Financial Fraud

Investment Fraud: CHRISTIAN MEISSENN Guilty For His Involvement In a Securities Fraud Scheme

<h2>Suffield Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges Stemming from Role in Stock &&num;8220&semi;Pump and Dump&&num;8221&semi; Scheme<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Deirdre M&period; Daly&comma; United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut&comma; announced that CHRISTIAN MEISSENN&comma; also known as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Christian Nigohossian&comma;” 44&comma; of Suffield&comma; waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty today before U&period;S&period; District Judge Jeffrey A&period; Meyer in New Haven to conspiracy and tax evasion charges stemming <strong>from his involvement in a securities fraud scheme<&sol;strong>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to court documents and statements made in court&comma; between approximately 2009 and July 2016&comma; MEISSENN and others conspired to defraud investors through a stock &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;pump and dump” scheme&period;  MEISSENN and his co-conspirators induced investors to purchase securities by making false and misleading representations in calls&comma; emails and press releases concerning the securities and the issuing companies&comma; thereby causing the price of those securities to become falsely inflated&period;  The issuing companies&comma; most of which were essentially shell companies controlled by MEISSENN’s associates&comma; included Terra Energy Resources Ltd&period; &lpar;stock symbol &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;TRRE”&rpar;&semi; Mammoth Energy Group&comma; Inc&period; &lpar;stock symbol &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;MMTE”&rpar;&comma; a company that later became Strategic Asset Leasing Inc&period; &lpar;stock symbol &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;LEAS”&rpar;&semi; Trilliant Exploration Corporation &lpar;stock symbol &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;TTXP”&rpar;&semi; Electric Motors Corporation &lpar;stock symbol &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;EMCO”&rpar;&semi; Hermes Jets&comma; Inc&period; &lpar;stock symbol &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;HRMJ”&rpar;&comma; which later became Continental Beverage Brands Corporation &lpar;stock symbol &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;CBBB”&rpar;&semi; and Fox Petroleum&comma; Inc&period; &lpar;stock symbol &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;FXPT”&rpar;&period;  The conspirators then sold positions in those securities that were held by conspirators and their designees at the falsely inflated prices&comma; thereby enriching the members of the conspiracy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After selling their own shares at a profit&comma; the conspirators allowed the price of the securities to fall&comma; leaving investors with worthless and unsalable stock&period;  As a result&comma; victim investors lost millions of dollars&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Between 2011 and 2015&comma; MEISSENN earned approximately &dollar;4&period;4 million through this scheme and diverted a large portion of the profits into the trust account of an attorney rather than a bank account in his own name&period;  He then directed the attorney to withdraw cash for MEISSENN’s personal use&comma; and to wire funds and issue checks for the benefit of MEISSENN and his family members&period;  MEISSENN failed to report this income to the Internal Revenue Service during the 2011 through 2015 tax years&comma; and failed to pay more than &dollar;1&period;5 million in federal income taxes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>MEISSENN pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud&comma; which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years&comma; and one count of tax evasion&comma; which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Judge Meyer scheduled sentencing for January 31&comma; 2017&period;  At sentencing&comma; MEISSENN will be ordered to pay restitution to his victims&comma; as well as back taxes&comma; interest and penalties to the Internal Revenue Service&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This ongoing investigation is being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation&comma; Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division and U&period;S&period; Postal Inspection Service&comma; with assistance from the Connecticut Department of Banking and the Hartford and Stamford Police Departments&period;  The matter is being prosecuted by Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorneys Avi M&period; Perry and Peter S&period; Jongbloed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Citizens with information that may be helpful to this ongoing investigation&comma; or who believe they may have been victimized by this scheme&comma; are encouraged to contact the FBI at &lpar;203&rpar; 777-6311&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;usao-ct&sol;pr&sol;suffield-man-pleads-guilty-federal-charges-stemming-role-stock-pump-and-dump-scheme">Original PressReleases&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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