TWO SEATTLE ATTORNEYS CAUGHT UP IN PUMP AND DUMP SECURITIES SCHEME

Selling products that don’t exist is certainly a very creative way to avoid both fixed and variable overhead costs. Of course selling stock in a company that makes products that don’t exist can be incredibly lucrative. The following is an excerpt from the SEC web site which harkens back to the days of the dot.com bubble. Many dot.com companies had soaring stock prices and never developed any kind of revenue stream because there was never any viable product or service to sell.

“The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission”) announced that on April 11, 2011, the Honorable Richard A. Jones, United States District Court Judge for the Western District of Washington, entered judgments of permanent injunction and other relief against Defendants David M. Otto, Todd Van Siclen, Charles Bingham and Wall Street PR, Inc.
The final judgment against Otto enjoins the Seattle attorney from violating Sections 5 and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 (“Securities Act”), and Sections 10(b) and 16(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) and Rules 10b-5 and 16a-13 promulgated thereunder. In addition to the injunctive relief, the final judgment against Otto orders him to pay $180,000 in civil penalties, $38,610.18 in disgorgement together with $6,751.15 in prejudgment interest and bars him from participating in an offering of penny stock for five years. Otto consented to the entry of the judgment without admitting or denying the allegations in the complaint.
The final judgment against Seattle attorney Van Siclen enjoins him from violating Sections 5 and 17(a)(3) of the Securities Act. In addition to the injunctive relief, the final judgment against Van Siclen orders him to pay $10,000 in civil penalties and bars him from participating in an offering of penny stock for three years. Van Siclen consented to the entry of the judgment without admitting or denying the allegations in the complaint.
The final judgment against Texas stock promoter Bingham and his company Wall Street PR enjoins them from violating Sections 5 and 17(a)(2) and 17(a)(3) of the Securities Act. In addition to the injunctive relief, the final judgment against Bingham orders him to pay $50,000 in civil penalties, $80,153 in disgorgement together with $15,608.43 in prejudgment interest. Bingham and Wall Street PR consented to the entry of the judgments without admitting or denying the allegations in the complaint.
On July 13, 2009, the Commission filed its complaint against the Defendants alleging that they violated the anti-fraud and registration provisions of the federal securities laws by, among other things, conducting a “pump-and-dump” scheme in which the defendants used a false and misleading public relations campaign to tout their client MitoPharm Corporation’s products. In reality, the products did not exist. Otto sold MitoPharm stock at a profit before its stock price plunged after the close of the promotional campaign.
In addition to the relief described above, Otto and Van Siclen each consented to the entry of an order in separate Commission administrative proceedings suspending them, pursuant to Rule 102(e) of the Commission's Rules of Practice, from appearing or practicing as attorneys before the Commission with the right to apply for reinstatement after three years and one year, respectively.”

This case describes some pretty incredible actions taken by officers of the court. Based upon this case and other similar cases, I question what law schools are teaching now days.