Intrigue fills case of murder
njo.com
Two men who operated on the fringes of the financial world touting high-risk stocks through the Internet were first crippled by gunfire in a Colts Neck mansion before being shot point-blank in the head, authorities said yesterday.
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The two men dealt in a world of highly speculative stock issues on the Internet -- a place where millions can be made by fraudulently manipulating share prices through phony stock tips.
The men operated an Internet stock newsletter called StockInvestor.com out of the house. The business was operated with a third partner, whom authorities refused to identify. The partner has been questioned; the prosecutor refused to say whether he was a suspect.
The Web site, registered in Panama and administered in Budapest, Hungary, promoted low-cost, highly speculative securities commonly known as "penny" or "micro-cap" stocks.
Such "touters" have increasingly come under scrutiny of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which last October accused 44 companies and individuals of illegally promoting stocks over the Internet by misrepresenting the firms' prospects and not fully disclosing they were being paid commissions to endorse the stock offerings.
StockInvestor.com was not among those charged, and the SEC said yesterday it had no litigation pending against the firm or its principals. However, officials close to the case who spoke on condition of anonymity said the firm had already attracted the attention of the SEC before the murders.
The FBI has joined the homicide investigation, sources said. FBI officials declined to comment last night.
Although initial police reports identified the men as stockbrokers, neither Chalem nor Lehmann was registered to sell or trade securities. However, Chalem -- who operated a Clifton print ink company and once had business ties to a hotel in the Catskills called Heartbreak Hotel -- briefly worked for A.S. Goldmen & Co., a brokerage in Red Bank.
Lehmann had no registration as a broker with the National Association of Securities Dealers, officials there said. But an individual by that name showed up in litigation records of the SEC.
In that case, Lehmann entered into a consent agreement in January involving a $12 million scheme to manipulate the stock price of a small company over the Internet by distributing false information about the firm in news releases and Internet newsletters. The scam cheated unwary investors by inflating the company's share prices from 50 cents to $5 in one day.
Lehmann, who was one of the primary defendants, agreed to pay $630,000 in penalties.
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