SEC Sues Spamming Stock Promoter

Michael MacPhail, SEC Division of Enforcement writes: "SEC today filed an action against Mark E. Rice for carrying out a "pump-and-dump" stock manipulation involving the use of email spam. The SEC alleges spam emails contained misleading statements such as false claims that one of Rice's companies, Portalzone, had developed an advanced Internet search engine. The SEC contends that Rice violated the federal securities laws and seeks an injunction, disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and third-tier penalties against him. The full litigation release should be available at www.sec.gov shortly."

Comments

Government workers...

[Anonymous Coward]

Reading slashdot and submitting stories... Nice to see my taxes being spent wisely!

Anyway, this Rice dude is not going to be so badly hurt here. He'll keep the greater part of what he made through his scam, because the SEC doesn't have the balls to take away the entire booty.

As long as there is no substantial penalty for running this kind of lucrative scam, unscrupulous people will continue trying to skirt the system.

Wow - Using EXISTING Laws!

[R2.0]

So the Enron/AA debacle may put the tombstone on the "e-mail is different than snail mail" myth...

And the SEC is going after frauds using spam for the fraud, not the spam...

And a guy in AU is applying a 16th century English law that basically states "you can't mess with another persons stuff"

Gee, maybe we don't need new laws after all - just enforce the ones we have!