Here's "reel kewel", xcentral. For you and jmhollen! Great investment, guys. Thanks for being so positive about SLJB. Hope it was "kewel" for you both!!
Stock manipulator enters guilty plea. Vucicevich to be sentenced for fraud
By Sarah Sacheli, The Windsor Star October 1, 2011 10:38 AM
http://www.windsorstar.com/business/Stock+manipulator+enters+guilty+plea/5487055/story.html
Petar Vucicevich, left, former Sulja Bros. owner walks out of the Provincial Court building in December 2008 with his lawyer Dan Scott. Vucicevich will be sentenced later this month for fraud. Photograph by: Dan Janisse, Windsor Star files
A local businessman once the buzz of North America's penny stock market will be sentenced later this month for fraud.
Petar Vucicevich, 43, who goes by the nickname Black Pete for his penchant for black clothing, pleaded guilty in Superior Court this week to two counts of fraud. He admitted to stock manipulation that sent now-defunct Sulja Brothers shares skyrocketing in 2006.
Bogus news releases sent out by Sulja Brothers and its related companies included claims that it planned to develop a $645-million hotel complex in the Middle East. The releases hyped the company as an international construction firm with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts. Meanwhile, the company was, in effect, bankrupt.
In June, the Ontario Securities Commission fined Vucicevich $775,000 and banned him from ever being involved in the stock market again. He can't buy or sell any stocks or ever be a director or board member of a publicly traded company. Along with his business partner, Vucicevich was also ordered to pay the OSC $5.6 million - the amount they received from investors as a result of their fraudulent activity.
The OSC had ruled earlier that Vucicevich and business partners Steven Sulja, Sam Sulja, Pranab Shah, Tracey Banumas and Texan Andrew DeVries had carried out a fraudulent investment scheme, broke Ontario securities law and acted contrary to the public interest.
Sulja Brothers stock peaked at 21 cents per share in 2006. The partners had set up secondary accounts that Sulja Brothers shares were transferred into, then sold to the market once their value was inflated. An OSC lawyer said the partners were "in effect printing money" through what's called a pump-and-dump stock scheme.
Vucicevich's lawyer, Daniel Scott, said that, while his client was the only one in the scheme to face criminal sanctions, he wasn't the only one enriched.
He said Vucicevich's plans for the company began sincerely.
"The plan was to develop business in the Middle East," Scott said. "It was a legitimate enterprise, at least initially."
Vucicevich was scheduled to go to trial in April. Scott said he and Crown counsel brought in from Toronto to prosecute the case had "very lengthy negotiations" that resulted in Vucicevich's plea, avoiding a jury trial that would have gone on for months.
http://www.windsorstar.com/business/Stock+manipulator+enters+guilty+plea/5487055/story.html |
