One of those issuers (ISON) mentioned in the complaint was written up at least 10 times by Roger Fillon and David Milstead (back when the Rocky Mountain News was still in biz). Long story on that one. Perf-Go-Green's guy (Michael Caridi) was involved with it. Max Abelson wrote him and colleagues up a few years ago in a story called Penny Stock Pataki.
There were undertones of organized crime involvement (bada bing, bada boom kind of guys).