JM, YOU MAY ALSO NOTE THAT JEFFERY RICHARDSON WAS ALSO CHARGED IN AN UNRELATED STOCKSCAM WITH FRANCOIS GOELO WHICH IS A PERSON DEAR TO MY HEART.
YOU MUST FEEL GOOD TOUTING A STOCK WHICH BOILER ROOM BROKERS SWINDLED LITTLE OLD LADIES.
CONGRATS!!
NASD charges New York firm in boiler-room fraud
Reuters, 10.16.03, 12:00 PM ET
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The NASD on Thursday said it charged Yankee Financial Group Inc. and its president with defrauding investors, including the elderly, of $8 million by using high-pressure, "boiler-room" sales tactics to sell risky, over-the-counter stocks.
The regulator charged the Melville, New York-based broker-dealer and its 48-year-old president, Richard Kresge, who owns 95 percent of the firm, with fraudulently recommending that clients buy three "patently unsuitable" stocks from October 2001 through at least May 2002. It is seeking sanctions and full restitution, with interest.
The NASD, formerly the National Association of Securities Dealers, said it permanently barred 11 people involved in the scheme. It said much of the sales proceeds were funneled through Bahamian accounts maintained by a single broker-dealer, Sierra Brokerage Services, to "several suspicious entities."
Reached by phone, Kresge, referring to the charges, said "it's not true" and referred calls to his lawyer.
The lawyer, Paul Bazil, a partner at Pickard and Djinis LLP in Washington, said Yankee and Kresge filed an answer denying the NASD's charges. "Mr. Kresge looks forward to the hearings in this matter, at which time he is confident he will be exonerated and protect the good name he has earned over the last quarter century," Bazil said.
The NASD said brokers in Yankee's Brooklyn and Staten Island offices used misrepresentations, omissions and baseless price predictions to persuade investors to buy shares in oil and gas company Golden Chief Resources Inc., pasta distributor Silver Star Foods Inc. and Western Media Group Corp. , whose businesses include computer consulting and sporting goods stores.
"These companies had dubious business operations, virtually no assets or revenues, and few prospects," the NASD said in its complaint. Golden Chief shares no longer trade over the counter; shares in the others trade for less than $1.
The NASD also charged former Yankee branch manager Gary Giordano, 42, with fraud and failure to supervise brokers. Joseph Korwasky, 51, Yankee's former compliance officer, was charged with failure to report customer complaints.
The barred individuals worked for Yankee, Sierra or Argus Securities, which the NASD said was also involved in the scheme. They include: Kenneth Gliwa, a former Yankee vice president; Joseph Ferragamo, a Yankee branch owner; David Anderson a/k/a Vasiliy Kouznetsov, Eric Cenname, Lawrence Dugo and Adam Klein, all Yankee brokers; Jeffrey Richardson, Sierra's president; John Cook, a former Argus president; John Klukewycz, a former Argus branch manager, and Samuel Barmapov and Ilan Shteinberg, former Argus brokers.
Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service |
