Financial Fraud: CHRISTOPHER CERVINO and SHEIK F. KHAN Found Guilty in a Securities Fraud Scheme Involving a Publicly Traded Over-The-Counter Company

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CHRISTOPHER CERVINO and SHEIK F. KHAN Found Guilty in a Securities Fraud Scheme Involving a Publicly Traded Over-The-Counter Company

<h2>Investment Adviser And Broker Found Guilty In Manhattan Federal Court Of Securities Fraud&comma; Wire Fraud&comma; Conspiracy And Aggravated Identity Theft Charges<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Joon H&period; Kim&comma; the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York&comma; announced that CHRISTOPHER CERVINO&comma; a&sol;k&sol;a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Smitty&comma;” and SHEIK F&period; KHAN&comma; a&sol;k&sol;a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Abida Khan&comma;” were found guilty yesterday afternoon in Manhattan federal court after a three-week jury trial before U&period;S&period; District Judge Andrew L&period; Carter&comma; Jr&period; for their roles in a securities fraud scheme involving a publicly traded over-the-counter company called VGTel&comma; Inc&period; &lpar;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;VGTL”&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Acting U&period;S&period; Attorney Joon H&period; Kim said&colon;  &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Yesterday&comma; a unanimous jury found Sheik Khan&comma; an investment adviser&comma; and Christopher Cervino&comma; a registered broker&comma; guilty of securities fraud relating to a company called VGTel&period;  The stock fraud scheme Khan and Cervino participated in defrauded 100 investors of more than &dollar;15 million&comma; including nearly &dollar;5 million from Khan’s clients&period;  For their roles in the scheme&comma; Khan and Cervino now stand convicted of federal crimes&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to the Indictment&comma; other filings in Manhattan federal court&comma; and the evidence presented at trial&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"Level1">The VGTL scheme was conceived and led by Edward Durante&comma; a recidivist securities fraud defendant who pleaded guilty in August 2016 to various crimes related to VGTL&comma; including conspiracy&comma; securities fraud&comma; money laundering and perjury&period;  The defendants’ efforts to artificially inflate the market for VGTL increased the stock price from approximately &dollar;&period;25 per share in April 2012 to as much as &dollar;1&period;90&comma; and dramatically inflated the trading volume&comma; which increased the defendants’ abilities to raise private investments in VGTL&period;  To compensate CERVINO for his efforts to control and manipulate the market in VGTL&comma; Durante made at least two cash payments to CERVINO totaling &dollar;35&comma;000&comma; in addition to the substantial commissions Cervino received for executing trades in VGTL&period;  For her part&comma; KHAN received more than &dollar;400&comma;000 from Durante&comma; including more than &dollar;100&comma;000 in payments for liquidating her clients’ investments in safe annuities so that the money could then be invested into VGTL&period;  KHAN’s clients lost virtually the entirety of their investments in VGTL&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>CERVINO&comma; 44&comma; of Franklin Lakes&comma; New Jersey&comma; and KHAN&comma; 50&comma; of Las Vegas&comma; Nevada&comma; were each convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud&comma; which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison&semi; one count of securities fraud&comma; which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison&semi; one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud&comma; which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison&semi; and one count of wire fraud&comma; which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison&period;  In addition to these charges&comma; KHAN was also convicted of investment adviser fraud&comma; which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison&comma; and aggravated identity theft crimes&comma; which carries a mandatory sentence of two years in prison&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The statutory maximum sentences are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only&comma; as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr&period; Kim praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U&period;S&period; Postal Inspection Service&comma; and thanked the Securities and Exchange Commission for its assistance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This case is being handled by the Office’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force&period;  Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorneys Andrea M&period; Griswold&comma; Rebecca Mermelstein&comma; and Daniel Goldman are in charge of the prosecution&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;usao-sdny&sol;pr&sol;investment-adviser-and-broker-found-guilty-manhattan-federal-court-securities-fraud">Original PressReleases&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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