The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges against 16 individuals for their involvement in a global pump-and-dump stock manipulation scheme that generated $194 million in illegal profits.
According to the SEC, the defendants are located in the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Monaco, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.
In three separate complaints, the SEC alleged that all of the defendants violated the antifraud and registration provisions of the federal securities laws.
In the first complaint, the federal securities regulator identified the defendants as Dean Shah, Henry Clarke, Julius Csurgo, and Antevorta Capital Partners, Ltd. These defendants allegedly purposely engaged in a pump-and-dump scheme involving penny stocks issued by microcap companies.
They carried out their scheme by concealing the fact that they held large, controlling positions in thinly-traded microcap companies. They hired stock promoters to increase demand for their penny stocks, and then generate substantial profits by selling their shares illegally to unsuspecting investors.
