Promoters Fined By The S.E.C.

[marty_lewis]

Wednesday May 9, 4:20 pm Eastern Time

Stock Web site owner settles SEC case, pays fine

WASHINGTON, May 9 (Reuters) - The owner of an Internet Web site that allegedly claimed a 90 percent accuracy rate in predicting stock prices agreed to pay a $25,000 fine to settle charges of making false and misleading statements, the Securities and Exchange Commission said on Wednesday.
Arcangelo Capozzolo, 25, and a resident of Williamsville, N.Y., and his company, Market Traders LLC, agreed to the fine and a permanent injunction without admitting or denying the charges, said the SEC, which filed a civil suit in Boston.

Capozzolo's attorney was out of the office and not immediately available for comment.

From October 1999 to at least May 2000, Capozzolo and his company solicited customers by misrepresenting Market Traders' stock-picking system, according to the complaint.

Capozzolo is a high school graduate with no experience in the securities industry, does not have any securities licenses and has never been registered with the SEC in any capacity, the complaint added.

Market Traders, which charged $395 a month for stock tips, claimed that it executed the trades it recommended, trackedstock purchases by big, institutional investors, achieved ``90 percent accuracy over the past 10 years'' in predicting stock prices and has made millions of dollars, the SEC said.

``In reality, Market Traders does not execute the trades it recommends, cannot identify stock purchases by institutional investors and has not made millions of dollars,'' the SEC said, adding ``its system has not been in existence for 10 years and derived its results by applying hypothetical trades to historical data.''

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/010509/n09657040.html

Market Traders had about 185 paying subscribers as of last month.