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Gold/Mining/Energy : Golden Eagle Int. (MYNG) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr Metals who wrote (14348)	10/28/1998 7:29:00 PM
From: Intrepid1	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 34075

WHAT'CH GOING TO DO WHEN THEY COME FOR YOU MR METALS! Wednesday October 28 3:45 PM EDT SEC Charges 44 With Internet Securities Fraud WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday charged 44 individuals and companies with committing fraud over the Internet by masquerading as independent securities analysts when they were really being paid to promote stocks. The defendants, in touting cheaply priced securities of companies known as microcaps, violated federal laws by lying about the companies, lying about their own independence from the companies, and/or failing to reveal adequately how they were compensated by the companies, the SEC said. ''Today's sweep demonstrates the SEC's commitment to cleaning up the Internet by aggressively prosecuting securities violations occurring in cyberspace,'' Richard Walker, the top enforcement official at the SEC, said. ''This is a problem that we believe is prevalent and persistent and it's a problem that we're going to continue to go after,'' he added. It is not illegal for companies to compensate someone to promote their securities but those doing the promoting need to disclose that they are being compensated, he said. ''Investors have a right to know that if they're reading information in a newsletter that that information is something other than independent or objective,'' Walker said. The agency's 23 enforcement actions filed in 11 cities involved fraudulent dealings using e-mail, online newsletters, message board postings and Web sites, the SEC said. The defendants allegedly claimed that they were providing their unbiased opinions in their recommendations but failed to disclose that they got more than $6.3 million and nearly two million shares of cheap insider stock and options in exchange for their promotional efforts, the SEC said. ''Not only did they lie about their own independence, some of them lied about the companies they featured, then took advantage of any quick spike in price to sell their shares for a fast and easy profit,'' Walker said. Among the schemes alleged by the SEC: -- An online stock promoting service called Stockstowatch and its president, Steven King, touted the stocks of at least five publicly traded microcaps from October 1997 until around July 1998 in e-mails to subscribers and on its Web site. The price and/or volume of nearly all of the stocks sharply increased following their buy recommendation, and they reaped more than $1 million after they sold shares. -- An Internet newsletter called the Future Superstock written by Jeffrey Bruss of Chicago hyped the purchase of about 25 microcap stocks without adequately disclosing it received more than $1.6 million in cash and stock as compensation from the companies. The newsletter also lied about its success in previous stock picks. -- Publicist Jason Greig of Bellingham, Wash., and his Liberty Capital Group received more than $1.2 million in cash and stock from several microcaps they hawked online without revealing the compensation. So far this year the SEC has brought 38 Internet-related cases, including the 23 announced Wednesday. Since they started policing the Internet in 1995, the commission has filed 61 cases, Walker said. Additional information on the Internet enforcement cases can be found on the SEC's site at sec.gov.