Securities Lawyers Blog
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently charged a ring of eight individuals, including Izak Zirk de Maison (Zirk de Maison) who orchestrated the fraud (was named Izak Zirk Engelbrecht before taking the surname of his wife Angelique de Maison) for their roles in an alleged pump-and-dump scheme involving a penny stock. In a related action, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the United States attorney for the Northern District of Ohio announce the federal arrests of Izak Sirk De Maison and Stephen J. Wilshinsky (Wilshinsky).
The SEC alleges that Engelbrecht with others he enlisted to buy, sell, or promote stock in the Gepco Ltd (Gepco) company. Gepco is a Nevada corporation under the ticker symbol “GEPC.” Gepco was originally incorporated in June 2008, as Kensington Leasing, Ltd., a company that purported to “specialize in leasing equipment to a select clientele.” Thereafter, Gepco entered into a reverse merger with Gem Vest Ltd., in December 2013.
As part of the scheme, the SEC alleged that Zirk de Maison installed associates of his as officers and directors of Gepco. Collectively, the defendants controlled large blocks of shares of Gepco common stock while the de Maisons manipulated the market to create the appearance of genuine investor demand which allowed him and his associates to sell the stock at inflated prices making hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit.