(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged New Jersey resident and former broker-dealer registered representative, James P. Anglim, who from November 2016 to February 2022, helped facilitate market manipulation schemes involving the sale of stock in at least five public companies by other persons at manipulated prices. Anglim has agreed to settle the case by, among other things, paying $488,000.
According to the SEC’s Complaint filed in federal court in Boston, Anglim was employed as a registered representative of two different United States-based brokerage firms that engaged in “market-making” activities, which involve a brokerage firm providing liquidity to the securities markets by publicly quoting both a buy price and sell price for stocks and offering to trade with the public at those prices. According to the Complaint, Anglim abused his position as a trader in order to facilitate the illegal sale of stock into the public securities markets by other persons who controlled large blocks of stock in at least five different public companies. Anglim’s conduct helped those other persons to dump large quantities of stock into the public markets while concealing that they were the source of all of those sales, thus avoiding disclosure requirements imposed by the federal securities laws. The Complaint alleges that the other persons, who have been previously charged with fraud by the Commission, were not customers of the brokerage firms where Anglim was employed. Nonetheless, as alleged in the Complaint, Anglim entered into repeated arrangements with them whereby he agreed to assist them with stock transactions in a way that benefitted Anglim and allowed the other persons to carry out their fraud. The Complaint alleges that sometimes the other persons stoked artificial demand for the stocks through stock promotions using aggressive sales communications or boiler rooms, which resulted in retail investors purchasing the stock on the basis of the manipulated price and volume information.
Without admitting or denying the SEC’s allegations, Anglim has consented to the entry of a final judgment that permanently enjoins him from violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Sections 9(a) and 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder; orders him to pay disgorgement of $405,991, representing his trading profits, and $82,009 in prejudgment interest, and imposes a penny stock bar against Anglim. Based on his cooperation with the Commission’s investigation, the Commission determined not to seek a civil penalty in its settlement with Anglim, and has asked the court not to impose a penalty. The settlement is subject to court approval.
