A federal grand jury has indicted 15 people, including three who were spotlighted in Sharesleuth investigations, alleging that they participated in a series of “pump-and-dump” schemes that netted more than $30 million.
The defendants include Regis Possino, a disbarred lawyer with convictions for drug dealing and fraud; Sherman Mazur, a onetime real estate mogul with a prior fraud conviction; and Edon Moyal, the former chief executive of Who’s Your Daddy Inc., a publicly traded energy-drink company. He is currently awaiting sentencing in an unrelated criminal case.
The FBI said in a press release that its investigation included a series of wiretaps that resulted in the interception of more than 60,000 phone calls and 24,000 text messages.
Who’s Your Daddy was the subject of a Sharesleuth story three years ago. Entities connected with Possino provided early funding in exchange for notes that could be converted to large amounts of stock.
Who’s Your Daddy now is called Fitt Highway Products Inc. (OTCBB: FHWY).
Companies tied to Possino and another of the defendants, Grover Henry Colin Nix, also provided to financing to Pure Play Music Ltd. (Pink Sheets: PPML) and got millions of shares of stock. Sharesleuth detailed those connections in a pair of stories in 2009.
The indictments unsealed this week allege that Possino, Mazur, Moyal and Nix were part of two networks that fraudulently inflated the share prices of small public companies before dumping their holdings on unsuspecting investors.
The indictments said the participants in the schemes acquired a large percentage of the shares in those companies, distributed those shares to nominees to conceal their ownership, boosted the share prices though manipulative trading and misleading press releases, then sold the shares.
Authorities said the schemes defrauded more than 20,000 investors in the United States and other countries.
The indictments (see details here and here ) identified five public companies whose shares were manipulated. They were:
–Sport Endurance Inc. (OTCBB: SENZ)
–GenMed Holding Corp. (OTCBB: GENM)
–BioStem U.S. Corp. (OTCBB: HAIR)
–FrogAds Inc., previously known as Imobilis Inc. (Pink Sheets: FROG)
–Empire Post Media Inc. (Pink Sheets: EMPM)
It appears from certain details in the court documents — such as the reported proceeds from the schemes involving those five stocks and the overall profits of the purported “pump-and-dump’’ network — that even more public companies were involved.
The indictments against Possino, Mazur, Moyal, Nix and the other defendants were issued last year, as part of ongoing investigations being conducted by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal division.
The indictments were unsealed Wednesday after 14 of the 15 people charged in the cases were arrested. The other, who authorities said operated from Switzerland and Dubai, remains at large.
Possino, Moyal, Nix and a stock promoter named Mark Harris were charged in both indictments. Mazur was charged in one. Those documents identified Possino and Mazur as the leaders of the schemes.
The other people who were indicted include Julian Spitari, the chief executive officer of FrogAds, and Dwight Brunoehler, the chief executive of Biostem. The FBI said four of the defendants allegedly participated in the schemes while on pretrial release in other criminal cases.
That group included Moyal, who was convicted last year of conspiracy to distribute marijuana. The new indictments allege that Moyal used another of his companies, 8 Sounds Inc., to pay promoters for touting the stocks used in the manipulation schemes. They say he also received a cut of the proceeds.
Another of the defendants, Tarun Mendiratta, pleaded guilty in 2009 to conspiracy and tax evasion charges in connection with a fraud scheme at a public company called American Fire Retardant Corp. According to the indictment, Mendiratta boasted of grossing more than $75 million from stock-manipulation schemes over the past decade.
The Justice Department has asked that Possino be held without bond, adding that he has considerable assets overseas and is a flight risk.
