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Former Stock Promoter Pleads Guilty in Manhattan
Federal Court to Bribery Scheme
PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, announced that former stock
promoter WILLIAM CURTIS pleaded guilty today in Manhattan federal
court before United States District Judge SAMUEL CONTI to
participating in a scheme to provide secret bribes to a stock
broker in order to induce the broker to purchase a stock on
behalf of his clients.
According to the Indictment filed in Manhattan federal
court, public court filings made by the United States Attorney's
Office, and statements made during CURTIS' guilty plea
proceeding:
From July through September 2007, CURTIS agreed to pay
secret, cash bribes to a confidential informant ("CI") working
with the FBI. The CI posed as a financial advisor who, in
exchange for the bribes, would convince "investors" to purchase
common stock of G&S Minerals, Inc. ("G&S") that CURTIS and his
co-conspirators controlled. In conversations recorded by the
FBI, CURTIS specifically agreed that the cash bribes would not be
disclosed to the CI's "investors," and that the amount of the
bribe would be 30 percent of the purchase orders placed by the
CI's retail customers for G&S stock. In September 2007, after
purporting to sell to retail customer clients a total of over
$63,000 worth of shares of G&S common stock that CURTIS had
provided, the FBI received from CURTIS two cash kickbacks
totaling approximately $19,000, which represented approximately
30 percent of the value of the G&S stock purchased by the CI from
CURTIS.
CURTIS, 50, a resident of Naperville, Illinois, pleaded
guilty to one count of participating in a conspiracy to commit
securities fraud and commercial bribery, and one count of
securities fraud. The charges carry a maximum combined penalty
of 25 years in prison and a maximum fine of $5,000,000. CURTIS
is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge
LORETTA A. PRESKA on January 5, 2010, at 10:00 a.m.
The charges against CURTIS are the result of a
wide-ranging Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") undercover
investigation of related stockbroker bribery schemes involving
United States-, Canada-, and Costa Rico-based stock promoters and
stockholders. Mr. BHARARA praised the work of the FBI, the
Vancouver Integrated Market Enforcement Team of the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police, the Vancouver Police Department, the
Criminal Prosecution Assistance Group of Financial Industry
Regulatory Authority, and the United States Securities and
Exchange Commission for their assistance in this investigation.
This case is being prosecuted by the Office's
Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force. Assistant United
States Attorneys JULIAN J. MOORE, JOHN J. O’DONNELL, ALEX
WILLSCHER, and LISA BARONI, are in charge of the prosecution.
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