Mark E. Groussman, long time investment partner of microcap fraudster Barry Honig has given up his fight with the Securities and Exchange Commission who accused Groussman of being part of an long running pump and dump scheme. On Feb 1st the SEC notified federal district court Judge Ramos that Groussman has agreed to a five year-ban on investing in penny stocks. Once the settlement is approved by the judge, he has 2 weeks to fork over $1,381,914 million for disgorgement of his illegal stock sales and fines. Groussman’s investment company, Melechdavid Inc, has also agreed to a five year penny stock ban and not to do all the illegal stock manipulation its done in the past.
Unfortunately Groussman doesn’t have to admit guilt and his civil penalty was only $160,000. The settlement comes just days before SEC is going to file an amended complaint that could name new individuals and public companies involved in the scheme. That complaint is due February 8. Groussman settlement could also signal he has flipped as a witness for the SEC whose main target in this litigation is Barry Honig. Groussman lives in Miami Beach with his wife Erica Groussman who is a real estate agent with Sotheby’s International. Mark Groussman is also on the board of a non-profit founded by Arnold Schwarzengger called After School All Stars.
On September 7, 2018 the SEC brought their initial enforcement action against this group of bad actors in the Southern District of New York accusing the group of making $27 million, between three stocks, off illegal trading gains. According to the SEC’s complaint, from 2013 to 2018, a group of prolific South Florida-based microcap fraudsters led by Barry Honig manipulated the share price of the stock of three companies in classic pump-and-dump schemes. Ten individuals and their related investment companies where named in the complaint. Team Honig allegedly orchestrated the acquisition of large quantities of the issuer’s stock at steep discounts, and after securing a substantial ownership interest in the companies, Team Honig engaged in illegal promotional activity and manipulative trading to artificially boost each issuer’s stock price and to give the stock the appearance of active trading volume. According to the SEC’s complaint, Honig and his associates then dumped their shares into the inflated market, reaping millions of dollars at the expense of unsuspecting investors. The stocks in the SEC complaint are: MGT Capital, MabVex, and BioZone.
I was the first journalist to report in the fall of 2016 that team Honig was under SEC investigation for their role in trading as a group of undisclosed affiliates and stock manipulation. Honig sued me for defamation for reporting this news and I was able to get him to drop his case with prejudiced. We know now while Honig was suing me the SEC was actively investigating companies he invested in. Honig faces millions of fines and a possible life time ban from investing in penny stock if the SEC is successful in their enforcement case. I have also previously reported the Dept of Justice is investigating Honig. Any of the individuals settling with the SEC could be a witness in the DOJ case if they bring criminal charges.
A foreign investment company called Alpha Capital Anstalt, which is located in Lichtenstein, also settled with the the SEC. A man named Konrad Ackerman signed the settlement on January 17, 2019 and is listed as the fund managing director but it is unknown who is actually invested in the company. Ackerman was not named personally in the SEC lawsuit. Alpha Capital agreed to pay $908,258.51 for disgorgement of illegal gains but did not have to admit quilt. Only $50,000 of the total fine is for a civil penalty. There is also NO penny stock ban lobed against the fund but they did agree to not due all the illegal stuff they are accused of again. Alpha’s name is seen investing alongside Honig in a lot of stocks over the years. Their SEC settlement shows they got off light.
At the end of 2018, Miami Billionaire Philip Frost, who was also a defended in this case announced he had settled with the SEC. On January 10 Judge Ramos approved the settlement. Frost’s fine was only around $5.5 million. One former owner of a broker dealer who know Frost told me, “that’s less than Frost spills in the bar in a year”. Additionally, the SEC failed to ban Frost from being an officer and director of a public company. Frost runs OPKO Health and while the SEC put some new restrictions on how he can invest in penny stocks he can still buy and sell companies for OPKP Health. Given how light this SEC settlement is, there is speculation among people involved in the case that Frost singed it in return for evidence against Honig and a deferred non prosecution agreement by the DOJ. OPKO Health is still facing multiple class action civil lawsuits for investor fraud by company shareholders.
UPDATE: The SEC delayed filing their amended complaint to March 8th because another one of Honig’s top guys, John Stetson, wrote the judge asking for more time to discuss the case with the SEC. This means settlement talks for Stetson.
Mark E. Groussman SEC Judge… by on Scribd
It looks like he got off much TOO easy!! Why is the SEC not setting an example with these horrible people?? They need to shut down these crooks and give them jail time. They knew exactly what they were doing. It was premeditated. And they should pay back ALL the money that was stolen from trusting people.
I wonder if the SEC is worried about losing the case or dragging it out. Plus Barry is well financed and tough. It would not be an easy case for the SEC to win.