Some of the bad actors who aided top New York attorney Adam Gottbetter in years of stock manipulation were exposed this month when they were charged criminally by the New Jersey DOJ. We know now Gottbetter’s criminally enterprise consisted of the brother of one of NY Giants best wide-receivers Amani Toomer and a Homdel, NJ merchant banker who’d previously been convicted of aiding in the stock fraud at bucket shop L.C. Wegard & Co. in the 90’s. Donald Toomer Jr. was indicted on conspiracy and securities fraud charges December 21 and Samuel DelPresto, the owner of merchant bank MLF Group, plead guilty to one count of conspiracy via a plea deal in New Jersey federal court on December 15.
The pump and dump schemes at the heart of these charges occurred for years in a multiple microcap companies who became public through reverse mergers. One of the most publicized stocks in the scheme was Mesa Energy Holdings whose stock went from .50 cents to $3.50 and boosted former NY Governor George Pataki on its board. I first reported in June for Growth Capital Investor on the Gottbetter case, which left the microcap investing community wondering who all the co-conspirators in the government’s complaint were and who in the scheme was out there still working and wearing a wire. Case in point: DelPresto’s plea deal was signed June 2 and his arraignment and charges were kept secret by the DOJ until December 15.
Toomer was a defensive back for Utah State and recruited as a rookie free agent to the Cincinnati Bengals but had to leave NFL before his pro football career started because of a shoulder injury. FINRA’s brokercheck shows he then became a licensed wealth advisor working for PaineWebber in New Jersey. In 2005 he landed at bulge bank Wachovia managing their clients’ money out of the bank’s Las Vegas office and continued with Wells Fargo when it bought the bank during the financial crisis.
DelPresto and an unnamed co-conspirator stock promoter recruited Toomer in the scheme as early as 2008, according to the DOJ complaint. The duo promised Toomer a 10 percent kickback off the amount of stock he convinced his clients to invest. The kickback was not disclosed to Wells Fargo or Toomer’s clients. This reporter has discovered the co-conspirator is Vegas and Hermosa Beach resident Nathan B. Montgomery. SEC filings show Montgomery’s firm NBM Investments LLC held a beneficial ownership in Mesa Energy Holdings of 9 percent. Montgomery was sentenced to jail for conspiracy to defraud investors in CO2 Tech ($CTTD) in May 2012 and released early from his 40 month sentence on July 14, 2014. This was just weeks after the New Jersey DOJ convinced attorney Gottbetter to sign a confidential guilty plea deal in June 2014 and agree to work with the DOJ until the charges were announced in May 2015.
On December 15 the DOJ said in a press release, “In order to fraudulently inflate the price and volume of the Target Companies’ stocks, DelPresto’s conspirators paid cash kickbacks to an investment advisor in Las Vegas so that he would purchase the Target Companies’ stock on behalf of his clients.” We know now that investment advisor was Donald Toomer Jr. who worked as a Wells Fargo. The purpose of Toomer getting his clients to invest in the Target Companies was to, among other things, create the false appearance of market interest and demand in the stock; build trading volume that would be attractive to potential investors who would later receive promotional materials about the stock; and generate income to fund the promotional campaigns, including email blasts and newsletters, that occurred in the later phases of the stock manipulation scheme, according to the DOJ.
Toomer also stands accused of telling management at Wells Fargo that his clients invested in the stocks at the heart of the DOJ’s complaint because they came to him asking to be in the stock. When in reality he told his clients he’d done his own independent research and convinced them to invest through solicitation. After the clients lost money in the dump phase of the stocks, Montgomery gave Toomer cash to pay his clients off for the losses, according to the DOJ. Toomer is also charged with conspiracy to commit investment advisor fraud which faces up to a 20 year sentence.
By pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy and agreeing to a forfeiture of $13 million, U.S. attorney Paul Fishman of the New Jersey Dept. of Justice agreed to not pursue any charges for stock fraud for activities between 2007 and 2013 against DelPresto. The signed plea agreement, seen by this reporter, says the DOJ wanted to charged DelPresto for stock fraud manipulation schemes in : Kentucky USA Energy ($KYUS), Mesa Energy Holdings ($MSEH), Bioneutral Group ($BONU), Clear-Lite Holdings ($CLRH), NXT Nutritionals Holdings ($NXTH), Empire Post Media ($EMPH), Mustang Alliances ($MSTG), IDO Security ($IDOI), Brainy Brands Co ($TBBC), Premier Brands ($BRND), LTS Nutraceuticals ($LTSN).
Court documents show the government seized bank accounts of DelPresto’s wife Michelle who has recently come under fire for alleged false statements made about a nutritional supplement DZ10 that she promotes. Michele is a yoga and crossfit trainer who likes to post photos of her workouts on social media. Bank accounts of the couple’s three girls were also seized. The family lives in a customer built $2.6 million home at 8 Hop Brook Lane in Holmdel, New Jersey. Sam DelPresto was released on bond and is awaiting sentencing of up to five years in jail on April 5 2016.
Michelle DelPresto wife of convicted pump and dump criminal Sam.
Microcap attorney Adam Gottbetter is currently serving 18 months in jail for his role in the pump and dump of Kentucky USA Energy. Gottbetter and DelPresto have worked on microcap reverse merger deals for years. Notably Gottbetter was the deal lawyer for Mesa Energy Holdings who received shares for services in Mesa Energy, according to SEC filings. In April 2010 investigative journalist Chris Carey spelled out what he believed was a coordinated effort between DelPresto and Gottbetter to pump and dump Mesa Energy Holdings. Notable short seller Timothy Sykes was also way ahead of the government in trying to expose the pump and dumps by warning his clients as early as March 2010 about three of the four stocks DelPresto plead guilty to conspire to commit securities fraud.
Toomer was released on a $200,000 unsecured bond on Tuesday December 22. His attorney Michael Critchley did not return a request for comment.
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