Multi-Company Manipulation Scam Netted $56 Million, SEC Says (1)

A Texas man and his associates made about $56 million from a scheme to promote five penny-stock companies, taking care to conceal their involvement because their names appeared in lawsuits over a previous scheme, the SEC alleges.

Houston resident Kevan Casey orchestrated the plan to buy penny stock in several companies at a discount, take them public, promote them, and sell the shares before their value dropped, the Securities and Exchange Commission says. It filed its complaint Aug. 9 in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Casey, alone or in combination with old friends and business ...