[SLJB]: The Ontario Securities Commission Seeks $6 million from Sulja stock scam profits
From super investigative journalist Gary Rennie of Canada's The Windsor Star:
http://www.windsorstar.com/business/seeks+from+Sulja+stock+scam+profits/3909712/story.html
OSC seeks $6M from Sulja stock scam profits
By Gary Rennie, The Windsor Star
December 1, 2010
The Ontario Securities Commission wants the Sulja Brothers "pump and dump" stock fraud schemers to give back almost $6 million in profits.
But mostly blaming each other at a sentencing hearing Tuesday, the five Windsor-area residents convicted in the fraud said they're broke.
"The money I have in my pocket is all I have," said Petar Vucicevich after an OSC hearing Tuesday was told he alone made about $3.5 million from the stock fraud.
Nicknamed "Black Pete," Vucicevich surprised his Colchester Village neighbours when he began driving a Range Rover or a Maserati and flashing big rolls of money when Sulja stock was being hotly traded in an electronic, over-the-counter market called the Pink Sheets in 2006 and 2007.
The penny stock scheme was concocted to bail out the small Harrow-area lumberyard founded by John Sulja more than 20 years ago, but struggling to survive the building slump that began in 2005.
Vucicevich said about $1 million made from the stock sales went back into the lumberyard or an expansion effort out west.
"Nobody walked away with bags full of money," Vucicevich said.
Vucicevich claimed one of his lawyers kept $350,000 of his money that was supposed to pay his taxes. Revenue Canada is now chasing him for $240,000 in taxes owing, Vucicevich said.
Vucicevich blamed his Texas partner Andrew DeVries and a slew of lawyers for bad advice that led him and others to think what they were doing was legal. "I should have been a lot smarter," he said.
Vucicevich claimed DeVries was the mastermind of the scheme and wrote all the press releases.
"This is quite simply an egregious case of fraud," said OSC lawyer Usman Sheikh.
Sheikh said close to 500 million shares of Sulja stock were sold at inflated prices to investors while 100 or so press releases were issued claiming business deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars were being made.
"The respondents were in effect printing money," said Sheikh. There is "not a scintilla of evidence to support the vast majority of their claims," he said.
Sheikh asked for a $750,000 fine against both Vucicevich and DeVries, and a "disgorgement" order that would attempt to seize money and other assets realized from the fraud. Anything recovered would go into an OSC investor education fund.
Fines of $125,000 each were sought against brothers Steve and Sam Sulja, Pranab Shah and Tracey Banumas as lesser figures in the stock fraud.
Sam Sulja made $100,000 in one stock trading account in his name while another account he managed in his father's name showed a $350,000 profit, the OSC said.
Banumas had a $110,000 profit in a stock trading account in her name, while the OSC said Shah's account showed a $200,000 profit.
Lawyer Khalid Sheikh (not related to the OSC lawyer), represented Sam and Steve Sulja and said the brothers trusted Vucicevich, who wrote the press releases and directed the stock trading.
The defence lawyer said Sam and Steve Sulja have since found work as labourers and Steve lost his house after the stock investigation.
Banumas said she went to work for Vucicevich as an office administrator and was told the stock sales were legal. She's now living in her mother's basement in Kitchener and hasn't found new work.
"If I had $110,000 in my bank account now, I'd be pretty happy," Banumas said. She does volunteer work for the local police department to keep busy.
Shah, a University of Windsor grad, said he was originally hired by Vucicevich as a planner, and knew little about stocks. He's now working as a consultant while trying to finish a master's degree at the University of Waterloo.
Shah said his Windsor immigration lawyer Ayemand Haddad advised him the stock sales were legal. "I got the green light from my attorney," he said. "It was an honest mistake in a way."
Vucicevich asked for a one-year delay on any fine imposed so he could defend himself on a criminal fraud charge laid by RCMP, who also investigated the penny stock sales. Vucicevich said he couldn't afford a lawyer.
OSC hearing panel members Patrick LeSage and Senan Akendiz reserved a decision on the sentencing. LeSage warned Vucicevich that the odds weren't good for getting the one-year delay.
_____________________________________________
http://www.windsorstar.com/business/seeks+from+Sulja+stock+scam+profits/3909712/story.html
OSC seeks $6M from Sulja stock scam profits
By Gary Rennie, The Windsor Star
December 1, 2010
The Ontario Securities Commission wants the Sulja Brothers "pump and dump" stock fraud schemers to give back almost $6 million in profits.
But mostly blaming each other at a sentencing hearing Tuesday, the five Windsor-area residents convicted in the fraud said they're broke.
"The money I have in my pocket is all I have," said Petar Vucicevich after an OSC hearing Tuesday was told he alone made about $3.5 million from the stock fraud.
Nicknamed "Black Pete," Vucicevich surprised his Colchester Village neighbours when he began driving a Range Rover or a Maserati and flashing big rolls of money when Sulja stock was being hotly traded in an electronic, over-the-counter market called the Pink Sheets in 2006 and 2007.
The penny stock scheme was concocted to bail out the small Harrow-area lumberyard founded by John Sulja more than 20 years ago, but struggling to survive the building slump that began in 2005.
Vucicevich said about $1 million made from the stock sales went back into the lumberyard or an expansion effort out west.
"Nobody walked away with bags full of money," Vucicevich said.
Vucicevich claimed one of his lawyers kept $350,000 of his money that was supposed to pay his taxes. Revenue Canada is now chasing him for $240,000 in taxes owing, Vucicevich said.
Vucicevich blamed his Texas partner Andrew DeVries and a slew of lawyers for bad advice that led him and others to think what they were doing was legal. "I should have been a lot smarter," he said.
Vucicevich claimed DeVries was the mastermind of the scheme and wrote all the press releases.
"This is quite simply an egregious case of fraud," said OSC lawyer Usman Sheikh.
Sheikh said close to 500 million shares of Sulja stock were sold at inflated prices to investors while 100 or so press releases were issued claiming business deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars were being made.
"The respondents were in effect printing money," said Sheikh. There is "not a scintilla of evidence to support the vast majority of their claims," he said.
Sheikh asked for a $750,000 fine against both Vucicevich and DeVries, and a "disgorgement" order that would attempt to seize money and other assets realized from the fraud. Anything recovered would go into an OSC investor education fund.
Fines of $125,000 each were sought against brothers Steve and Sam Sulja, Pranab Shah and Tracey Banumas as lesser figures in the stock fraud.
Sam Sulja made $100,000 in one stock trading account in his name while another account he managed in his father's name showed a $350,000 profit, the OSC said.
Banumas had a $110,000 profit in a stock trading account in her name, while the OSC said Shah's account showed a $200,000 profit.
Lawyer Khalid Sheikh (not related to the OSC lawyer), represented Sam and Steve Sulja and said the brothers trusted Vucicevich, who wrote the press releases and directed the stock trading.
The defence lawyer said Sam and Steve Sulja have since found work as labourers and Steve lost his house after the stock investigation.
Banumas said she went to work for Vucicevich as an office administrator and was told the stock sales were legal. She's now living in her mother's basement in Kitchener and hasn't found new work.
"If I had $110,000 in my bank account now, I'd be pretty happy," Banumas said. She does volunteer work for the local police department to keep busy.
Shah, a University of Windsor grad, said he was originally hired by Vucicevich as a planner, and knew little about stocks. He's now working as a consultant while trying to finish a master's degree at the University of Waterloo.
Shah said his Windsor immigration lawyer Ayemand Haddad advised him the stock sales were legal. "I got the green light from my attorney," he said. "It was an honest mistake in a way."
Vucicevich asked for a one-year delay on any fine imposed so he could defend himself on a criminal fraud charge laid by RCMP, who also investigated the penny stock sales. Vucicevich said he couldn't afford a lawyer.
OSC hearing panel members Patrick LeSage and Senan Akendiz reserved a decision on the sentencing. LeSage warned Vucicevich that the odds weren't good for getting the one-year delay.
_____________________________________________
posted by the_worm06 | 12/06/2010 01:55:00 PM
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