WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Aug. 2 that Joe Yiu Cheung, an alleged overseas stock manipulator, will pay close to $800,000 and be barred from the penny stock industry.
According to the SEC, Cheung controlled United American Petroleum Corp. (UAPC) and conducted an elaborate scheme to artificially boost the company’s stock price before dumping shares.
“Investors are often attracted to microcap companies and we are committed to protecting them from overseas manipulators and cross-border schemes. In this case, we worked with numerous foreign authorities to get the evidence we needed to expose Cheung as the man behind false promotional materials and hidden stock transactions,” said Andrew M. Calamari, director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office.
Handling the case for the SEC were Tracy Sivitz of the microcap fraud task force and Douglas Smith, David Stoelting, and Sandeep Satwalekar, under the supervision of Lara Shalov Mehraban. Additional assistance was provided by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority, Guernsey Financial Services Commission, British Columbia Securities Commission, Québec Autorité des Marchés Financier, Ontario Securities Commission, Turks and Caicos Islands Financial Services Commission, and the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.