This story has been updated with Jaclin’s criminal sentence
Microcap attorney Gregg Jaclin, formerly of Anslow + Jaclin LLP, has quit his three year fight against the Securities and Exchange Commission who accused him of running a multi-year shell factory scheme. Court documents show a federal judge in Central California approved a settlement on August 1 barring Jaclin from ever practicing securities law or being involved in SEC filings. Additionally, Jaclin is banned from participating in penny stocks even as a consultant. The SEC says it is only seeking $40,473 in disgorgement from Jaclin and forgoing the civil penalty it was asking the court for. That’s because it looks like Jaclin has also settled the parallel criminal case against him and is awaiting sentencing in which a heavy restitution could be ordered. Jaclin’s former partner Richard Anslow was never charged in either case but was mentioned in court documents.
I first reported on the charges against attorney Jaclin in May 2016 for trade publication Growth Capitalist after I uncovered documents that tied Jaclin to another microcap bad actor Barry Honig. Jaclin would sell Honig, and others at the direction of Honig, shell companies that gave the buyer millions in free trading shares when the stock should legally be restricted. Honig, and others like him, would use the shells to reverse merge a private company into and then run a pump and dump scheme. It was Jaclin who signed false opinion letters tricking transfer agents into clearing the stock to trade. Jaclin was charged criminally in 2017 on two counts of obstruction of justice and multiple counts of wire fraud and conspiracy. The Northern California DOJ brought the case against Jaclin and has sealed court filings over the last year. This is the same set of DOJ lawyers leading the criminal case into Team Honig.
Jaclin was a prominent face at small cap industry trade conferences whose firm did dozens of China reverse-mergers. One of the companies in the government’s complaint, YesDTC, was a Barry Honig investment. The CEO of the company, Joel Noel, settled criminal charges in 2014 and it’s unclear what kind of sentence he received after he wrote testimony for the DOJ naming Barry Honig. The sealing of Jaclin’s criminal case and the lack of public announcement about a criminal settlement shows signs Jaclin is also now working as a government witness.
Since the arrest two years ago Jaclin, a New Jersey resident, has set up a business consulting to foreign companies. His website says “Jaclin has shifted away from traditional legal work”. If convicted of a felony he will loose his law license. Part of the SEC settlement says Jaclin can not deny the accusations in the SEC complaint and he must remove any public denials but as usual the SEC let Jaclin off from admitting guilt.
A request for comment sent to Jaclin’s attorney was not returned for comment.
UPDATE 6.30.20 – Gregg Jaclin was finally sentenced in his criminal case yesterday. He plead guilty to two felonies for conspiracy and obstruction of justice in an SEC investigation. His sentence was very forgiving. The federal judge gave him three years probation, three months of home confinement, and no restitution order. He also can’t practice law. The Northern California DOJ asked for their sentencing memo to be sealed because they said it contained confidential information. This is where federal prosecutors describe why they are asking the judge for a light sentence. It could signal Jaclin likely flipped giving the DOJ evidence on another person involved in his illegal public company offering scheme. This is the same DOJ team that is investigating Barry Honig and his associates, according to the SEC. Jaclin could have given evidence against Honig regarding selling Honig’s associates shell companies with restricted shares and then making them free trading before the law allowed.
Jaclin says he is now a consultant to help companies raise money. There is no mention of his felony conviction or his SEC bar on his website.
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