pump and dump indictments
*small fry* but it's a start IMO
5 people indicted on securities violations
Last Update: 2/10 4:24 pm
Monday afternoon, Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M. Glavin of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and United States Attorney David E. O’Meilia for the Northern District of Oklahoma announced the unsealing of a 24 count indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Tulsa on January 15, 2009.
The indictment charges five individuals with various crimes arising from their alleged scheme to defraud investors that reaped defendants in excess of $41 million through manipulating the publicly traded stocks of three companies.
Two companies based in Tulsa at the time of the alleged scheme were among those whose stock was manipulated: Deep Rock Oil & Gas, Inc. and Global Beverage Solutions, Inc., formerly known as Pacific Peak Investments. The third company, National Storm Management Group, Inc., is headquartered in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
G. David Gordon, 47, a Tulsa attorney, and Richard Clark, 61, also of Tulsa, were arrested Tuesday and are scheduled to make their initial appearances Tuesday afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Louisville, Ky., attorney James Reskin, 50, was also arrested Tuesday and is being scheduled to make his initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. Dean Sheptycki, 41, a resident of the Bahamas, was arrested Tuesday morning by Bahamian authorities and currently awaits extradition to the United States. The indictment also charges Dallas-area resident Joshua Wayne Lankford, 35. Lankford’s current location is unknown, and law enforcement officials are seeking him as a fugitive.
In a related action, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil enforcement action on Tuesday in the Northern District of Oklahoma against Gordon, Lankford, and Sheptycki.
The grand jury indictment says that between April 2004 and December 2006, the defendants devised and engaged in a scheme to defraud investors known as a “pump and dump” in which they manipulated three publicly traded “penny stocks,” that is, common stocks that trade for less than $5 per share in the over-the-counter market, rather than on national exchanges. According to the indictment, the defendants executed the scheme by obtaining a majority of the free trading shares of stock of the company they intended to manipulate, using fraudulent and deceptive means to acquire the stock and/or remove the trading restrictions on the shares they obtained.
The indictment charges all five defendants with one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, nine counts of wire fraud, five counts of securities fraud, and six counts of money laundering in connection with the manipulation of three penny stocks. Gordon is also charged with one count of making a false statement in a matter within the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the scheme to defraud. Additionally, the indictment charges Gordon with one count of wire fraud in connection with a fourth penny stock, that of New Jersey-based International Power Group, Ltd., and one count of obstruction of justice of an investigation into that alleged wire fraud violation.
According to the indictment, the defendants profited over $41 million from the overall scheme, and therefore, the indictment also seeks criminal forfeiture of $41.4 million from all five defendants in connection with the three penny stocks. Additionally, the indictment seeks criminal forfeiture of $2.74 million from Gordon in connection with the wire fraud involving the fourth penny stock.
AI
