Former Boca Raton Securities Attorney Receives 28 Months for Role in Pump-And-Dump Scheme
From the Desk of Jim Eccleston at Eccleston Law LLC:
A federal judge has sentenced former Boca Raton, Florida, securities attorney Mark Fisher to more than two years in prison for his role in a $1 million pump-and-dump scheme involving shares of a beauty supply company, Valentine Beauty Inc. Fisher also was ordered to forfeit $8.4 million in profits he received from the pump-and-dump scheme.
According to federal prosecutors, Fisher, who had previously been licensed to practice law in the state of Florida and New York and stock promoter Joseph F. Capuozzo were recruited by Eddy Ubaldo Marin, who owned a controlling interest in the company. Moreover, Marin requested that Fisher and Capuozzo mask his controlling interest in shares of Valentine Beauty, promote the stock and then sell it at an inflated price.
From the end of 2013 until April 2016, the three businessmen along with an associate transferred millions of Valentine Beauty shares into brokerage accounts under fake entity names operated by Marin and Capuozzo. Moreover, in order to promote the Valentine Beauty stock, Fisher and Capuozzo regularly issued press releases and newsletters and then sold the shares to the public once the stock price had gone high enough.
In April of 2016, after an investigation, the SEC suspended trading in Valentine Beauty’s shares and criminal charges followed, thereafter.
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Related Attorneys: James J. Eccleston
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