SEC charges CyberKey, CEO with stock hype scheme
Reuters - March 20, 2007 10:30 AM ET
WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - Securities regulators said on Tuesday they have charged Utah-based CyberKey Solutions Inc. CKYS.PK and its chief executive with promoting a stock offering while hyping false information of a lucrative deal with the Department of Homeland Security.
CyberKey and its chief executive, James Plant, made at least $1.5 million from an unregistered offering of company shares between November 2005 and the present, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said.
The investor protection agency said the company promoted the stock offering with a series of false press releases about a purchase order worth more than $24 million from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for CyberKey's flash memory drives.
Attorneys for CyberKey and Plant were not immediately available for comment.
"CyberKey and its CEO orchestrated an intense fraud campaign that clearly duped investors - in the three months leading up to the first of CyberKey's alleged multiple false press releases, CyberKey trading volume was just over 550,000 shares per day - but once the scheme began, daily trading volume swelled dramatically to between 10 million and 80 million shares per day," said Cheryl Scarboro, the SEC's enforcement division associate director, in a statement.
Plant is also facing a criminal case and was arrested last week by the FBI on charges of securities fraud and aiding and abetting securities fraud, the SEC said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN2035768120070320
CKYS website is still showing the DOD emall logo
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http://cyberkeysolutions.com/index.php?option=com_joomap&Itemid=159
Reuters - March 20, 2007 10:30 AM ET
WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - Securities regulators said on Tuesday they have charged Utah-based CyberKey Solutions Inc. CKYS.PK and its chief executive with promoting a stock offering while hyping false information of a lucrative deal with the Department of Homeland Security.
CyberKey and its chief executive, James Plant, made at least $1.5 million from an unregistered offering of company shares between November 2005 and the present, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said.
The investor protection agency said the company promoted the stock offering with a series of false press releases about a purchase order worth more than $24 million from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for CyberKey's flash memory drives.
Attorneys for CyberKey and Plant were not immediately available for comment.
"CyberKey and its CEO orchestrated an intense fraud campaign that clearly duped investors - in the three months leading up to the first of CyberKey's alleged multiple false press releases, CyberKey trading volume was just over 550,000 shares per day - but once the scheme began, daily trading volume swelled dramatically to between 10 million and 80 million shares per day," said Cheryl Scarboro, the SEC's enforcement division associate director, in a statement.
Plant is also facing a criminal case and was arrested last week by the FBI on charges of securities fraud and aiding and abetting securities fraud, the SEC said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN2035768120070320
CKYS website is still showing the DOD emall logo
http://cyberkeysolutions.com/index.php?option=com_joomap&Itemid=159
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