Financial Fraud: Eight Defendants Indicted For Participating In Three Unrelated Securities Fraud Crimes

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<h2>Eight Defendants Indicted for Stock Fraud-Related Offenses<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Assistant U&period; S&period; Attorneys Aaron P&period; Arnzen &lpar;619&rpar; 546-8384 and Andrew J&period; Galvin &lpar;619&rpar; 546-9721<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>SAN DIEGO – Eight people&comma; including a San Diego lawyer&comma; were indicted by a federal grand jury for participating in three unrelated securities fraud crimes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Arrests by the FBI began on July 5&comma; 2018&comma; and culminated July 11&comma; 2018 when Luke Zouvas of Point Loma was taken into custody&period; Zouvas was charged with laundering money he believed to be proceeds of <strong>stock fraud schemes<&sol;strong>&period; According to court records&comma; Zouvas was contacted by a former business associate for whom he had previously <em>laundered stock fraud<&sol;em> proceeds&period; In exchange for a money laundering fee&comma; Zouvas agreed to pick up where the two left off years ago by funneling over &dollar;500&comma;000 through his law firm’s client trust account&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In another indictment&comma; Gannon Giguiere of Laguna Beach&comma; California&comma; was charged with manipulating the market for the stock of Eco Science Solutions&comma; Inc&period; and Kelvin Medical&comma; Inc&period; According to court records&comma; Giguiere conspired to pump up the price and volume of these stocks through manipulative trading and&sol;or a stock promotion website designed to get innocent investors interested in buying the stock&period; After the stock prices rose and he dumped the shares&comma; Giguiere pocketed more than &dollar;10 million in fraudulent proceeds from these schemes&period; The same indictment charges Oliver Lindsay of Grand Cayman with participating in the Kelvin Medical scheme&comma; including by trading the conspirators’ stock through an offshore brokerage account in the Cayman Islands&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Another indictment charges a group of five individuals with manipulating the market for the stock of Arias Intel&comma; Corp&period; According to court records&comma; this scheme included efforts to artificially inflate the price and volume of Arias Intel’s stock by controlling the majority of the company’s free-trading shares through concealed offshore accounts&comma; coordinating press releases with expected stock promotions&comma; and the use of high-pressure call rooms targeting innocent investors&period; Each of the five defendants – Andrew Hackett of Toronto&comma; Canada&semi; Vikram Khanna of Porter Ranch&comma; California&semi; Kuldeep Sidhu of Vancouver&comma; British Columbia&semi; Annetta Budhu of New York&comma; New York&semi; and Kevin Gillespie of Tampa&comma; Florida – spoke on recorded calls about various aspects of their scheme&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;These fraud schemes victimize all investors and compromise the integrity of our <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;tag&sol;financial-fraud&sol;" title&equals;"financial" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"861">financial<&sol;a> markets&comma;” said U&period;S&period; Attorney Adam Braverman&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are committed to holding accountable those who try to manipulate the system for their own profit&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;For the United States to maintain its vibrant economy&comma; the American people must have trust and confidence in our markets&comma;” said FBI Special Agent in Charge John Brown&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The FBI will continue to aggressively pursue these complex and coordinated fraud schemes in order to protect the American people and our economy&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Giguiere has been released on a &dollar;2 million dollar bond&period; Sidhu has been detained pending trial&period; Motions to detain Lindsay and Hackett will be heard on July 17 and 19&comma; 2018&comma; respectively&period; Budhu and Gillespie made their first appearances in the Southern District of California on July 13&comma; 2018&comma; and Khanna will make his first appearance on July 27&comma; 2018&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Securities and Exchange Commission has also taken action against Giguiere&comma; Lindsay&comma; Gillespie&comma; Budhu and Hackett&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>DEFENDANTS<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Case Number 18cr3071-WQH<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Gannon Giguiere Age&colon; 46 Laguna Beach&comma; CA<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Oliver Lindsay Age&colon; 44 Georgetown&comma; Grand Cayman<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>SUMMARY OF CHARGES<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Conspiracy – Title 18&comma; U&period;S&period;C&period;&comma; Section 371<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Securities Fraud – Title 15 U&period;S&period;C&period;&comma; Sections 78j&lpar;b&rpar;&comma; 78ff&semi; and 17 C&period;F&period;R&period;&comma; Section 240&period;10b-5<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Maximum penalty&colon; 20 years’ imprisonment and &dollar;5&comma;000&comma;000 fine<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Case Number 18cr3072-BTM<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Andrew Hackett Age&colon; 29 Toronto&comma; Canada<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Vikram Khanna Age&colon; 53 Porter Ranch&comma; CA<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Kuldeep Sidhu Age&colon; 47 British Columbia&comma; Canada<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Annetta Budhu Age&colon; 53 New York&comma; NY<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Kevin Gillespie Age&colon; 49 Tampa&comma; Florida<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>SUMMARY OF CHARGES<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Conspiracy – Title 18&comma; U&period;S&period;C&period;&comma; Section 371<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Securities Fraud – Title 15 U&period;S&period;C&period;&comma; Sections 78j&lpar;b&rpar;&comma; 78ff&semi; and 17 C&period;F&period;R&period;&comma; Section 240&period;10b-5<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Maximum penalty&colon; 20 years’ imprisonment and &dollar;5&comma;000&comma;000 fine<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Case Number 18cr3070-JLS<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Luke Zouvas Age&colon; 47 San Diego&comma; CA<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>SUMMARY OF CHARGES<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Money Laundering – Title 18 U&period;S&period;C&period;&comma; Section 1956&lpar;a&rpar;&lpar;3&rpar;&lpar;B&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Maximum penalty&colon; 20 years’ imprisonment and fine equal to value of the funds involved in the transaction&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>AGENCY<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>FBI &lpar;lead agency&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Securities and Exchange Commission<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Criminal Prosecution Assistance Group&comma; Financial Industry Regulatory Authority<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Financial Industry Regulatory Authority<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The charges and allegations contained in an indictment or complaint are merely accusations&comma; and the defendants are considered innocent unless and until proven guilty&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;usao-sdca&sol;pr&sol;eight-defendants-indicted-stock-fraud-related-offenses">Original PressReleases&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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