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SEC Lifts Ax For Minnesota Stock-Price Spammer
thejuggler writes "A call to Samuel Meltzer's St. Paul home is greeted with the message that he doesn't want to be bothered by solicitations. But, this story in a Minneapolis newspaper tells how the Feds and SEC claim he is a huge spammer. They claim he sends out spam spreading false and misleading information about various penny stocks. So far he has made at least $159,600 in stock and cash from 1998-2001 for spreading this false information. In a brief interview Tuesday, Meltzer (The evil spammer), 37, said he hadn't seen the complaint. "This is a surprise," he added."
Your point about this particular pump-and-dump being the tip of an iceberk of OTCBB "pink sheet" abuse is well-made.
From where I sit, the sad part is that the SEC generally isn't geeked out about spam. It comes down to resources.
I mean, anyone can Google for meltzer stock spammer and find piles of stuff.
A cursory reading of ROKSO reveals this particular ring has a record going back to 1997, including death threats. (Cripes, this is the ETMP spammer from 199teyfucking7!)
Why the hell does it take SIX GODDAMN YEARS to take down one pump-and-dump dirtball?
And he's just one of dozens.
Stock fraud continues because justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done.
A six-year delay between the start of the scam and the SEC finally issuing a "Stop breaking the law, or we'll make you sign a consent decree wherein you don't admit to guilt but promise not to break the law in the future" is unacceptable.
It's unacceptable because it's not just useless - it's worse than useless - it's practically an invitation to dirtballs from around the world to get into the fraud business, because by the time the SEC actually catches onto the scam, the scammed money has either left the country or has been laundered.
If anyone from HomeSec is reading this - hook up with some SEC folks. Fund them. Fund the hell out of them. Because if even a tenth of the pump-and-dump scams are being used for money laundering (as opposed to mere fraud), you've got one hell of a conduit for drug money and/or terror money, and the SEC's Enforcement Division as currently set up, clearly doesn't have the resources to stop it.
My nose rankles at my use of the word "mere" to describe stock fraud - but it's a reflection of reality, which is that the government doesn't give a fuck about "mere" fraud, because it's only the serfs getting ripped off, and the dumb serfs at that. So to hell with the serfs. It's no excuse for being blind to the the opportunity for money laundering (perhaps more precisely, the opportunity to camouflage money laundering) brought on by continual, ongoing pump-and-dump stock fraud operations. And honestly, maybe that is more HomeSec's bailiwick than the SEC's. But the two organizations definitely need to start sharing data, and they need to start now.