Trader who touted ForceField on Fox Business pleads guilty to conspiracy

ForceField Energy

27/02/2017 22:16

By Jonathan Stempel 
    NEW YORK, Feb 27 (Reuters) - A trader who touted the stock 
of ForceField Energy Inc  FNRG.PK  on television while being 
paid kickbacks to endorse the LED lighting provider pleaded 
guilty on Monday to a conspiracy charge, related to a fraud that 
cost investors $131 million, federal prosecutors said. 
    Herschel Knippa, the owner and head trader at Kenai Capital 
Management LLC in Dallas, admitted to conspiring to commit 
securities fraud, in a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge 
Ramon Reyes in Brooklyn. 
    Prosecutors accused Knippa, 46, of touting the 
now-essentially worthless ForceField stock on television without 
revealing his receipt of kickbacks. 
    They also said that during a July 2014 appearance on Fox 
Business Network's "Varney & Co," Knippa lied to host Stuart 
Varney when asked if he owned ForceField by responding: "You bet 
I do. I put my money where my mouth is." 
    According to court papers, Knippa solicited more than $1.19 
million in ForceField private placements from at least 10 
investors, and with other conspirators tried to hide the scheme 
by using disposable cellphones and using cash for kickbacks. 
    "Mr. Knippa has accepted responsibility for violating the 
securities law," his lawyer Alex Spiro said in an email. 
    The defendant faces up to five years in prison. Fox Business 
and Varney were not accused of wrongdoing. 
    Knippa was one of nine defendants, including stock 
promoters, brokers and investor relations officials, accused 
last May of defrauding investors into buying ForceField. 
    That followed the April 2015 arrest of Richard St. Julien, a 
Canadian citizen who was ForceField's executive chairman, on 
charges he schemed to inflate the stock price of his company, 
once called SunSi Energies Inc. 
    Authorities said the defendants manipulated ForceField stock 
from 2009 to April 2015 by secretly trading it in undisclosed 
accounts, inflating trading volume, and concealing kickbacks. 
    At least seven defendants have entered guilty pleas, court 
records show. The case against St. Julien is pending, the 
records show. 
    ForceField shares last traded on Thursday, at 1/10,000th of 
a cent, Reuters data show.  
 
 (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Phil 
Berlowitz) 
 ((jon.stempel@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 6317; Reuters 
Messaging: jon.stempel.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: FORCEFIELD KNIPPA/