New York man gets three years for ForceField stock scheme

ForceField Energy

02/08/2017 20:29

By Brendan Pierson 
    NEW YORK, Aug 2 (Reuters) - A New York investor relations 
professional was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison 
after pleading guilty to taking part in a scheme to inflate the 
stock of LED lighting company ForceField Energy Inc  FNRG.PK . 
    Jared Mitchell, who was a partner at investment firm 
Mitchell & Sullivan Capital LLC when he was charged last year, 
was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan in Brooklyn, 
federal prosecutors said. His attorney did not immediately 
respond to a request for comment. 
    Mitchell, 35, was among nine people charged in May 2016 with 
manipulating ForceField stock, which is now virtually worthless. 
Prosecutors said investors lost $131 million as a result of the 
scheme. 
    Authorities said the defendants manipulated the stock from 
December 2009 to April 2015 by secretly trading it in 
undisclosed accounts, inflating trading volume to create a false 
sense of demand, and concealing kickbacks to stock promoters and 
brokers to tout it. 
    Mitchell was accused of taking kickbacks from a ForceField 
executive between October 2014 and April 2015. Mitchell passed 
some of that money on to brokers, who in turn bought ForceField 
stock for their clients, prosecutors said.  
    In addition to Mitchell, three other defendants, all 
brokers, have been sentenced. Gerald Cocuzzo was sentenced last 
month to 18 months, Naveed Khan was sentenced in May to two 
years and Maroof Miyana was sentenced in March to three months, 
according to court filings. 
    Of the remaining five defendants awaiting sentencing, four 
have pleaded guilty and one was convicted after a trial. 
    The charges followed the April 2015 arrest of Richard St. 
Julien, a Canadian citizen who was executive chairman of 
ForceField, previously called SunSi Energies Inc. St. Julien was 
charged separately and has cooperated with prosecutors, court 
records show. He has not been sentenced. 
 
 (Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Peter 
Cooney) 
 ((Brendan.Pierson@thomsonreuters.com; 646-223-6017)(desk)(; 
646-306-0235)(cell)(;)) 
 
Keywords: FORCEFIELD FRAUD/