SEC Charges Stockbroker with Making His Own Luck

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SEC Charges Stockbroker with Making His Own Luck

On October 29, 2009, in Investor Protection, Investors at Risk, Pump and Dump, SEC, Scams, Securities Industry (general), by Investor's Watchblog

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:
Ballas created and then distributed fake press releases purporting to announce good news [...]

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:

Ballas created and then distributed fake press releases purporting to announce good news regarding the companies, including that Google was buying one company at a substantial premium. Ballas then posed as an investor on Internet message boards, touting the announcements he had fabricated. In one instance, Ballas’ scheme caused the stock price to increase by over 75 percent within a few hours of the issuance of his phony press release.

The stocks involved include Google, IMAX Corp., Disney, and Microsoft.

Know the person who is handling your money. Tens of thousands of seniors are starting over at zero because they failed to get help in investigating their broker and/or the unregistered investments he recommended.