SEC v. Joseph A. Padilla

Joseph A. Padilla allegedly enabled stock sales by people who secretly held enough of the stock of various small publicly-traded companies to dominate the market for their stock, according to the Commission’s complaint. Padilla allegedly hid those individuals’ identities by selling stock for them through offshore brokerage accounts that he controlled, but that he opened in different names. The complaint further alleges that Padilla traded in his own brokerage account and accounts of family and friends to manipulate stock prices in support of the scheme. Padilla also allegedly enlisted a stock trader at a registered broker-dealer firm to facilitate stock trading as part of the scheme.

Summary generated from official Securities and Exchange Commission press release