Jack Calvin's Prime Bank Scheme - - - The SEC announced that a federal court sentenced Jack Calvin on criminal charges relating to his operation of a "Prime Bank" securities fraud. Calvin was sentenced to over 16 years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of more than $2mn. Calvin defrauded about 115 investors of more than $2.8mn by offering and selling securities in a purported trading program called "Growth Benefit Systems" that was completely fictitious. He told investors their funds would be pooled to purchase prime bank instruments that would be traded by top-rated banks and promising returns as high as 20% per month. The GBS trading program never existed. [SEC Litigation Rel. 20815, 11/20]
Malaysian Resident Committed Internet Hijacking - - - Thirugnanam Ramanathan, a native of India and legal resident of Malaysia, was sentenced to 2 years in prison followed by a 3-year supervised release, and ordered to pay $362K in restitution. In January 2007, Ramanathan was indicted along with 2 others for having manipulated the prices of at least 14 securities through the unauthorized use of other people's online brokerage accounts. Between July and November 2006, the 3 defendants hijacked the brokerage online accounts of investors using stolen user names and passwords. Prior to intruding into these accounts, the defendants acquired positions in the securities of at least 13 issuers and options on shares of another issuer. Then, they liquidated their victims accounts and used the proceeds to make unauthorized purchases of these securities. They earned at least $121K in illicit trading profits. [SEC Litigation Rel. 20816, 11/20]
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