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Re: livingston78 post# 15642

Thursday, 03/19/2015 8:37:38 AM

Thursday, March 19, 2015 8:37:38 AM

Post# of 17503
http://www.rbj.net/article.asp?aID=189336

http://www.rbj.net/print_article.asp?aID=190885

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Wheeler signs consent order with SEC to disgorge funds
By WILL ASTOR - 4/4/2012 3:57:38 PM
Accused penny stock promoter Christopher Wheeler has agreed to disgorge profits from an alleged pump-and-dump scheme he once ran out of his Victor home.

Wheeler stands accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of using an online newsletter to promote penny stocks. After driving up the stocks’ price, the SEC charged in a lawsuit filed last year, the Victor man allegedly reaped millions by selling big blocks of shares he had received for free before the virtually worthless stocks’ share price plummeted, leaving investors Wheeler had convinced to buy the stocks in the lurch.

In an order filed Apr. 2 with the federal court in Rochester, Wheeler agreed without admitting wrongdoing to abide by a court order to disgorge an as yet unspecified amount of allegedly ill-gotten gains and to pay a civil penalty. He also agrees to not oppose the court’s judgment and to not deny the SEC’s charges.

First filed in a Manhattan U.S. District Court and later transferred to Rochester, the SEC’s move followed a 2010 seizure action filed by federal prosecutors in Rochester. The earlier suit cites the same series of stock transactions as the later SEC suit.

In September 2011, the SEC levied a $375,000 fine against Global Sentry Equity Transfer Inc., a Mississauga, Ont. transfer agent that issued stock certificates to Wheeler. Though Wheeler was not specifically mentioned, the transactions detailed were the same as those named in the SEC suit and the seizure action. Global Sentry failed to keep required records and refused to let investigators to conduct an on-site examination. The regulator also revoked Global Sentry's registration.

Wheeler, who has been in negotiations with the U.S. Attorney’s office over criminal charges, last month agreed to cede a stable of luxury vehicles including a Ferrari valued at $75,000 in the seizure. He and his wife Kelly, who also was named in the seizure suit, had been fighting the action, which also sought to take his $600,000 Victor residence and a $400,000 second home on Keuka Lake. The Wheelers are slated to file an answer to the still-open seizure suit in September.

In the Apr. 2 order, Wheeler agreed to accept a judge’s determination of how much he would owe to settle the SEC complaint. In court papers, prosecutors identified bank accounts in which Wheeler has deposited some $7 million. Profits in the alleged schemes detailed by the SEC came to more than $2 million.

Wheeler has stated that he no longer operates the website that drew the feds’ attention, OTCStockwatch.com.

Public records show the still-active OTCStockwatch.com website to be owned by WFWS Consulting Inc. and headed by Lisa McElvie of Webster. Disclaimers on the site characterize its promotions as paid advertisements and detail tens of thousands of dollars in fees paid to the site owner for each stock the newsletter hypes.

McElvie is listed by MyLife.com, a people search site, among friends and family of Christopher and Kelly Wheeler.

(c) 2012 Rochester Business Journal. To obtain permission to reprint this article, call 585-546-8303 or e-mail service@rbj.net.



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