Here is the kind of people that we are at war with here on this thread...
BN Florida Man, Twice Accused, Organized Phony IPO, SEC Alleges
Feb 10 2000 15:00
Florida Man, Twice Accused, Organized Phony IPO, SEC Alleges
New York, Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- A Florida man, while
awaiting trial on two felony charges, sought to capitalize on the
public's fascination with Internet stock offerings by selling
shares in a nonexistent online business, federal regulators said
today.
Arthur Alonzo had been free on bail on federal charges of
securities fraud, in one case, and, in another, conspiring with
an organized crime figure to assault the president of a brokerage
firm where he worked, authorities said.
According to the United States Securities and Exchange
Commission, Alonzo in recent weeks began selling shares in a
company he called E4online, which purportedly would sell books
and videos over the Internet. The company doesn't exist, the SEC
says.
``E4online is nothing more than a sham and a vehicle from
which Alonzo and possibly others can siphon investor funds for
their own use,' the SEC says in a civil complaint the agency
filed against him today.
Alonzo sought to raise $5 million through a private offering, telling investors that he was a licensed broker and a
``million-dollar' producer with a staff of ten assistants, the
SEC says. He claimed the company would go public at six times the
price investors in the private offering had paid, the complaint
says.
In fact, the office Alonzo claimed for E4online was actually
his former friend's apartment; at least one of the company's
supposed officers had no affiliation with the firm, and Alonzo
used an alias when soliciting investors, the SEC says.
Alonzo, of Coconut Creek, Florida, was arrested on Tuesday
for violating the terms of his bail, authorities said. His
attorney could not be reached.
In one of the pending cases, Alonzo is alleged to be among
85 brokers who engaged in a conspiracy to manipulate the prices
of small stocks, authorities said. In the other case, he and
another man are accused of assaulting the then-president of
brokerage D.L. Cromwell, they said.
--David Glovin in U.S. District Court in New York (212) 732-9245
through the New York newsroom (212) 893-3665/ep
Story illustration: for a graph of the performance of the S&P 500
Index, type SPX <Index> <Go>. |
