{"id":4240,"date":"2017-03-25T11:51:22","date_gmt":"2017-03-25T16:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/?p=4240"},"modified":"2022-03-25T14:10:06","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T19:10:06","slug":"securities-fraud-ria-broker-will-go-prison-15m-scam-ohio-financial-adviser-pleads-guilty-senior-financial-abuse-case-sec-wants-ex-financial-investment-broker-barred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/securities-fraud-ria-broker-will-go-prison-15m-scam-ohio-financial-adviser-pleads-guilty-senior-financial-abuse-case-sec-wants-ex-financial-investment-broker-barred\/","title":{"rendered":"Securities Fraud: RIA and Broker Will Go to Prison Over $15M Scam, Ohio Financial Adviser Pleads Guilty in Senior Financial Abuse Case, and SEC Wants Ex-Financial Investment Broker Barred"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<strong>Registered Investment Adviser and Broker Convicted in $15M Pump-and-Dump Scam<\/strong><br \/>\n A federal jury has found Sheik F. Kahn, a Nevada RIA, and Christopher Cervino, a New Jersey broker, guilty of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stockbroker-fraud.com\">securities fraud<\/a>, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in an over $15M stock scam that targeted 100 investors. Kahn also was convicted of aggravated identity theft crimes and investment adviser fraud. Both she and Cervino were previously affiliated with New York-based firm Primary Capital. <\/p>\n<p>According to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the pump-and-dump scam involved VGTEL (VGTL), a publicly traded over-the-counter company. The securities scam was led by Edward Durante, who pleaded guilty last year to a number of crimes, including securities fraud, conspiracy, perjury, and money laundering involving VGTL.<\/p>\n<p>Cervino and Kahn are accused of artificially inflating the stock price of VGTel from 25 cents\/share to up to $1.90\/share in 2012 and they also inflated trading volume, raising their ability to bring in private investments in the stock. <\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/securities-fraud-ria-broker-will-go-prison-15m-scam-ohio-financial-adviser-pleads-guilty-senior-financial-abuse-case-sec-wants-ex-financial-investment-broker-barred\/#more-4240\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Registered Investment Adviser and Broker Convicted in $15M Pump-and-Dump Scam A federal jury has found Sheik F. Kahn, a Nevada RIA, and Christopher Cervino, a New Jersey broker, guilty of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in an over $15M stock scam that targeted 100 investors. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3977,3760,3741,3803],"tags":[2767],"class_list":["post-4240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pump-and-dump-scams","category-sec-enforcement","category-securities-fraud","category-senior-investors","tag-elder-financial-fraud"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Securities Fraud: RIA and Broker Will Go to Prison Over $15M Scam, Ohio Financial Adviser Pleads Guilty in Senior Financial Abuse Case, and SEC Wants Ex-Financial Investment Broker Barred &#8212; Investor Lawyers Blog &#8212; March 25, 2017<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Registered Investment Adviser and Broker Convicted in $15M Pump-and-Dump Scam A federal jury has found Sheik F. 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