SEC Suspends Trading in 61 OTC Pump-and-Dump Stocks

Investing

Published: June 3, 2013 10:00 am

Last Updated: June 3, 2013 10:05 am

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is continuing a step toward booting microcap OTC shell companies from trading as a part of its “Operation Shell Expel” effort. Today’s round of stock trading suspensions targets some 61 companies and is called the second-largest trading suspension in agency history. The largest effort was in 2012 when the SEC suspended trading in some 379 companies in a single day. A note from the SEC calls this “a crackdown against the manipulation of microcap shell companies that are ripe for fraud as they lay dormant in the over-the-counter market.”

Today’s list of suspensions of 61 empty shell companies is on outfits that are said to be “delinquent in their public filings and seemingly no longer in business based on an analysis by the SEC’s Microcap Fraud Working Group.” It was even said that once companies become dormant they have great potential to be “hijacked by fraudsters who falsely hype the stock to portray it as a thriving company and coerce investors into ‘pump-and-dump’ schemes.”

Because trading in these companies is suspended, they are obligated to provide updated financial information to prove they are still operational. The SEC order said, “We will aggressively suspend trading in such empty shells to take away a tool of their trade and help rid our markets of fraud.”

We have included the 61 company names and included their OTC symbols below:

3CI Complete Compliance Corp. TCCC
AHPC Holdings Inc. GLOV
American Utilicraft Corp. AMUC
Austin Farms Inc. AUFR
BancPro Inc. BCPO
Baxley Federal Savings Bank BAXF
CBR Brewing Co. Inc. CBRAF
Centerpoint Bank (Bedford, NH) CPOB
China Renyuan International Inc. CRNY
Compass Plastics & Technologies Inc. CPTI
Devonshire Consolidated Inc. DVNO
Edge Business Services Corp. EGBS
Egghead.com Inc. EGHDQ
Environmental Corp. of America ECAM
Environmental Fiber Technologies Inc. EVFB
Extreme Motorsports of California, Inc. EMOC
Fidelity First Financial Corp. FFIRD
Fortune Market Media Inc. FTMK
Franklin Ophthalmic Instruments Co. Inc. FKLN
Futurebiotics Inc. VITK
Geneva Financial Corp. GNVN
Globalnet Systems Ltd. ISDN
Icy Splash Food & Beverage Inc. IFBV
Imaging Center Inc. (The) TIGC
InAmerica Inc. INAX
IndieMV Media Group Inc. IDMV
Integrated Bio Energy Resources Inc. IBIE
Interactive Brand Development Inc. IBDI
ISI Technology Corp. ISYI
Isomet Corp. IOMT
Matinee Media Corp. MNEM
MediaBay Inc. MBAY
Metricom Inc. MCOMQ
Midnight Holdings Group Inc. MHGI
Municipal Insurance Co. of America MPAL
Myriad Entertainment & Resorts Inc. MYRA
Oxford Capital Corp. OXFO
PanAmerican BanCorp PABN
Pennsylvania Warehousing & Safe Deposit Co. PAWH
Pipejoin Technologies Inc. PPJN
Pogo! Products Ltd. PGOI
PopMail.com Inc. POPM
Premium Energy Corp. PPTL
Relax Investments Ltd. RLXI
Riptide Worldwide Inc. RTWW
Rocket City Enterprises Inc. RCTY
Rocketinfo Inc. RKTI
Ronco Corp. RNCP
Silver Star Energy Inc. SVSE
Sound Health Solutions Inc. SHSO
Sovereign Exploration Associates International Inc. SVXA
Sports Concepts Inc. SCPT
Sports Media Inc. SPTS
TMT Capital Corp. TMTP
UniMark Group Inc. (The) UNMG
Verdant Brands Inc. VERD
Viking Power Services Inc. VKPW
Vinings Investment Properties Trust VIPPS
Washington Life Insurance Co. of America WLIA
Wi-Tron Inc. WTRO
Zone Mining Ltd. ZMNL

It was also said that questions have been raised about the accuracy and adequacy of publicly disseminated information concerning the companies’ operating status.

Today’s notice said:

Pump-and-dump schemes are among the most common types of fraud involving empty shell companies. Perpetrators will tout a thinly-traded microcap stock through false and misleading statements about the company to the marketplace. They purchase the stock at a low price before pumping the stock price higher by creating the appearance of market activity and drawing investor interest. They dump the stock for significant profit by selling it into the market at the higher price once investors have bought in.

FULL SEC DATA

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