SEC Charges 5 Stock Promoters In Separate Kickback Schemes
9-18-08 6:42 PM EDT YORK -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges Thursday against five stock promoters in two separate kickback schemes designed to manipulate the penny stocks of two Nevada mineral exploration companies.
The lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, alleged the men paid bribes in exchange for brokers purchasing the stock of Guyana Gold Corp. (GYGC) or Tecton Corp. (TTNC) in accounts over which the brokers had discretion.
Namely, the men allegedly represented to a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent posing as a stock promoter at separate times in April that they would pay a 30% kickback to the promoter and the brokers he represented in exchange for their purchase of shares, the SEC said.
Bribes of almost $14,000 were paid in connection with purchases of Guyana Gold shares and a kickback of $5,000 was paid in connection with the purchase of Tecton's stock, the regulator said.
Tecton is a purported Carson City, Nevada, uranium exploration company whose stock is traded on the over-the-counter bulletin board, the SEC said.
Guyana Gold is a Las Vegas development stage company that purports to be in the gold and mineral exploration business and is a pink sheet stock, the SEC said.
Charged in the Guyana Gold case are stock promoters Glenn Grossman and Lawrence Steven Cohen, both of Cedarhurst, N.Y.; David Schmidt; and John Zanic of Vancouver, British Columbia.
Jason Jadidian, a Forest Hills, N.Y., stock promoter, was charged in the Tecton case.
A lawyer for Grossman didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment late Thursday. Cohen didn't return a phone call seeking comment Thursday.
Jadidian, Schmidt and Zanic couldn't immediately be located for comment late Thursday.
-By Chad Bray, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-227-2017; chad.bray@dowjones.com
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09-18-081842ET
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