WINDSOR, Ont. — A local businessman who pleaded guilty to a “pump and dump” stock scheme that portrayed a Harrow lumberyard as an international firm with Middle East contracts was sentenced in a Windsor court to three years in a federal penitentiary Friday morning.
Petar Vucicevich, 43, known as Black Pete for his penchant for wearing black clothing, pleaded guilty in Superior Court in late September to two counts of fraud in connection with a scheme that sent shares in the now-defunct Sulja Brothers skyrocketing in 2006.
Bogus news releases sent out by Sulja Brothers and its related companies included claims that it planned to develop a $645-million hotel complex in the Middle East. The releases hyped the company as an international construction firm with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts. Meanwhile, the company was, in effect, bankrupt.
In June, the Ontario Securities Commission fined Vucicevich $775,000 and banned him from ever being involved in the stock market again. He can’t buy or sell any stocks or ever be a director or board member of a publicly traded company. Along with his business partner, Vucicevich was also ordered to pay the OSC $5.6 million – the amount they received from investors as a result of their fraudulent activity
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