The indictment alleges that the purpose of the scheme was to artificially
inflate and maintain the prices of house stocks. In this way the stock
was protected from a lack of market demand, which would have cause
the price to collapse.
The defendants allegedly received excessive compensation to push
the stocks. The payments, which were as high as 15 percent of the
price of the stock, were not revealed to investors.
In 1997 the SEC sued Sterling Foster and four individuals including
its president Adam Lieberman for allegedly obtaining $75 million from
investors using high-pressure sales practices and other unlawful conduct.
Authorities said that the firm was secretly controlled by Randolph
Pace, a former owner of the defunct brokerage Rooney Pace and by lawyer
Alan Novich. The two men were indicted in 1998 for their alleged role
in the public offering stock fraud scheme.
Criminal charges against Pace and Novich were expanded in September
1999 to add new allegations including that the defendants earned illegal
profits of more than $200 million from the scheme.
Their trial is scheduled to begin in September. To date, six defendants
have pleaded guilty in criminal charges stemming from the scheme and
they have repaid or agreed to repay about $32 million in illegal profits.
Copyright 2000 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved. The above news
report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part,
without the prior written consent of Reuters Ltd. |
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| To: TEDennis who wrote (325) | 2/11/2000 3:41:00 PM | | From: TideGlider | | | |
Real Fraud...seems to be enough real fraud without folks poking at satire.
Fla. Stock Manipulator Sentenced
NEW YORK (AP) -- A stock manipulator with a history of securities
fraud and an earlier jail stint was sent to prison for five years
and 11 months Monday by a judge who said he ''ran afoul of the law
and learned nothing from it.''
U.S. District Judge Leonard B. Sand rejected appeals for sympathy
from Joseph Pignatiello, 54. The Coral Springs, Fla., man was taken
into custody by U.S. marshals to immediately begin his sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Coleman had described Pignatiello
as a risk of flight, noting that he had obtained permission to travel
to Cuba by boat. Coleman said Pignatiello had been imprisoned, fined,
censured and still ''continued securities fraud in ever more criminal
and sophisticated ways.''
The judge said Pignatiello deserved a stiff sentence for his July
15 conviction by a jury on charges of conspiracy to commit securities
fraud, wire fraud and commercial bribery. He called him a ''sophisticated,
experienced manipulator of stocks.''
The judge said he regularly hears from defendants who commit crimes
because they think they lack education and opportunity and have no
other way to get ahead.
But he said Pignatiello was a ''sophisticated person with opportunities
who ran afoul of the law and learned nothing from it.''
The criminal case was brought by federal prosecutors but Pignatiello
had been watched closely by the Securities and Exchange Commission
for the last 20 years, Sand noted.
The judge read from an SEC letter that said Pignatiello, even while
serving a two-year sentence in an earlier case, ''has engaged in continuing
schemes to manipulate the public securities markets and reap windfall
profits at the expense of innocent investors in low-priced stocks.'
'
''By his actions, Pignatiello has demonstrated that he has been,
and continues to be, a creator and facilitator of frauds that have
caused millions of dollars of losses for innocent investors,'' the
SEC wrote.
Monday's sentencing resulted from Pignatiello's conviction in a case
in which FBI agents posed as corrupt brokers willing to accept bribes
for selling stock to their customers.
Pignatiello and two others were charged with conspiring to manipulate
the price of a common stock, Spaceplex Amusement Centers International,
from October 1995 through May 1996. One accomplice has been sentenced
to three years and one month in prison while a second is awaiting
sentencing.
Before he was sentenced Monday, Pignatiello apologized to the court
and his family, including four children seated behind him.
''I've taught my children to know right from wrong,'' he said. ''My
problem is that I didn't heed the voice of those discussions.''
''I throw myself on the mercy of the court,'' he said. ''Look in
your eyes and look in your heart for compassion.''
Sand said he could not overlook Pignatiello's prior history.
''Mr. Pignatiello one time was leading a very high life and now is
bankrupt,'' he said. ''I'm sorry for the family but this court sends
to prison mothers with infant children, defendants with unfortunate
children highly dependent on defendants for their quality of life.'
'
The information contained in the AP News report may not be published,
broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of
The Associated Press.
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| To: TideGlider who wrote (329) | 2/11/2000 4:07:00 PM | | From: The Duke of URL© | | | |
Tide, Speaking of crimes: :))))
"....bankrupt,' he said. 'I'm sorry for the family but this court sends to prison mothers with infant children, defendants with unfortunate children highly dependent on defendants for their quality of life.'
'
The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press."
Duke |
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| To: TideGlider who wrote (331) | 2/11/2000 6:51:00 PM | | From: The Duke of URL© | | | |
You have the right to not post, you have the right to a virtual attorney, if you cannot afford a virtual attorney, Sony or Nintendo will supply you with a virtual attorney in any color you wish, you have the right to be found guilty without trial. Should you choose to post you must download Microsoft 2000 Registration Wizard for Registered Post-Offenders.......
IF you had permission, you would as a condition of that permission be required to include the statement, 'reprinted with permission' by the grantor.
______________________THE COUNCIL OF THE SUPREME
__________________________POSTERING AUTHORITY
______________________OF THE UNITED SILICON STATES
______________________________OF AMERICA.
_____________________________(Pasadena Division)
bcc: Tag 'em n Bag 'em Department |
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