Head of Investors Hub Website Sentenced to Four Years in Jail

Matthew Brown, the operator of a popular penny-stock website known as Investors Hub, has been sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to forfeit $4.78 million in illicit profits for his alleged involvement in multiple “pump-and-dump” schemes, StockWatch reported . Brown was arrested in May 2009 for allegedly manipulating several Pink Sheet stocks, StockWatch said, including Playstar Corp., GH3 International Inc., Asia Global Holdings Inc. and XTreme Motorsports of California. Together with four other suspects, StockWatch said, Brown allegedly boosted the stocks through orchestrated campaigns – involving bogus press releases, bullish posts on IHub message boards and prearranged trades – and then dumped millions of shares in the microcap companies at artificially inflated prices. Brown could have faced up to 50 years in prison, StockWatch said, but he managed to reduce his sentence under a plea deal in which he took full responsibility for his crimes.