SEC Targets Suspected Pump-and-Dump Scheme

The U. http://thestreetsweeper.org/article.html?i=258S . Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil fraud charges against Greenstone Holdings (OTS: GSHN.PK) and seven individuals – including Greenstone CEO Hisao Sal Miwa – for allegedly pumping up the company’s stock and then selling the inflated shares to the unsuspecting public. Greenstone issued false press releases and hired multiple stock promoters to tout the company’s stock, the SEC says, so that the defendants could reap more than $1.3 million in illicit profits by dumping their shares at artificially high prices. The scam began in 2006, the SEC estimates, and continued until the stock was finally halted as part of an anti-spam campaign in mid-2008. In addition to Greenstone and its CEO, the SEC has named the following as defendants in the case: attorneys John Frohling and Thomas Pierson; and stock promoters Daniel Starczewski, Joe Overcash, Frank Morelli and James Painter. The SEC is seeking penny-stock bars, in addition to financial penalties, from all of the individual defendants. The agency hopes to ban Miwa from serving as an officer or director of any publicly traded company as well.