“These defendants sought to boost the stock price of two companies, and then leave innocent investors with investments that they knew would almost immediately lose most or all of their value,”
U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer
(CMR) Andrew McAlpine (47) has been arrested as part of a stock fraud ring and indicted for securities fraud it was revealed by the United States Attorneys Office in the Southern District of California. CMR reported exclusively of his arrest on Friday afternoon after departing the Cayman Islands on a private chartered jet earmarked for Toronto, Canada.
The joint investigation between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission has lead to the issuing of indictments for four individuals including McAlpine.
Despite calls from family and friends here that he would soon be a free man and that CMR should remove the “damaging article” the US Department of Justice has indicated that an indictment was sealed Monday, September 21 charging four individuals with securities fraud for “running an illegal pump and dump scheme surrounding two publicly traded stocks.”
His supporters claim that he is a “God-fearing, Christian, praying man” that was simply wanted in relation to giving testimony against others and he was not looking at any serious charges himself. We were told that he was simply “subpoenaed to testify” and was not actually arrested or facing any charges. We were also erroneously told that we had his identification wrong and he was not linked to LOM Cayman and that he would be released as early as next week.
However, the facts are that, the joint investigation that led to serious securities fraud charges and involved a co-conspirator-turned-confidential-informant who was cooperating with the FBI. This co-conspirator turned into an FBI informant and was collecting evidence against his fellow traders.
Court documents show that Grand Cayman resident Andrew McAlpine were members of a stock fraud ring that worked together to “artificially inflate the prices of penny stocks, then quickly unloaded their own shares before the prices collapsed.” CMR mentioned in the original article that McAlpine's name showed up previously in a similar case involving Caledonian. He was one of the traders who was messaging about his stocks to employees at Caledonian that the SEC said were involved in such a scheme.
They confirmed that McAlpine was arrested on Friday when he landed on US soil. CMR sources indicate the stop in Orlando to “re-fuel” was a last-minute arrangement and his arrest shocked all persons on the chartered plane. The other seven passengers were attempting to get back to Canada for varying reasons including returning students. There is a sense that the flight was purposely diverted there in order to make the arrest.
Another of his co-accused was arrested on Friday in Washing and two remaining defendants are wanted in the matter. Suzanne Turner, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's San Diego Division shared:
“Today, Grand Cayman resident Andrew McAlpine and co-conspirator Ongkaruck Sripetch were arrested by FBI Agents and will face the charges for this alleged conspiracy. The FBI will continue to seek justice for those who are victmized by unscrupulous actors that manipulate our financial markets no matter where they reside.”
He has been charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud, manipulating securities trading and could face a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $$ million fine.
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