The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday it has filed a civil action against a Vancouver-based adult Web site operator, and several individuals, alleging stock manipulation.

The SEC says it filed an action against Exotics.com Inc., a Nevada company based in Vancouver, its sole officer, four accountants, two attorneys and several other individuals alleging they knowingly participated in a stock manipulation scheme and accounting fraud from 1999 through 2002. None of the allegations has been proven.

The company owned, operated and licensed adult Web sites. The SEC’s complaint also names individual defendants from Burnaby, Vancouver and Kamloops, B.C., along with several U.S. residents. It also names the law firm Flanagan & Associates Ltd. of Las Vegas, as a relief defendant.

In its complaint, the commission alleges that the participants in the scheme engaged in manipulative trading of Exotics-Nevada stock for the purpose of artificially increasing the stock’s price and trading volume and were involved in or responsible for various false and misleading public filings, and/or for the dissemination of a false and misleading press release and fax and e-mail spams. According to the complaint, the accountants fraudulently participated in audits of Exotics-Nevada’s year-end financial statements and in a review of its quarterly financial statements.

The SEC is seeking permanent injunctions against all the defendants, civil money penalties and disgorgement of all ill-gotten gains by all of the defendants except Exotics-Nevada, bars from serving as an officer or director of any public company and penny stock bars against various individuals. It is also seeking disgorgement by relief defendant Flanagan & Associates of all funds it received from the primary defendants.

SEC staff acknowledges the assistance of the BC Securities Commission in its investigation.

Last August Exotics.com filed a complaint against various brokerage firms alleging its stock price was manipulated downward by naked short selling and wash sales by broker dealers named as defendants. In a news release, it claimed that the naked shorting was also followed by a pump and dump of the stock.