Love at First Scam?
Jeffery Stone and his wife Janette Diller Stone, one-time operators of a now defunct New York investment firm called Crescent Fund, owe U.S. regulators nearly a half-million dollars in fines and restitution for their part in a five-year-old penny stock manipulation scheme. The SEC most likely won’t collect a dime, since the couple is now living in Tokyo with their three-year-old daughter.
“They’ll have to beat it out of me.” said Jeffery Stone, a balding 46-year-old-heavy-set man with a goatee. He said he had ‘no intention of ever paying’ the U.S. regulators who secured a civil judgement against him and his wife in January 2009, referring to them with an expletive involving mothers.” — www.reuters.com
The number of married couples caught engaging in insider trading, ponzi schemes or stock manipulations is definitely on the rise in recent years. Many think this is because victims feel more comfortable and confident with a married couple than a single man alone. Married couples have a great balancing act, she’s not smart enough to scam anyone and he’s not slick enough to follow through with a scam without her needing it explained. In the eyes of investors, the wife tends to be viewed as a regulator of sort.
” ‘The beauty of these husband and wife cases is that they take advantage of the basic sexism of Wall Street, which is that these women aren’t really smart enough to do this’ said Bill Singer, a securities attorney, who has defended a number of married couples in his day. ‘But that just isn’t true.’ “ —-www.reuters.com
Despite having no experience whatsoever, Janette was listed as Chief Executive officer of the Crescent Fund, an investment firm that was operated out of a so-called virtual office on Wall Street. The Stones paid a company $100 a month to collect their mail and answer phones for them, if that doesn’t sound like a scam, I don’t know what does.
“And while Janette described her husband as merely being a ‘subcontractor’ for the Crescent Fund, she awknowleged during her SEC deposition that he often took the lead in negoiating investment banking deals with dozens of tiny U.S. microcap companies.”— www.reuters.com
Janette Diller Stone is not doing much in the way of women’s rights. She’s the CEO and opening admitting that her husband does the majority of work. Why not just name him CEO? Perhaps that’s due to his tarnished past, the man spent a year in prison for his part in a 90′s penny stock scheme.
“The SEC charged the Stones profited by acquiring millions of shares under false pretenses and then hiring ‘stock promoters to hype the stock in a spam email campaign,’ even though it was a start-up with almost no revenues and no profits. Some of the misleading spam emails talked about WebSky being on the verge of securing a deal that would generate $40 million in revenues.”
—www.reuters.com
Seems that even though the Bonnie and Clyde idea is much outdated, it seems to be catching on. So beware investors….that sweet, loving couple may not be so loving to your investments.
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