The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a Toronto man with manipulating the market in four microcap stocks.

The SEC action, filed in federal district court in Philadelphia on Thursday, alleges that, from 2004 through September 2008, George Georgiou, “who controlled the publicly-traded stock of each company, manipulated the market for the purpose of artificially inflating each company’s stock price or to create the false appearance of an active and liquid market.”

“In order to do so, Georgiou used many nominee accounts that he either directly or indirectly controlled at offshore broker-dealers and banks, and used a variety of manipulative techniques, including matched orders and wash sales,” it adds, claiming that he realized at least US$20.9 million in ill-gotten gains from his manipulation schemes.

In addition to the enforcement action, the commission also suspended trading in the securities of the four stocks for a 10 day period. They are Avicena Group, Inc. of Palo Alto, Ca., Northern Ethanol, Inc. of Toronto, Hydrogen Hybrid Technologies, Inc. based in Pickering, Ont., and Stock-Trak Group, Inc. of Montreal, Que.

The SEC said that the U. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania today separately announced criminal charges against Georgiou involving the same conduct.

None of the allegations have been proven.

IE