BULLETIN: Florida — Again: SEC Sues Atlantis Technology Group In Alleged Online Television Pump-And-Dump Scheme; CEO Christopher M. Dubeau Threatened ‘Bashers’ For Making ‘Slanderous’ Postings, March News Release Says
BULLETIN: UPDATED 10:51 A.M. EDT (U.S.A., Oct. 1.) About six months after the chief executive officer of Atlantis Technology Group (Atlantis) was quoted in a Marketwire news release that threatened online commentators for “making slanderous postings” about the company, the SEC has gone to federal court in Florida to accuse Atlantis CEO Christopher Dubeau and the firm of running a penny-stock swindle.
The SEC’s lawsuit concerns the operations of an Atlantis subsidiary known as Global Online Television (GOTV), which allegedly used a commission-based sales force to promote the purported TV company.
Dubeau and Atlantis actually were operating a “pump-and dump” stock fraud, the SEC charged in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
“From at least August 7, 2009 through April 5, 2010 . . . Atlantis and Dubeau issued numerous false and misleading press releases that artificially inflated the trading volume and price of Atlantis’s stock,” the SEC charged. “Dubeau benefited financially from Atlantis’s artificially increased trading volume and stock price. In December 2009, he sold more than 60 million shares of Atlantis stock for proceeds of about $240,000, and in August 2009 he received $77,000 of the proceeds from an associate’s sale of more than 16 million shares.”
A Marketwire news released dated March 26, 2010, and issued under the names of Atlantis and Dubeau accuses “bashers” of making “slanderous” remarks about the company online.
“I can assure you I will not play the bashers’ games,” Dubeau was quoted as saying. “Atlantis has Launched an Investigation into these Individuals that are attacking the Company and its Associates. Atlantis has Identified at least 3 of these Participants in what we deem to be manipulation of the Company’s Stock price by making slanderous postings. We will seek every avenue available to bring these persons of interest to the forefront of the Judicial System.”
Now, six months later, the SEC has accused Dubeau of operating a large-scale fraud by fabricating news about the company’s ability to offer online TV and video-phone services.
“Atlantis’s press releases were false because Atlantis’s subsidiary has never offered
Internet protocol television service or video phone services,” the SEC charged. “At the time the company and Dubeau issued these press releases, the subsidiary did not offer (and was not able to offer) either service, and it did not have relationships with television networks to offer content to Atlantis’s subscribers. In fact, until March 1, 2010, neither the subsidiary nor Atlantis had any product or service to offer to consumers.”
Threats against critics who voice concerns about business opportunities online are common, as is the issuance of news releases to spread false information. In the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, for example, ASD President Andy Bowdoin threatened critics with lawsuits. ASD operated from Florida.
An operation known as AdViewGlobal (AVG) that has close ASD ties and also operated at least in part from Florida also threatened critics. AVG even threatened its own members with lawsuits.
Critics of Data Network Affiliates (DNA), a Florida company that purports to offer an MLM program that collects license-plate data to aid law enforcement and the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children, also were threatened.
DNA figure Phil Piccolo used an online radio program last month to threaten critics.
Convicted Florida Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein, who ran one of the largest scams in U.S. history, also threatened critics. Rothstein pleaded guility to racketeering.
Read the SEC complaint against Atlantis and Dubeau of Fort Lauderdale and Weston, Fla.
[…] See earlier story about Atlantis. […]
Quick note:
If you have time, visit the Yahoo Finance site:
http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/mb/ATNP.PK
Parts of it are apt to remind some readers of events at Surf’s Up.
Remember when ASD had a purported, $200 million deal with Praebius, a penny-stock firm — and how that purported deal magically surfaced while Judge Collyer was deliberating issues in the ASD case after the evidentiary hearing?
https://patrickpretty.com/2010/07/16/remember-praebius-penny-stock-firm-asd-claimed-would-pump-200-million-into-its-coffers-was-flogged-by-california-man-in-fraudulent-touting-scheme-during-month-asd-announced-joint-advertising-v/
And remember the confusing nature of the ownership of AdViewGlobal and all the mysterious news releases from Vana Blue, another penny-stock company?
https://patrickpretty.com/2009/07/27/in-case-you-missed-it-new-avg-ownership-questions/
Along those lines, remember the talk from Data Network Affiliates earlier this year about going “public” — and the bizarre reference to Martha Stewart?
https://patrickpretty.com/2010/03/02/data-network-affiliates-dna-issues-bizarre-announcements-meanwhile-narc-that-car-promoter-says-ntc-like-working-for-census-bureau/
Here is a what if: What if some of these already-odd odd businesses also have a built-in component of penny-stock fraud? What if penny-stock fraudsters also are using these already-odd businesses either directly or indirectly to run pump-and-dump schemes?
What if some of the surfs, say, actually are well-hidden subsidiaries of the stock fraudsters?
What if the stock fraudsters don’t actually have a tie to the surfs — formal or informal — but “adopt” them in a back-door way designed to make people believe they have their hands in “profitable” businesses?
I believe it is a virtual certainty that some of the surf fraudsters also are penny-stock fraudsters and that the money is being routed through shell companies in Nevada and Florida.
Patrick
And,
would anyone really be surprised ????
Anyone who believes the “scene” is just a couple of “good ol’ boys” having a little gamble on the side is either a politician or naive beyond belief.