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Non-Tech : Auric Goldfinger's Short List -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: scion who wrote (14504)	2/4/2005 7:07:23 PM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

Friday, February 4, 2005 Film firm's stock trading suspended Federal regulators act after Tucson film company offers shares. TEYA VITU Tucson Citizen advertisement The Securities and Exchange Commission has suspended trading of Commanche Properties Inc. securities less than two weeks after the Tucson-based motion picture company tied to the Bonanno family started offering shares. The SEC intentionally jumped in after 2,200 shares were sold, noting several factors that signal the potential for "pump-and-dump" schemes, said John Reed Stark, director of the SEC's Enforcement Division. The schemes have questionable investors unload stock at artificially inflated prices, often based on false positive news, leading to a quick decline in stock value. "There are no findings of any wrongdoings," Stark said. "It's where we have concern with Commanche that they announced they were doing an IPO." Anthony Tarantola, nephew to one-time Mafia kingpin and late Tucson resident Joseph Bonanno Sr., is Commanche's director. Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno, Joseph Bonanno's son, is a partner, the Tucson Citizen reported earlier. Commanche is in pre-production with two movies: "Pipe Dreams" and "Ashtabula Moon," the Citizen reported earlier. Efforts to reach Tarantola were unsuccessful. The SEC was quickly alerted to activities soon after Commanche's initial public offering Jan. 19. Trading was suspended Monday. Stark questioned Commanche's use of Rule 504 of Regulation D of the Security Act of 1933 to issue stock (ticker symbol: CMCH). The rule is designed for small companies issuing stock to a small number of accredited investors. The use of this exemption does not require registering as a public company with the SEC or filing annual reports. Stark said Commanche had not registered with the SEC, although a Jan. 19 Business Wire report said Commanche "officially began trading as a publicly owned company." "Those securities are not supposed to flow to the public," Stark said. "It's not an IPO. It's saying you're going public when you really haven't." The public forwarded spam e-mails to the SEC from Commanche, where the company discussed its initial public offering. Stark noted this is not illegal, but "spamming campaigns are always suspicious in my book, period." "We've seen the MO of 504s and spams as harbingers before manipulation," Stark said. Trading of Commanche's stock began with an unsolicited bid. "That is a concern, too," Stark said. The 10-day suspension automatically expires, but that does not mean SEC concerns are alleviated. Stark would not say whether the commission is investigating Commanche.