The Securities and Exchange Commission has now confirmed there is a parallel investigation into the Team of bad actors that work with Barry C. Honig in the microcap pump and dump ring he allegedly leads. I was first to report in the fall of 2016 that the San Francisco Dept. of Justice was investigating this group, which included Honig, Michael Brauser, and Miami billionaire Philip Frost.
Nancy Brown, the lead lawyer for the SEC in the Team Honig case, said during a hearing on May 15 that “there is a parallel criminal investigation. It’s not a dual investigation, it’s a parallel investigation,” according to a court transcript from the SEC’s case against Honig, Brauser, Frost and friends.
I was first to report the Northern California DOJ flipped their first witness against Barry Honig back in 2014 via a small cap CEO named Joel Noel who plead guilty to securities and wire fraud. Noel, who ran a company called YesDTC, said that Honig knew how to buy shell companies set up by a lawyer who would release shares that should be restricted as unrestricted so trading in their pump scheme could begin fast. Noel also said Honig told him to pay a promoter, named David Zazoff, to get false press releases out to push the stock price up. The lawyer who sold the shell, Gregg Jaclin, was also arrested by the Northern California DOJ in 2017. According to a person involved in the investigation Jaclin and Honig had worked together before and Jaclin could be a viable witness for the DOJ to build their case. Jaclin’s case has been sealed since the SEC brought their charges against Honig.
Why the San Francisco office of the DOJ has waited this long to bring their case while investors in companies like $RIOT, $MARA, $MGT, and $MBVX have gone through Honig lead pump and dumps has been a mystery till now. That’s because at the May 15th hearing about a discovery schedule John O’Rourke’s lawyer Gregory Morvillo tells Judge Ramos he knows some of the defendants in the SEC vs. Honig case have signed tolling agreements with the San Francisco DOJ. This is a stunning admission. Tolling agreements allow the DOJ an extension of time to bring a case past the standard statue of limitations. Attorney Morvillo also said he thinks the tolling agreements have expired as a reason for why the San Francisco DOJ would be bringing an indictment soon. How Morvillo knew about the tolling agreements could signal his client John O’Rourke is one of the defendants that signed one of them.
Scott Zamost and Jenny Schlesinger, two CNBC print reporters, apparently went down to the SDNY court house yesterday and read a copy of the public transcript in the SEC vs Honig case. They were first to report on what the SEC said about the existent of a parallel criminal investigation. The transcript also shows John O’Rourke’s lawyer telling the judge that he thinks someone in the SEC Honig case has become a DOJ cooperating witness now and by that person being a songbird the DOJ could bring an indictment soon. The conversation started because Michael Brauser along with Robert Ladd, CEO of MGT Capital, have been pushing the SEC to show them their evidence via writing aggressive letters to the judge. O’Rourke’s attorney spoke up in court to join that argument. Attorney Morvillo told Judge Ramos “We are behind the eight ball here” in reference to how the SEC has been holding up their evidence.
Morvillo went on to say, “If one or more of our clients gets indicted you can bet we will be back here asking for a stay in this case. In the meantime, while San Francisco drags its feet on this, we don’t think it’s appropriate for the SEC to act as a stalking horse for the U.S. Attorney office.”
I reported this month the SEC has played a stall game putting off defendants in the case from getting discovery by delaying motion filing dates and extending times for defendants like Honig to sign a settlement agreement. The SEC said in a letter to Judge Ramos last month that Honig has agreed to settle their case in principle but it’s not a signed deal yet and the SEC commissioners have to vote on it so the judge gave them a six week extension on the defendants filing their motion to dismiss. Scott Zamost and Jenny Schlesinger at CNBC are likely wrong when they reported that Honig’s settlement was called off.
The court transcript shows SEC attorney Brown was trying to get judge Ramos to scheduled the defendants for depositions with the SEC before all the discovery is due April 30 2020. Robert Ladd, CEO of MGT, Michael Brauser, John Stetson, and John O’Rourke wanted the depositions to be latter in 2020 closer to the end of discovery. The debate in court was the SEC was worried that the defendants would get all their discovery and then assert something called “the act of production doctrine”. This would mean the defendants like O’Rourke and Brauser could tell the SEC they aren’t going to turn over their emails that the SEC has asked for because it could incriminate them in the DOJ case. The SEC said they had from 600,000 to 1.2 million of documents to turn over for discovery. The SEC also admitted a lot of the docs came from a laptop that the ex-husband of a former MGT Capital employee had. It’s unclear if those docs will be admissible since the laptop was likely stolen in a bitter divorce battle, according to a person involved in the case. The whole discovery and deadline delay drama is like an episode of Billions where the government plays dirty tricks to get convictions and the Wall St bad actors have better lawyers to outsmart them.
I don’t know who the new Honig cooperating witness is that O’Rourke’s lawyers says the DOJ has under their thumb. And I highly doubt O’Rourke’s lawyer knows if the DOJ is wrapping up their case unless he has made an agreement for his client to self surrender. Chris Carey at www.sharesleuth.com was first to notice Frost’s company $OPK had mentioned in recent SEC filings that while Frost had settled with the SEC ‘other government agencies’ could also bring a case. John Ford who lives in Northern California was the first member of the group to settle with the SEC before the case was brought and court docs show he has been cooperating. Additionally, another stock promoter who was charged criminally by the DOJ in stocks that Honig did not invest in has made a plead deal with the DOJ this week. Brian Robert Sodi, known as the Mailman, worked with a lot of bad actors in a lot of stocks and the DOJ only charged over a few stock frauds. I have confirmed the DOJ could use him to testify against Honig because Honig had worked with him. Sodi’s attorney Brent Baker of Clyde Snow LLP told me today, “Brian is looking forward to the whole truth coming out now and is now ready to put this matter behind him.” Sodi plead guilty to only one of the ten counts of wire and securities fraud against him and could be asked to pay up to $2 million in restitution. His sentenced will be delayed now until the government is done using him as a C.W.
The CNBC reporters didn’t attend the SEC vs. Team Honig hearing. Or get anyone else in the case to try and talk about who the DOJ recently flipped. They also failed to report the questionable tactics the SEC has been using to try and get the defendants to do depositions before they got all the SEC’s discovery.
Schlesinger and Zamost also mislead their readers when they reported this was the first time a criminal investigation into Team Honig had been confirmed. They broke basic journalistic ethics by not reporting the San Francisco DOJ investigation was first confirmed and reported by me at this publication a few years ago. I had confirmed in 2016, via a lawyer for an investor victim in the case who was interviewed by the SF-DOJ, an interview with a Honig co-conspirator who was also interviewed by the SF FBI, and had a copy of a FBI case number for the Team Honig investigation before I went to print. I did on-the-ground shoe-string reporting to get this important news out to investors unlike the CNBC print reporters who simply read a court transcript first and then executed journalism theft by not linking and credit the first reporter to break the DOJ news. At this publication I always name, link and credit any publication and the journalist who reported news first because it’s likely they have good sourcing on a story and readers should know that.
Additionally Honig was so freaked about about me finding out about the SF-DOJ investigation that he used anti-media lawyer Charles Harder to sue me in 2017 and tried his best to get the story taken down and to get an apology from me. I fought the case for a year and won. Honig dismissed his suit in January 2018 and the reporting stayed up and was sourced in other news reports. Additionally now that we know there were tolling agreements signed I think Honig knew he was under criminal investigation when he sued me and so did his attorney Charles Harder, which is one of the most unethical things a lawyer could do. Clearly the point of the lawsuit was for Honig to try and figure out who I knew was talking to the FBI and SEC. But I held my ground and never told even as discovery was starting.
Criminal charges are the only thing that have a chance of stopping the Team Honig pump and dump ring given the SEC has shown they are accepting low dollar fines from defendants that have settled. Philip Frost paying $5mn is less than his spends in his bar bill in a year. A ban on being a director in a penny stocks could slow Honig down but I don’t see how it helps given he has a file-a-fax of rent a board member guys he can call. The SEC amended compliant, filed in March, clearly shows Honig is willing to break the law and pay others like John Stetson to make hidden investments he is really funding so even if he is banned he could get nominees to do his dirty work. Jail time and a felony convection is the only strong hold the government has if they really want to protect investors and clean up the microcap market. Let’s hope the DOJ gets off their butts and acts soon as there are current Honig pump and dumps happening that likely include PolarityTE, Marathon Patent and RIOT Blockchain.
This story has been updated with details of the tolling agreements with the DOJ and news about the problems with discovery in the SEC case.
May 15th Court Transcript can be read here
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