A federal grand jury indicted the former founder and president of the New York Global Group for his involvement in a securities fraud involving Chinese companies, officials said.
Named in the indictment are Benjamin Wey, Founder and President of New York Global Group and his Geneva-based banker, Seref Dogan Erbek
The two are charged with conspiracy, securities fraud, wire fraud, and other charges stemming from Wey’s scheme to conceal his beneficial ownership interest in publicly trading companies through so-called “reverse merger” transactions between Chinese companies and U.S. shell companies, according to authorities.
The two expected to reap tens of millions of dollars of illegal profit by manipulating the companies’ stock prices.
Wey,43, was arrested today at his home in Manhattan.
Erbek remains at large.
The New York Times reported that Wey has described himself as a “leading Wall Street American financier” who helped Chinese companies sell shares in the United States.
Federal prosecutors call him something else: a “master of manipulation” who reaped tens of millions of dollars in illegal profits, according to the New York Times.
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Diego Rodriguez stated in a press release: “The illegal manipulation of stock prices causes significant losses for innocent investors and creates sizable profits for fraudsters.”
Adding. “Wey and Erbek allegedly falsified the true sales volume, demand, and price of stocks in the over-the-counter marketplace through a series of reverse merger transactions involving shell companies. They are believed to have profited in the tens of millions, while victim shareholders were left holding the bill. The FBI and our partners will continue to investigate and prosecute those who cheat the system in this way.”
According to the eight-count Indictment unsealed today in Manhattan federal court, these are the allegations:
Wey engineered reverse mergers between Chinese operating companies and publicly traded U.S. shell companies designed to give Wey significant undisclosed ownership in the resulting publicly trading entities, in violation of U.S. securities laws.
Specifically, Wey caused entities controlled by a sibling and other nominees to obtain large portions of the shares of certain U.S. shell companies trading over the counter.
Wey then identified various Chinese operating companies that wanted to raise capital in the U.S. markets.
Wey, through his company, New York Global Group, facilitated the Chinese companies’ reverse mergers with the U.S. shell companies in which Wey, through his nominees, secretly held significant ownership interest, according to the indictment.
Not only did Wey defraud the investing public by failing to disclose, as required under the securities laws, his beneficial ownership of more than five percent of the stock of the new companies, but he then manipulated the market price and demand for the shares in these companies, resulting in tens of millions of dollars of undisclosed and illicit profit, the indictment indicated.
In June, Wey was found liable of sexual harassment and defamation in a trial for a lawsuit that was salacious fodder for tabloid newspapers, the New York Times stated.