Booters - The Penny Stock Bar

[scion]

ROBERT C. PRIBILSKI - As the Division requests, Pribilski will be barred from association with any broker or dealer2 and from participating in an offering of penny stock.3


2 The Division’s request for sanctions also includes a collateral bar pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act). However, Pribilski’s misconduct antedates the July 22, 2010, effective date of the Dodd-Frank Act. Neither the Commission nor the courts have approved such retroactive application of its provisions in any litigated case, and the undersigned declines to impose the new sanction retroactively. See Koch v. SEC, 177 F.3d 784 (9th Cir. 1999); see also Sacks v. SEC, 648 F.3d 945 (9th Cir. 2011).

3 Thus, he will be barred from acting as a promoter, finder, consultant, or agent; or otherwise engaging in activities with a broker, dealer, or issuer for purposes of the issuance or trading in any penny stock, or inducing or attempting to induce the purchase or sale of any penny stock. See Exchange Act Section 15(b)(6)(C). While the promissory notes and putative “Turkish Eurobonds” were not penny stocks within the meaning of Exchange Act Section 3(a)(51) and Rule 3a-51-1, the nature of Pribilski’s conduct in selling worthless investments to credulous investors is almost identical to that which led to the passage of the Securities Enforcement Remedies and Penny Stock Reform Act of 1990, 101 P.L. 429, 104 Stat. 931. See H.R. Rep. No. 101-617, at 19-20, reprinted in 1990 U.S.C.C.A.N. 1408.


http://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2012/34-67915.pdf