SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C.
LITIGATION RELEASE NO. 16069 / February 24, 1999
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION v. P. JOSEPH VERTUCCI,
BRUCE E. STRAUGHN, ROBERT V. PETRY, ROLAND R. BAUGHMAN, RICHARD M.
JOHNSON, EDWARD MEYER, JR., and HAZLET INVESTORS, INC., Civil
Action No. 5:99CV426 (N.D. Ohio) February 24, 1999
SEC CHARGES PRESIDENT OF INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA PUBLISHERS, INC.,
AND INTERNET STOCK PROMOTERS WITH SECURITIES FRAUD.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed a civil
injunctive action against P. Joseph Vertucci ("Vertucci"), the
president and chief executive officer of Interactive Multimedia
Publishers, Inc. ("IMP"), an Akron, Ohio software development
firm, charging him with insider trading, financial fraud and
stock price manipulation. The SEC’s complaint, filed in the U.S.
District Court in Akron, Ohio, also names Bruce E. Straughn
("Straughn"), a former broker in the Chicago office of La Jolla
Capital Corporation, which was a market maker for IMP’s stock.
The complaint alleges that Straughn schemed with Vertucci to
inflate the price of IMP’s stock, and that both Vertucci and
Straughn secretly sold shares through nominees when the price
rose.
According to the Commission’s complaint, in 1994 a private
company named Fujacorp Industries, Inc., assumed the identity of
a dormant public company of the same name and began making
Commission filings as though it were the public entity. In 1995,
the new Fujacorp merged with another privately-held corporation
controlled by Vertucci, and the resulting entity was renamed IMP.
Based on the fiction that IMP was the successor entity to the
public company, purportedly freely trading shares of IMP stock
were then distributed to nominee accounts of Vertucci and
Straughn, as well as others.
To inflate the price of IMP stock, the complaint alleges,
Vertucci made public statements grossly overvaluing certain IMP
assets and misrepresenting certain of its business opportunities.
Straughn and Vertucci also arranged to have various professional
stock touters promote IMP, both in print and over the internet,
in return for free or cheap IMP stock, without disclosing their
receipt of compensation. Vertucci and Straughn, as well as the
touters they hired, then sold their IMP stock into the market at
inflated prices. Subsequently, the stock collapsed and the
company ceased operations.
SNIPPETS:
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION v. P. JOSEPH VERTUCCI,
JOHNSON, EDWARD MEYER, JR., and HAZLET INVESTORS, INC., Civil Action No. 5:99CV426 (N.D.
Ohio) February 24, 1999
SEC CHARGES PRESIDENT OF INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA PUBLISHERS, INC., AND INTERNET STOCK
The SEC’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in Akron, Ohio, also names Bruce E.
The complaint alleges that Straughn schemed with Vertucci to inflate the price of IMP’s
Based on the fiction that IMP was the successor entity to the public company, purportedly
To inflate the price of IMP stock, the complaint alleges, Vertucci made public statements
Straughn and Vertucci also arranged to have various professional stock touters promote IMP,
Vertucci and Straughn, as well as the touters they hired, then sold their IMP stock into the
* Richard M. Johnson, a stock promoter based in Houston, Texas.
financed and paid others to promote IMP in other publications.
* Roland R. Baughman of Cuyahoga Falls,
February 1996, the complaint alleges, Johnson paid Baughman
but he did not disclose that he was being paid
* Robert V. Petry of Kent,
The SEC alleges that Vertucci and Straughn each violated Sections 5 and 17of the Securities
The SEC seeks an injunction against future violations of these provisions of the securities
It also seeks to bar Vertucci from future service as an officer or director of any publicly
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