SEC sues Florida brokers over illegal Universal Express shares
South Florida Business Journal - by Brian Bandell
Thursday, September 3, 2009, 9:42am EDT
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The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused three stockbrokers, including two from Florida, of helping Universal Express, a Boca Raton-based luggage shipping company, illegally issue more than 21 billion shares.
The federal civil complaint, filed Tuesday in New York, said the defendants generated proceeds of $34 million by unloading the unregistered stock.
It took billions of shares of Universal Express to raise that kind of money because they traded between one-hundredth of a penny to 6 cents a share between 2004 and 2007.
The complaint names Coral Gables resident Robert L. Weidenbaum and his Miami-based CLX & Associates; Holmes Beach resident Doyle Scott Elliot and his Bradenton Beach-based Scott Elliot Inc.; and Dix Hills, N.Y., resident Michael J. Xirinachs and his Melville, N.Y.-based Emerald Asset Advisors LLC.
The SEC won a $25.7 million judgment against Universal Express and then-CEO Richard Altomare in 2007 for selling the unregistered stock and making false and misleading statements. The complaint in that case said the illegal stock sales were keeping the company afloat and providing lavish benefits for Altomare.
The luggage-shipping company was placed into receivership and had most of its assets liquidated. It still claims ownership of a trove of Michael Jackson memorabilia, which was partially purchased using proceeds from unregistered shares.
According to the complaint, the defendants bought unregistered shares from Universal Express at a discount from the market price from 2004 until just before the verdict in the SEC case was issued in 2007. The companies and individuals then sold these shares on the public market and paid some of the proceeds to Universal Express to compensate for the shares they sold.
Many of these deals were done through various brokerage accounts around the county or off shore held in the names of the defendants, the complaint says.
The latest SEC complaint seeks to make the stockbrokers pay civil penalties and disgorge all ill-gotten gains, bar them from participating in penny stock offering and permanently restrict them from violating the securities act.
Efforts to reach those charged were unsuccessful.
Click here to read the complaint.
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Robert L. Weidenbaum of Coral Gables, Fla., a stock promoter who operates a company called CLX & Associates.
SEC Charges Seven in Global Warming Pump-and-Dump Scheme
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2011-46
Washington, D.C., Feb. 18, 2011 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a group of seven individuals who perpetrated a fraudulent pump-and-dump scheme in the stock of a sham company that purported to provide products and services to fight global warming.
Additional Materials
SEC Complaint
sec.gov |
