FROM: U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 23110 / October 10, 2014
Securities and Exchange Commission v. 8000, Inc., Jonathan E. Bryant, Thomas J. Kelly, and Carl N. Duncan, Esq., Civil Action No. 12-civ-7261 (S.D.N.Y., Complaint filed Sept. 27, 2012)
Judgment Against Former CEO Orders Payment of Over $450,000 in Case Involving Scheme to Manipulate Company's Stock
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that on October 9, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a Final Judgment against Thomas J. Kelly of Levittown, Pennsylvania. Kelly was the Chief Executive Officer of 8000, Inc., a now defunct Virginia-based company whose stock was quoted on OTC Pink operated by OTC Markets Group LLC. Kelly and 8000, Inc. were defendants in a civil fraud action filed by the Commission on September 27, 2012. Also charged were an undisclosed principal in 8000, Inc., Jonathan E. Bryant of Nantwich, United Kingdom, and the company's attorney, Carl N. Duncan of Bethesda, Maryland.
The Commission's complaint alleged that the defendants participated in a scheme to manipulate the trading volume and price of 8000 Inc.'s common stock by disseminating false information about the company and simultaneously selling, or facilitating the sale of its securities which were not for sale to the general public. According to the complaint, from November 2009 through October 2010, Kelly and Bryant disseminated financial reports and press releases falsely representing that 8000, Inc. had millions of dollars in capital financing and revenues when, in fact, the company had neither. As 8000, Inc.'s stock price rose based on the false information they were disseminating, Bryant is alleged to have sold 56.8 million "restricted" shares of 8000, Inc. into the market with the assistance of Duncan who provided false legal opinions removing the restrictions, and Kelly to have bought and sold the company's securities in the secondary market. The complaint alleged that the defendants' scheme increased the volume of trading in 8000, Inc. by 93% and the company's stock price from less than $0.01 per share to $0.42 per share between November 2009 and October 2010.
The Final Judgment orders Kelly to disgorge the $415,592 in profits that he realized from trading in 8000, Inc.'s securities and to pay $ 46,697in pre-judgment interest. The Final Judgment follows the Judgment that the court entered against Kelly on June 6, 2013, with Kelly's consent and without him admitting or denying the allegations in the Commission's Complaint. That Judgment permanently enjoins Kelly from violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act) and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. It also permanently bars Kelly from acting as an officer or director of any issuer that has a class of securities registered pursuant to Section 12 of the Exchange Act, and permanently bars him from participating in an offering of a penny stock.
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