California man sentenced in Wilmington to four yea

California man sentenced in Wilmington to four years in stock manipulation case
Posted: Thursday, May 19, 2011

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Judge Sue L. Robinson of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware sentenced Matthew W. Brown , age 27, of Tustin, Calif. to four years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and a fine of $50,000 following his guilty plea to two counts of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Robinson further ordered Brown to forfeit $4,798,138 to the United States and barred Brown from working in the securities industry during his term of supervised release.

The federal charges against Brown and his co-conspirators were unsealed in May 2009 in Delaware.

According to the indictment and Brown's guilty plea, in 2006 and 2007 Brown and his co-conspirators engaged in a scheme to manipulate the prices of publicly traded stocks to create the illusion of market interest in those securities. The goal was to fraudulently induce the investing public to purchase a stock based on the artificial trading volume, and thus increase the price of the stock. Brown and his co-conspirators then sold significant holdings in these stocks, generating millions of dollars in proceeds.

In Brown's case, the securities involved included GH3 International, Inc. and Asia Global Holdings Corp. According to the indictment and Brown's plea, the fraud schemes involving these securities generated in excess of $4 million in illicit gains.

The charges against Brown were part of a multi-agency investigation into the manipulation of so-called "penny stocks" traded through the over-the-counter stock markets. The investigation, which began in 2007, has been pursued jointly by Delaware-based agents with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations; the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation; and the Delaware State Police; with assistance from local and federal investigators in Orange County, Calif. A separate civil action has been brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"This was a terrific collaborative effort with our federal, state and local counterparts," said John P. Kelleghan, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Philadelphia. "As shown in this investigation, HSI will continue to target those who exploit the world's financial systems to move, store, and launder proceeds gained from their illicit activities."

Since May 2009, six other targets of the investigation have been convicted on charges including securities fraud, perjury, obstruction of justice, money laundering, and tax evasion. In September 2010, co-conspirator Gerard D'Amaro, age 39, of Lighthouse Point, Fla. was sentenced to a term of three years in prison, and ordered to forfeit $1,490,610 to the United States.