Dwayne Bigelow, 46, a Florida resident, was arrested last week for his involvement in a wide-ranging scheme of stock promotion and manipulation. See the Department of Justice press release. He was charged with
one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud (Count One), three counts of securities fraud (Counts Two through Four), and three counts of wire fraud (Counts Five through Seven). The securities and wire fraud charges carry a maximum term of 20 years in prison on each count, and the conspiracy charge carries a maximum term of five years in prison.
The thing about big pump and dump scams is that there are many different people involved: the people who run the companies and put out press releases, the stock promoters, nominee owners and the insiders who run everything behind the scenes while making most of the money. While the complexity can make it hard to investigate a pump and dump, once some of the people have been charged criminally it becomes likely that they will then inform on others to get a better plea deal. This appears to be what has happened to Dwayne Bigelow. One of the three stocks mentioned in this indictment was SMCE, also mentioned in the Jamie Boye / Eric Cusimano indictment from a year ago. The other two stocks mentioned were also promoted by websites controlled by Cusimano or Boye or their associates: EWPI and SIRG.
From an email I received on April 5th, 2010 from Jackpotpennystocks.com:
Most of these pharma companies trade on pure speculation, but EWPI is a reality. EWPI looks like like they could easily become one of the fastest growing small cap pharma companies in the game.
That matches the quote in the indictment.
The indictment can be read here.
Disclaimer: I have no position in any stock mentioned. I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.