Nine Individuals Indicted in One of the Largest International Penny Stock Frauds and Advance Fee Schemes in History

Earlier today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested six men in New York, Arizona, New Jersey, Florida, and California for engaging in an international fraud conspiracy that spanned the globe from North America to Europe and Asia. A seventh defendant was also arrested today on a provisional arrest warrant in Ontario, Canada. The arrests resulted from an indictment charging nine defendants with 24 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, and false personation of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees in connection with the sale of securities and conspiracy (the investigation showed that the identities used were fictitious and that no IRS employees were involved in the scheme). As set forth in court filings, the defendants masterminded securities fraud and advance fee schemes that victimized investors in approximately 35 nations and generated more than $140 million through various brokerage and bank accounts under their control. To uncover the international aspects of the scheme and gather evidence, the FBI used wiretaps in the United States and undercover agents in foreign countries.

The indictment and arrests are the result of one of the largest international penny stock investigations ever conducted by the Department of Justice and the FBI and mark the unveiling of a multi-year, ongoing investigation, which included significant assistance from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), as well as from other U.S. law enforcement agencies and law enforcement authorities in England, as well as assistance from Thailand and China.

The defendants are charged in two separate but interrelated schemes. According to the indictment, the defendants first engaged in an international "pump and dump" scheme during which they fraudulently "pumped up" the share price of worthless penny stocks and then "dumped" billions of shares of those stocks by unloading them on unsuspecting victim investors across the globe. Second, the defendants operated boiler rooms in at least four countries that induced investors in penny stocks, including many of the same victims from the pump and dump scheme, to pay advance fees that the defendants promised would enable the victim-investors to sell their penny stocks and recover losses that they incurred. In reality, the defendants simply stole the fees without providing any services, fraudulently extracting millions of additional dollars from their victims.

The charges and arrests were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; George Venizelos, Assistant Director in Charge, FBI, New York Field Office; Toni Weirauch, Special Agent in -Charge, IRS, Criminal Investigation, New York; James C. Spero, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations, Department of Homeland Security, Buffalo; and Robert O’Malley, Special Agent in Charge, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

The Pump and Dump Scheme

As alleged in the indictment, defendants Sandy Winick, Gary Kershner, Joseph Manfredonia, Cort Poyner, Songkram Roy Shachaisere, and William Seals orchestrated one of the largest international penny stock frauds in history. First, the defendants gained controlling interests of huge quantities of worthless stock in 11 public companies known in the industry as "file cabinet businesses"—thinly traded companies with minimal assets and non-existent business operations, which in many cases were mere shell companies. They then pumped up the share prices of the companies’ stock by engaging in fraudulent and illegal sales campaigns, which included distributing false press releases, announcing non-existent business ventures and fake mergers, posting false information on social media sites and bribing stock promoters and brokers.

These efforts fraudulently inflated share prices so that the pump and dump defendants could trade billions of shares of penny stocks that they owned and controlled at a profit, ultimately generating more than $120 million worth of fraudulent stock sales in accounts under their control. As a result of the defendants’ efforts, investors in 35 countries were defrauded in connection with their purchase of the companies’ stock.

To avoid detection, the defendants, many of whom operated from outside the United States, were often careful to use “throwaway phones.” In fact, defendant Poyner was intercepted on a wire communication reminding others in the scheme to use such mobile devices to avoid being caught. The defendants also knew that they should not draw attention to their illegal trading scheme. For example, defendant Winick boasted about the superiority of the charged scheme compared to another more obvious scam, stating, “That deal is obviously a pump and dump. We know enough to be subtle.”

The Advance Fee Scheme

As the indictment alleges, defendants Winick, Gregory Curry, Kolt Curry, and Gregory Ellis perpetrated a second scheme in which they fraudulently induced penny stock victims to pay advance fees, on the promise that the victims would then either be able to sell their securities to other waiting investors or join lawsuits to reclaim their losses. In reality, the advance fees were nothing more than a con, as neither the investors nor the lawsuits existed. To hoodwink the penny stock owners, the advance fee defendants invented fake trading companies and a fake law firm and then posed as employees of those entities while soliciting advance fees from the penny stock victims.

To facilitate the scheme, the defendants established boiler rooms or call centers from which members of the conspiracy would solicit advance fees from the unsuspecting penny stock victims. The call centers were located in various locales around the world, including Canada, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. Recently, the defendants began planning to open a new call center in Brooklyn, New York. Some of the victims were told that they either needed to pay the advance fee to remove restrictions that were placed upon their penny stock, which prevented the victims from selling their stock in the market, or to join investors in a pending or anticipated lawsuit to recover losses that they incurred while owning the penny stock. Victims were then told that the advance fees were needed to convert the warrants of their stocks to a saleable security. In several instances, the advance fee defendants even pretended to be IRS employees collecting a bogus advance tax from victim investors before they could unload their penny stocks (the investigation showed that the identities used were fictitious and that no IRS employees were involved in the scheme). The victims were directed to send payment of the advance fees to banks around the world, including bank accounts in New York City. The fraud proceeds were then transferred through a funds transfer network located in Getzville, New York, to an account maintained in Beirut, Lebanon. Ultimately, these defendants generated more than $20 million in fraudulently obtained advance fees.

Defendant Kolt Curry described the advance fee scheme in the following way over an intercepted wire communication: “I would say that 100 percent of these stocks are like uh pink uh...just dumps...so...ya know they’re totally, they’re like, so a lot of these guys are dying...to get rid of this crap....The money is good, it’s easy. It’s easy money. Definitely easy money, and it’s good money.” In fact, while bragging about his prowess as a fraudster, defendant Kolt Curry further stated, “I had a guy send me a million dollars over one phone call....He actually sent me almost two million dollars over the period of the hit....I guess in the industry they coin it as a smash and grab.” As for the group’s recent plans to open a call center in Brooklyn, New York, defendant Kolt Curry said, “I tell you what man...hitting the Americans would be like taking money from a baby.”

“As alleged in the indictment, the defendants used our securities markets as a platform from which to run elaborate fraudulent schemes to victimize unsuspecting investors across the globe. Where others saw citizens of the world, the defendants saw a pool of potential marks. They cheated, lied, and swindled investors into buying billions of shares of worthless stock, then turned around and used a second scam to cheat those investors again. But today, the defendants were the marks, and it was law enforcement that ran the table,” stated United States Attorney Lynch. “As this case shows, we are committed to preserving the rule of law and protecting our investors and markets from fraud. I would like to thank our partners at FBI for their hard work on this important investigation.” Ms. Lynch also thanked the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Financial Crime Intelligence Unit in Vancouver and the Integrated Market Enforcement Team in Toronto, the IRS, the Department of Homeland Security, TIGTA, and the Serious Organized Crime Agency in the United Kingdom. Throughout the course of the investigation, significant assistance was also provided by the United States Embassies in Ottawa, Toronto, London, Bangkok, and Beijing. Ms. Lynch also expressed her grateful appreciation to the Securities and Exchange Commission for its cooperation and assistance in the investigation.

FBI Assistant Director in Charge Venizelos stated, “As alleged in the indictment, the defendants overstated the value of penny stocks and sold them to unwitting investors worldwide. By tricking victims into paying advance fees with the promise of realizing larger gains or recovering losses, some of the defendants dipped into the pockets of those they had betrayed not once, but twice. The investing public has the right to trade in an uncorrupted market, and we have a responsibility to uphold the public’s confidence in the integrity of our financial markets. While the charges announced today are significant, they are but one example of what’s left to come as we continue to work with our partners in this ongoing investigation.”

“The criminals behind this scheme were shameless in heartlessly defrauding hundreds of victims out of their savings and retirement accounts for their own enrichment,” said James C. Spero, special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Buffalo. “HSI is committed to working with our partners at the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to hold these perpetrators accountable and recover as much money as possible for their victims.”

IRS Special Agent in Charge Weirauch stated, “Illegal activity in the investment industry continues to bring financial ruin to unsuspecting American investors. IRS-Criminal Investigation is proud to be part of the multi-agency team that stopped this international investment scam. We stand ready to bring our forensic accounting skills to the fight against other investment schemes and white-collar crimes.”

“Impersonation of an employee of the Internal Revenue Service is a violation of federal law,” said Robert E. O’Malley, Special Agent in Charge for the TIGTA. “Taxpayers should exercise extreme caution when contacted by individuals representing themselves as IRS employees and immediately verify those individuals’ employment by contacting the IRS through their website at www.irs.gov. If the individuals cannot be verified as IRS employees, they should immediately contact TIGTA.”

The defendants have been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud, four counts of securities fraud, and two counts of false personation of an officer of the United States. If convicted, the defendants will face up to 20 years’ imprisonment for each count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, substantive wire fraud and substantive securities fraud and up to five years’ imprisonment for conspiracy to commit securities fraud. The defendants face up to three years in prison for each count of false personation of an officer of the United States. In addition, all proceeds of fraudulent schemes are subject to forfeiture. The defendants will be presented for arraignment later today at the United States Courthouses in Brooklyn, New York; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; and Tucson, Arizona. The defendants in Los Angeles, Miami, and Tucson are expected to be removed to Brooklyn.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Christopher A. Ott, Sylvia Shweder, and Melanie Hendry.

This prosecution was the result of efforts by President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF), which was created in November 2009 to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. With more than 20 federal agencies, 94 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, and state and local partners, it is the broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory, and regulatory agencies ever assembled to combat fraud. Since its formation, the task force has made great strides in facilitating increased investigation and prosecution of financial crimes; enhancing coordination and cooperation among federal, state, and local authorities; addressing discrimination in the lending and financial markets; and conducting outreach to the public, victims, financial institutions, and other organizations. Over the past three fiscal years, the Justice Department has filed more than 10,000 financial fraud cases against nearly 15,000 defendants. For more information on the task force, visit www.stopfraud.gov.

Defendants:

SANDY WINICK
Citizenship: Canada
Age: 55
Bangkok, Thailand

GREGORY CURRY
Citizenship: Canada
Age: 63
Bangkok, Thailand

KOLT CURRY
Citizenship: Canada
Age: 38
Ontario, Canada

GREGORY ELLIS
Citizenship: Canada
Age: 46
Ontario, Canada

GARY KERSHNER
Citizenship: United States
Age: 72
Tucson, Arizona

JOSEPH MANFREDONIA
Citizenship: United States
Age: 45
Tom’s River, New Jersey

CORT POYNER
Citizenship: United States
Age: 44
Boca Raton, Florida

SONGKRAM ROY SAHACHAISERE
Citizenship: United States
Age: 43
Huntington Beach, California

WILLIAM SEALS
Citizenship: United States
Age: 51
Fallbrook, California