Paradigm was a penny stock. Investing in penny stocks is very risky and, yet, investors will always invest in them, hoping that they have latched onto the next Apple or Microsoft. Scam artists know about this hope.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged ”Greenstone Holdings, Inc., the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Hisao Sal Miwa, the company’s outside counsel, John B. Frohling, attorney Thomas F. Pierson, and four stock promoters, Daniel D. Starczewski, Joe V. Overcash, Jr., Frank J. Morelli, III, and James S. Painter, III with engaging in an illegal, and [...]
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged securities lawyer Stephen Czarnik of assisting with multi-million pump-and-dump stock schemes which “allowed three stock promoters — Ryan Reynolds, Jason Wynn and Carlton Fleming — to purchase millions of shares of stock in three penny stock companies for pennies per share, hype the companies through promotional mailers and other advertising, and illicitly [...]
People who bought shares of East Delta Resources Corp. in 2004 and 2005 were happy. As the price of one share of East Delta rose from 25 cents per share to more than one dollar per share, they may have wondered just how many times their money would double. The trading volume data showed [...]
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Summit Advisory Partners and its managing partner, Robert Feeback with directing an illegal pump and dump scheme. According to the SEC, the scheme allowed three stock promoters, Ryan Reynolds, Jason Wynn and Carlton Fleming, to make millions by purchasing shares cheap, hyping the companies with false press releases, and then selling [...]
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Lambros Ballas (Ballas), a licensed securities broker at a New York stock brokerage firm, “with using phony press releases to manipulate the stock prices of multiple publicly traded companies.” According to the SEC’s litigation release:
Pump and dump schemes are especially cruel. They lead you to believe that many investors are watching a particular stock and are convinced that the price is going to rise fast. You see active trading. You see positive press releases. You see more active trading. So you jump in, hoping to profit from what you [...]
Sometimes brokerage firms are on the receiving ends of scams. The SEC alleges just that in an emergency enforcement action in which it alleges that two men fraudulently caused firms to buy the stocks of small companies for the sole purpose of driving up the price of those stocks so that the defendants could sell their [...]
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has taken action against Albert J. Rasch, Jr. (Rasch) and Sandra B. Masino (Masino) of Costa Mesa, California, Kathleen R. Novinger (Novinger) of Cypress, California, and 144 Opinions, Inc. (144 Opinions) a California corporation formerly headquartered in Newport Beach, California. The SEC accuses the defendants of running an “opinion [...]
More Evidence that the Mob Loves Investment Scams
If the allegations against Mr. Guarino are true, he is only the tip of the mob-run investment fraud iceberg.