And this one:
Published Sep 07, 2015
Stock Promoter Scott F. Gelbard, 39, was charged last week in U.S. District Court in Boston with conspiring to commit securities fraud, according to the FBI.
Gelbard, a former Colorado resident who now lives in Canada's Pacific Northwest, was indicted on single counts of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, said Amy Hosney, public information officer for the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations division.
According to the indictment, Gelbard and his business partners owned and operated Regency Group, LLC, a stock-promotion company in Colorado. Gelbard allegedly hired a disbarred attorney to set up brokerage accounts in the name of phony Panamanian entities that the former attorney controlled so that Gelbard and his partners could secretly accumulate, and then sell, stock in companies that they were promoting. One of those companies was Greenchek Technology, Inc. (OTCMKTS: GCHK), a firm that purportedly made gasoline-emission-reduction products.
Beginning in 2008, Gelbard and his partners allegedly began transferring Greenchek shares they had acquired to the entities controlled by the former attorney. They then intentionally failed to file required disclosures that they had accumulated over 85 percent of Greenchek’s available shares, despite U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requirements that such disclosures be made when ownership of a company’s stock exceeds five percent.
Gelbard then hired a company to distribute certain promotional materials concerning Greenchek, including a series of press releases issued between February and June 2009. Beginning in February 2009, Gelbard and his partners began selling the stock held in the names of the phony Panamanian entities, generating more than $4 million in proceeds by June 2009. At Gelbard’s direction, the former attorney then laundered the proceeds through accounts in Panama and transmitted the money to accounts that Gelbard and his partners controlled or to pay debts that they owed. A federal grand jury in Massachusetts returned the indictment here because a number of victims lived in the Commonwealth.
A Massachusetts federal grand jury handed up the indictment because a number of the alleged victims were from the commonwealth.
If convicted, Gelbard could face up to 20 years in prison, three years probation, and steep fines. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.
