http://www.thestreetsweeper.org To educate and protect the public from what are believed, in good faith, to be misleading and/or false representations by public companies as well as questionable/improper business practices of brokers/brokerage firms and the stocks they are promoting. http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Imperial Valley News said. Nickles had advertised his investment opportunities in major Southern California newspapers, using catch words such as “U.S. Government Guaranteed,” and “FDIC Insured,” the Valley News said. But as it turned out, nothing was guaranteed but the failure of investors to make legitimate profits. The cash went to line Nickles' pockets and make Ponzi payments to early investors, prosecutors said. Now, Nickles has been sentenced to 144 months in federal prison and must make restitution of $6.8 million - if there's anything left.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Windsor Star reported, he would bring his toddler children with him to meet with victims, to appear more trustworthy. Stuebing, 44, has now been sentenced to 20 months in jail for skimming nearly $500,000 from people who thought they were investing in a medical supply equipment business and the solar panel industry. Of his total sentence, Stuebing will received time served for seven months he has already spent behind bars, The Star said. “I was taught better morals and values than I have shown through my actions,” he was quoted as telling a judge at sentencing.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html John Clement of Encinitas, Calif. purported to have run a successful hedge fund since 2007, and claimed to have gotten investors monthly returns as high as two percent, said Fox TV-5 in San Diego. But the fund turned out to be a scam, with Clement issuing phony account statements and ripping off investors for $5 million. Clement, 65, has now been sentenced to a two-year prison term, Fox 5 reported.

]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html New York Times reported. Weisberg also pleaded guilty to conspiring to secretly issue discounted stock shares in two companies to a pair of Israeli investors, in return for kickbacks worth $1.7 million. Prosecutors are seeking an unspecified prison term in the case, The Times said.

]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Reuters said the Financial Industry Regulatory authority is investigating allegations that Morgan Stanley released negative information to institutional investors on the company just before shares began trading in its IPO a week ago. Morgan Stanley was lead underwriter on the offering, but the company's consumer Internet analyst reduced his forecast on Facebook revenues as the IPO approached - an “unusual” turn of events, Reuters quoted market sources as saying. Now, Reuters has quoted the chairman of FINRA as saying that “the allegations, if true, are a matter of regulatory concern.”

]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Compliance Week said NASDAQ announced a probe into events that resulted in trade orders that either went unfulfilled, or involved trades at levels other than the stock's $42 opening price. NASDAQ said exchange members who had problems with some trade orders placed between 11:11 and 11:30 a.m. on Friday, May 18, can seek “financial accommodation” from the exchange. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority are investigating, and FINRA will review all accommodation requests, Compliance Week said. Steps are also being taken to prevent problems that occurred during Facebook's “lackluster trading debut,” the publication added.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html The Register reported. Shah then engineered a fund purchase of 700,000 shares in Yahoo! and made a profit of almost $400,000, The Register added. The year before, the publication said, Shaw had reportedly done the same for Kwok and told him about a pending acquisition involving two other companies. Both parties have agreed to settle the SEC charges and a court will decide on fines and disgorgement amounts, according to The Register.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Huffington Post reported, federal prosecutors say Gupta fed advance information to Rajaratnam just before Warren Buffet invested $5 million in Goldman Sachs, and Rajaratnam quickly made trades to cash in on the deal.. Gupta's lawyers are claiming their client is not guilty, and that others at Goldman passed the tips. “You've got the wrong guy,” The Post quoted Gupta's lead lawyer as telling jurors in the New York trial.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Bloomberg reported that complicated cases born of the 2008 mortgage market collapse, plus increased actions taken against individual Wall Street financial executives, have resulted in 90 or so cases being actively pursued by SEC lawyers. That's a 50 percent increase over the same period last year, while the agency's prosecutorial staff has remained all but flat in numbers. Bloomberg quoted Matthew Martens, the SEC's chief litigator, as saying victories in the battles are crucial. “At the end of the day, if we can't win cases, then people don't settle,” Martens told the news service. “That's the reality.”
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Bloomberg reported that Skilling's attorney said in a Houston court filing that another trial will be sought, based on “newly discovered evidence.” The former chief executive was convicted in 2006 of misleading investors about the financial shape of Enron, once a giant energy trading firm, and of covering up losses worth billions. His sidekick, former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay, was also convicted but died six weeks later. Both men left the company a legacy of greed and grief: When Enron crashed, more than 5,000 jobs disappeared and employees lost $2 billion in retirement benefits, Bloomberg said.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html FBI said Carole Nelson, of Washington, D.C., had been an executive with the Dream Homes operation, which ran several different companies. Victims who bought into the scam with $50,000 initial payments were told their money was invested in bank ATMS and electronic sales kiosks. In exchange for their cash, the company agreed to make monthly mortgage payments for investors, and to pay off their mortgages within five to seven years. But eventually, the payments stopped, prosecutors said, leading to criminal charges against Dream Home principals. Nelson was the last to be sentenced; other defendants are currently serving prison terms ranging from 60 months to 150 years, the FBI said.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Stockwatch reported that Philip Pritchard and Piertro Cimino were charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with hyping the stock of Global Development and Environmental Resources, Inc., and falsely claiming the company had an upcoming, $80 million contract. When the share price rose, they dumped the stock, the SEC said. Both defendants are now jointly liable for $2.1 million in disgorgement and must also pay interest of $523,00 and receive penny stock bans. A judge in the case called the actions of Pritchard and Cimino “egregious” and “deliberate,” but neither man was required to admit wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement, Stockwatch said.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Securities and Exchange Commission said Geranio, of Hawaii, chose another path: He allegedly started eight small company shells that did little or no business and sold stock to unsuspecting investors through boiler room operations in Spain, raking in $35 million and taking $2 million in “consulting fees” for himself. The alleged scam ran from April 2007 until September 2009, investigators said. The SEC is now seeking penalties, disgorgement and pre-judgment interest from Geranio and several of his associates. The feds also want penny stock and director bans issued against all the parties involved in the scheme.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan. Instead, many of them lost their homes anyway after giving hundreds of thousands to AHR. Now one of the company's founders, Isaak Khafizov, 25, has been convicted on conspiracy and fraud charges after a 10-day trial in New York. Prosecutors said Khafizov and two other men began the company in 2008, promising troubled homeowners that they had special relationships with lenders and could stop foreclosure actions. It was a lie, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said. Khafizov now faces a maximum sentence of up to 80 years in prison, prosecutors said. His two co-defendants have already pleaded guilty.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Leighton began taking investments in 2008, posing as a successful trader. He sent phony account statements to investors and lied to them about the status of the pool, all the while losing $1.3 million in trades, the CFTC said. He is also the target of a commodities fraud charge filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office, the CFTC added.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Associated Press said. Thomas A. Bowdoin, Jr. had advertised himself as a “money magnet' when soliciting investments for his online advertising agency, promising enormous profits. But the Quincy, Fla. resident neglected to mention that he had previously been convicted for securities-related felony charges in Alabama, and he fraudulently claimed to have been awarded a presidential medal of distinction that he actually bought with money from investors, the AP said. His victims eventually got about half their money back. Bowdoin faces a maximum of seven years in prison. No sentencing date has yet been set, the AP said.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Memphis Commercial Appeal reported. Bradford K. Dent was a vice president at Carty & Co. in 2008, when another employee noticed unauthorized trades that had been made from a customer's account, the newspaper said. Dent later admitted to profitably reselling stock from that account, then showing it as a loss to the customer. The transaction cost his firm about $130,000 and he pleaded guilty last February, the Commercial Appeal said.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Holland Sentinel said Folkert sold investments in the company, which he claimed was making money from Google for luring Internet browsers to click on specific Web sites. But $1.5 million from investors never made its way into the business, and Folkert is charged with sending out phony account statements showing profits for investors. His alleged antics eventually came to the attention of the FBI and the Michigan State Police. The rest is now history.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Ipswich Advertiser reported. The newspaper said the three - Lualhati Jutsen, Tina Brown Lee, and David Scanlon - promoted the scam on Web presences including Facebook, selling memberships in “TVI Express.” They sold participation rights in exchange for a $330 fee, giving new members the change to make commissions on other new memberships they themselves peddled. Authorities said the scheme began in 2010 and was broken up by the Australian Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. ]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html FBI said she simply changed it to “Marie White.” It's unclear which moniker she will use when she reports to serve 18 months in federal prison. Brown was recently sentenced in St. Louis for running a phony “mortgage rescue” service that targeted residents of Hawaii who were in danger of foreclosure on their homes. Brown researched pending Hawaiian foreclosures and sent brochures to homeowners, promising to deal with banks on their behalf, in exchange for up-front fees. The money went into Brown's pocket, and her bilked customers eventually learned their mortgage holders had never heard from Brown or her companies. Aside from serving time, she has also been ordered to make $250,000 in restitution, the FBI said.

]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Financial Advisor Magazine said. The publication quoted an SEC official as saying Spangler's actions denoted “a disturbing abuse of trust.”
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Bloomberg News. The lawsuit filed by Woori Bank in Seoul charged that Citigroup knew CDOs it peddled to Woori back in 2006 and 2007 were bound for default. Bloomberg quoted the lawsuit as saying Citigroup used the sales to “move toxic mortgages off their balance sheet and onto those of the plaintiff.” The news service also quoted a Citigroup spokesman as saying the lawsuit is “totally without merit.”
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html New York Daily News said Van Zandt, 68, is now being sued in civil court after his recent arrest. The New York Attorney General's Office has sued Van Zandt for $35 million, claiming he began ripping off investors with real estate scams as far back as 2001 through his Bronx tax preparation and investment firm. His daughter-in-law is also named in the suit and his son, Robert Van Zandt Jr., died in an apparent suicide last summer, the Daily News added.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Hedgeweek reported. Consent orders and permanent injunctions were issued in South Carolina federal court against Ronald E. Satterfield, of Charleston, and the husband-wife team of Nicholas and Patricia Bos, of Ludington, Mich. The three ran awry with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission after misrepresenting Forex trades made by Bos, the CFTC said. A federal complaint said the defendants fraudulently promised investors monthly returns as high as four percent on Forex trades that lost money more often than not, according to Hedgeweek.

]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Securities and Exchange Commission said Connolly began offering investments in 1996 and eventually raised $50 million, but misrepresented the nature of his projects to investors and paid himself more than $2 million along the way. He is also charged with commingling investment funds with his personal accounts, and writing more than $2.5 million worth of checks to “cash,” the SEC said. Properties owned by his investment ventures eventually slipped into foreclosure, leaving investors stranded, the government alleges.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Post Star News reported. That apparently was a big mistake on their part: According to the New York Attorney General's Office, Van Zandt was allegedly running a Ponzi scheme that relieved clients of $4.6 million between 2008 and 2011. The cash was used to make Ponzi lulling payments to early investors, and to pay Van Zandt's personal expenses. He has now been indicted on 35 counts of securities fraud, money laundering, and other charges. The attorney general said Van Zandt's alleged actions wrecked retirement for many investors, and led others to apply for government assistance programs. His bail has been set at $500,000, the Post Star News added.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Time Moneyland, unless you're a Facebook executive or have a lot of market punch, any offer you receive to buy into the IPO may be deceptive. The SEC has already busted up several Facebook scams operated by crooks who take cash from anxious investors, but don't even have access to the IPO itself. “We've seen cases where fraudsters have told investors that they have special access to pre-IPO shares when in fact they've never owned them,” Moneyland quoted an SEC official as saying. The operative phrase here: Caveat Emptor.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Associated Press said. Now, Spector, 52, has pleaded guilty in a Providence, R.I. federal court to wire fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors charged that he siphoned off money when closing three mortgage refinancing deals to pay personal expenses and and prior mortgage notes. He will be sentenced in August, the AP said.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Mobile Press Register reported that he will be sentenced next week after being convicted on 13 fraud-related counts for ripping off investors of $3.3 million through Synergy Finance Group LLC. The Alabama Securities Commission said Tucker promised investors access to huge loans in exchange for up-front fees. They pumped cash into Synergy accounts, but never got their money, regulators said. Four other men were also charged in the case, and several have already entered guilty pleas, the newspaper said.
]]> http://www.thestreetsweeper.org/streetpatrol_archives.html Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported. The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review the case and consider Petters' argument that his constitutional rights were violated at trial when he was not allowed to question one of the government's witnesses against him. He was convicted in 2009 for running a $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme involving a phony electronics wholesale business. But the Star Tribune quoted a lawyer for Petters as saying his client may file a writ of habeus corpus - his only legal option left - because Petters is “indefatigable and very, very optimistic.” The once-wealthy Petters now resides at Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas.
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