"Offerings Fraud" - When That Hot New Tech Stock Doesn't Pay Big

"Offerings Fraud" - When That Hot New Tech Stock Doesn't Pay Big

Everyone wants to be in on the ground floor of a hot new technology. "If only I had purchased Apple stock or Google when they were first offered" has been muttered around office water coolers and local athletic clubs millions of times. We think that by being in at the ground floor of something big we can make millions. We can, if the company is legitimate and the technology or product truly revolutionary. The 100+ investors from across the United States that invested in Great American Technologies (GAT) were not so lucky. The Securities and Exchange Commission calls the investment a scam.GAT was the brainchild of Vincent Setteducate (a/k/a Vincent Sette). According to a complaint filed in a Manhattan federal court, Sette defrauded over 100 investors. In his offering materials, he claimed that GAT had developed proprietary software called "Mail Call" that allowed users to hear readouts of emails and web pages over the telephone. Pretty impressive and apparently he did have a working prototype.The fraud comes from some of the claims he made to potential investors. False claims made to investors in a new company are called offering frauds. They are one of many types of securities fraud.Sette told investors that the company would earn $4.3 million in revenues during its first year based on 100,000 customers. The government says the product was so crude that it could handle maybe 48 users at most.Sette also claimed that the company had signed contracts with the Colorado Bar Association, National Federation of the Blind, Value Inn Hotels and many others. All false says Uncle Sam.GAT's website and offering materials even claimed its CFO was a prominent former official with the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Also false says the government.Where did the investor's money go? Did it go to develop the Mail Call program? The SEC says that much of the money went into Sette's pocket. They claim he took far more than he agreed to take in offering documents. They also claimed he failed to disclose that he had been previously convicted of wire fraud and had already been enjoined from violating securities fraud laws.The SEC case ended with a judgment against Sette in November of this year. Unforunately, no one knows if investors will ever get all their money back.While we can applaud the SEC for shutting down GAT and Sette, fraudsters who have already been convicted of criminal fraud should not be given a second chance. The SEC's recourse is civil. Those fines are certainly welcome. Those fines, unfortunately, are not a strong enough incentive to change the behavior of hard core fraudsters. In my opinion, Sette needs to go to prison, before he starts another scam to hurt more innocent people.

POST COMMENT

Look Great For The New Year Forex Illusion - new Forex Robot Prettify Your Fledgling Buck's New Room With Dinosaur Toddler Bed Comforter Sets How Do Solar Inverters Work? Conservation And Waste Reduction: The Industrial Cluster Development Wrecker - Chemical Industry Content Lockdown The Brand New And Greatest Online Marketer's Device Do A Small Research On The New Homes Magnolia Instant Payday Loans: Bask Yourself In Great Source Of Fiscal Energy If Flat Broke Save Money With a New Shower Head Finance Laptop For Students: Finance A New Laptop Luo Dongmiao: Md Back Energy-saving And Environmental Advantages Projector - Projectors, Office A New Way To Look At FACEBOOK GatorPond - New Entertainment Group for business