Penny Scams

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SLJB the final verdict;


Stock scheme nets 3 years behind bars
Man, 43, pleads guilty to fraud
By Sarah Sacheli, The Windsor Star October 22, 2011 Tweet More than five years after he sent a dying company's shares skyrocketing with bogus news releases about its exploits overseas, Petar Vucicevich was sentenced Friday to three years in prison for stock manipulation.

Vucicevich, 43, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud in relation to the Sulja Brothers scheme.

Sulja Brothers is a now-defunct lumberyard near Harrow that was once portrayed as an international construction firm with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts.

Among its claims was that it was developing a $645-million hotel complex in the Middle East.

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 partners, Vucicevich was also ordered to pay the OSC $5.6 million - the amount they received from investors as a result of their fraudulent activity.

The OSC had ruled earlier that Vucicevich and business partners Steven Sulja, Sam Sulja, Pranab Shah, Tracey Banumas and Texan Andrew DeVries had carried out a fraudulent investment scheme, broke Ontario securities law and acted contrary to the public interest. Of the partners, Vucicevich was the only one to face criminal sanctions.

Vucicevich, who goes by the nickname Black Pete for his penchant for black clothing, will be brought back to court in December for a forfeiture hearing. The Crown is going after any properties in which he may have an interest.

His lawyer, Daniel Scott, said Vucicevich once owned or was part-owner of 11 properties. All but two have been taken by banks for unpaid mortgages. Scott said he isn't sure what interest Vucicevich may have in the remaining properties.

"He is broke. He has no money. He is impecunious."

Once a phenomenon on the penny stock market, Sulja Brothers stock peaked at 21 cents per share in 2006. The company had secondary accounts that Sulja Brothers shares were transferred into, then sold to the market once their value was inflated.

An OSC lawyer said the partners were "in effect printing money" through what's called a pump-anddump stock scheme.

Vucicevich was originally scheduled to go to trial in April.

Scott said Vucicevich's plea saved the courts a trial that would have likely run nine months.

Three years in prison was the sentence agreed on in the plea bargain between the Crown and defence.


Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/business/Stock+scheme+nets+years+behind+bars/5591245/story.html#ixzz1fXocpN9P