Staten Island, New York — On Tuesday, May 3, 2016, federal authorities provided a glimpse into a $131 million market scheme involving an inflated LED lighting product and solutions provider. According to authorities, brokers and accomplices sold worthless stock from their inflated company, ForceField Energy Inc. One man, Naveed Khan, originates from Staten Island, New York.
Khan and eight others were charged in the case, which saw brokers receiving millions of dollars for filling their clients’ stock portfolios with shares from ForceField Energy. The United States Attorney For New York’s Eastern District, Robert L. Capers, revealed the men manufactured a business with no operations and minute revenue to deceive the market and fool their clients into believing it was valued in the millions of dollars.
Khan, who resides within Dongan Hills, was charged with wire-fraud conspiracy, money-laundering conspiracy, substantive securities fraud, and securities-fraud conspiracy. He is now free on $250,000 bond. The scheme, which spanned from December of 2009 to April of 2015, was very sophisticated and even involved one of those involved, Herschel Knippa III, of Texas, boasting about the stock on Fox’s Business Network in July of 2014.
Those involved communicated through disposal phones and encrypted, time-expired messaging applications. The SEC suit will look to seek reimbursement for those duped by the scheme. Those charged could receive up to 20 years in prison and $5 million in fines. The new charged come after the April 2015 arrest of ForeField’s executive chairman, Richard St. Julien, who was charged with inflating the stock price of his company, which was previously known as SunSi Energies. Others charged will be listed below.
- Louis Petrossi – CEO of Wealth
- Pranav Patel
- Maroof Miyana
- Gerald Cocouzzo
- Richard Brown
- Jared Mitchell – Mitchell & Sullivan Capital managing partner
- Christopher Castaldo – Wall Street Buy Sell Hold Inc. president
The company’s stock current sits at $0.02.