Fax Chronicle

This is a very interesting article about and SEC attorney and companies he helped pump stock prices and scam investors out of hundreds of thousands dollars for shares in their bogus companies. Of course they always come down to email or the favorite weapon of pump and dump stock schemes – junk or spam fax sending via a fax broadcast company. Any company that offers broadcast faxing services and does not police every fax that is sent whether Internet fax or fax servers, is susceptible to helping firm perpetuate these scams.

In June or July 2004, after AVL Global’s stock went public, the Fishers traveled to Orlando, Fla., to meet with a stock promoter. There they devised a plan to send millions of unsolicited faxes and press releases that the SEC says contained false and misleading statements, the lawsuit says.

In a news release distributed in December 2004, AVL Global said its GPS devices were being tested by the Botswana Department of Defense and could result in an order of 3,000 to 5,000 units.

But months before, the company’s distributor had realized that Botswana didn’t have the satellite coverage to support the GPS devices and sent the test units back to AVL Global, the SEC says.

In a press release in February 2005, AVL Global reported “a dramatic increase for its tracking devices since the beginning of the new year.” But by then, the SEC says, business was so bad that AVL Global had closed it manufacturing plant, moved into a 100-square-foot office in a strip mall and had only one employee – Tyler Fisher.

As the stock rose, his father, Peter Fisher, dumped his shares and netted $160,000, according to the lawsuit, and the Florida stock promoter dumped his shares for a profit of about $419,000.

Without admitting or denying wrongdoing, Tyler Fisher has settled the SEC’s charges against him by paying a $25,000 civil fine and agreeing not to serve as an officer or director of a penny stock company for five years.

Source: Ex-SEC lawyer accused of stock scam | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Business