re. Peter Foley, CRD #210650 and stock manipulation:
here's an excerpt from SEC litigation and administrative action against his former employer, the president of Waldron & Co. The alleged action occurred before Pete Foley began his employment with Waldron, so I'm not suggesting that Foley was involved in this particular manipulation, but it does demonstrate the nature of Foley's employer by showing that Foley's employer ordered his brokers to participate in stock manipulation. You can imagine what sort of skills Foley learned while working for him.
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U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 16146 / May 14, 1999
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION v. WALDRON & CO., INC.; CERY B.
PERLE, Civil Action No. 99-3299 DT (Ex) (C.D. Cal.)
A federal judge in Los Angeles has found that Cery B. Perle,
part owner and former president of a now-defunct Irvine, California
brokerage firm, Waldron & Co., manipulated the stock of the Corona
del Mar, California Internet retailer, Shopping.com. In the
decision, which was in response to a lawsuit filed by the Securities
and Exchange Commission last September, the judge found that Perle,
age 36, planned, directed and executed a scheme to fraudulently
increase the price of Shopping.com?s stock by 255%. Waldron profited
by over $4.1 million from the illegal scheme.
The findings, which were signed by U.S. District Judge Dickran
Tevrizian on May 3, 1999 and released this week, show that from
November 25, 1997 through March 23, 1998, Perle and Waldron
artificially raised the price of Shopping.com?s stock from its IPO
price of $9.00 to more than $32.00 a share. The Commission had
suspended trading in the security on March 24, 1998, due to suspected
manipulative conduct.
Perle manipulated Shopping.com?s stock by, among other things,
controlling the supply for the security. In fact, the court found
that Perle and Waldron controlled over 90% of the supply of
Shopping.com?s stock. In order to control supply, Perle sold 220,000
shares of Shopping.com?s stock to Waldron customers without their
authorization, parking the stock in their accounts while asking a
Waldron broker to "bury" more stock in the accounts of other Waldron
customers. Perle also parked at least 75,000 shares in twelve
fictitious customer accounts. To further control supply and prop up
the price of Shopping.com?s stock, Perle prevented Waldron customers
from selling their stock. According to the court?s findings, Perle
threatened to fire any Waldron broker who allowed customers to sell
Shopping.com?s stock to persons outside of Waldron. He ridiculed
brokers who allowed their customers to sell at all and made brokers
sign an agreement forfeiting their commissions if their customers
sold Shopping.com?s stock within 90 days of their purchase.
Moreover, Perle personally refused to honor sell instructions that he
received from Waldron customers.
In addition to making the above findings, the court permanently
enjoined Waldron and Perle from violating the antifraud provisions of
the federal securities laws, Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of
1933 and Sections 10(b) and 15(c)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act
of 1934 and Rules 10b-5 and 15c1-2 thereunder. The court also
imposed $110,000 in civil penalties against Perle.
sec.gov |
