Utah pair charged in stock scheme.
By Dale Kasler - dkasler@sacbee.com
Published 1:21 pm PDT Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Two Utah residents were charged Tuesday with fraud in connection with a stock-trading program they were peddling from Sacramento to Boston.
Linda Woolf, 48, and David Gengler, 33, were indicted and sued over their sales pitch on behalf of an instructional course called "Teach Me to Trade," which cost up to $40,000 per customer. The two made a combined $6.3 million from 2003 to 2006, according to the lawsuit, filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Touring the nation relentlessly, Gengler appeared at four free seminars in Sacramento from 2004 to 2006 to promote the program, the SEC said. Woolf came to Sacramento once, in July 2005. The pair also appeared in infomercials.
The criminal indictment and SEC lawsuit say essentially the same thing: Woolf and Gengler lied to customers about their credentials, claiming to be experienced stock traders when they were nothing of the sort.
The SEC's suit demands that Woolf and Gengler return their earnings and pay fines.
Frederic Firestone, an associate director of the SEC's enforcement division, said he had no information on how many programs were sold in the Sacramento area. Asked about the usefulness of the programs, he said: "The allegations are about the sales pitch, not about the product itself." The program consisted of classes, software and promises of personal mentoring.
If convicted on the criminal charges, they could face up to 30 years in prison.
BECAUSE YOU CAN READ THIS, THANK A TEACHER. BECAUSE IT'S IN ENGLISH, THANK A SOLDIER.
AI
