According to the indictment, Manion, along with members of the Colombo crime family and Russian organized crime, came to control virtually all of the tradeable stock of Legend and two other publicly traded companies.
That allowed them to artificially inflate the price of Legend's stock. Once the stock price began rising, a small army of unregistered brokers and cold callers began aggressively selling the stock at its new, high price to unwary investors.
No longer supported by brokers touting its strengths, and battered by the sudden sell-off, the stock price plummeted, leaving the new investors holding near-worthless paper.
But by then, fat commissions had enabled the boiler room operations to shave profits: The stock of Legend and the two other companies alone netted the group an estimated $10 million in profits.
Manion, who has an unlisted phone number, could not be reached for comment. |
