VANCOUVER businessman David (Dave) Sidoo is in hot water once again.
He along with Ronald Bauer a/k/a Ronald J. Bauer and Ronald Jacob Bauer, Craig James Auringer, Alon Friedlander, Massimilano Pozzoni, Daniel Mark Ferris, Petar Dmitrov Mihaylov, and Adam Christopher Kambeitz have been charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with alleged securities fraud that generated $145 million in proceeds of crime. The Commission has filed a complaint in the Southern District of New York.
British Columbia issuer American Helium Inc. is one of the public companies they are alleged to have used for securities fraud.
According to the complaint, “this case concerns a fraudulent scheme comprising a series of highly profitable “pump-and-dumps” of the stock of at least seventeen publicly-traded companies quoted on U.S. markets.”
It states: “From at least 2006 and continuing until at least 2020 (the “Relevant Period”), the Defendants formed and acted in various combinations (or “Rings”), on a serial basis, to (a) amass a controlling interest in an Issuer; (b) conceal their collective control of the stock of the Issuer; (c) fund misleading promotional campaigns to increase investor interest in purchasing the Issuer’s stock; and (d) then exploit the buy-side demand they had created by collectively unloading their shares of the stock on unsuspecting retail investors, thereby reaping millions in illicit gains. Following each such fraud, Defendants divided most of their profits while reinvesting a portion thereof into their next pump-and-dump scheme. Over the Relevant Period the Defendants garnered more than $145 million in illicit proceeds.”
According to the complaint, “David Sidoo (“Sidoo”), age 62, is a Canadian citizen believed to be residing in Canada. For at least eight years during the 1990s, Sidoo worked as a stockbroker in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. As detailed below, he joined in perpetrating at least two Sidoo & Bauer Ring Coalition frauds (North American Oil & Gas Corp. and American Helium Inc.). Like others, Sidoo used offshore omnibus vehicles and front companies to conceal the fact that he was the beneficiary of stock sales, and failed both to disclose his beneficial ownership and trading and to register his stock sales as legally required.”
You can read the complex details in the complaint.
This is based on the complaint filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and nothing has been proved in court.
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