Securities Fraud Los Angeles County

Glendale Firm Faces SEC Suit: According to the Securities and Exchange Commission complaint filed in federal court in Washington, Qualified Pensions Inc. and its president, Jerry G. Allison, misappropriated at least $4.5 million of clients' retirement savings. The complaint also accuses the firm and Allen of failing to register as brokers.

Three men have been indicted in an alleged telemarketing swindle that lured investors across the country with false promises of access to initial public stock offerings, the U.S. attorney's office said Wednesday. David Allan Colvin, 56, of Chatsworth; John Larson, 50, of Beverly Hills, and Aldo Tarallo, 65, of Rancho Mirage each were charged with 25 counts of securities and mail fraud.

A psychotherapist in Santa Monica faces a possible prison sentence and stiff fine for listening to more than his client's problems while he was in his office. Mervyn Cooper, 57, a licensed psychotherapist, pleaded guilty Wednesday to securities fraud for using insider information he gleaned from a patient to make a $7,000 investment in Lockheed Aircraft Co. The patient, a high-ranking Lockheed executive, told Cooper that a significant event would occur soon at the company.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday accused a disbarred Santa Monica securities attorney of making more than $200,000 by selling stock he allegedly stole from two companies he worked for. The SEC alleged in a civil complaint in federal court that Kevin Quinn of Santa Monica stole 960,000 common shares of Atlantic Central Enterprises Ltd. and 300,000 shares of Advanced Laser Products Inc. in 1997 and 1998.

A former Beverly Hills commodities broker--who once infiltrated an organized crime family for the FBI and was closely allied with Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, Mayor Tom Bradley and other prominent local Democrats--was convicted Tuesday of defrauding clients out of nearly $1 million. The conviction of Mark R. Weinberg, 37, was promptly thrust into the election campaign for district attorney.

The president of a bankrupt Torrance investment firm under federal and state investigation was jailed Tuesday for failing to repay $55,000 to one of his former investors. Morris D. English Jr., 51, is the president of the Wellington Group, which is being investigated for alleged securities fraud. Investigators say it may owe up to $50 million to as many as 1,500 investors statewide. English last year pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count of writing a bad check in return for probation.

Three men have been indicted in an alleged telemarketing swindle that lured investors across the country with false promises of access to initial public stock offerings, the U.S. attorney's office said Wednesday. David Allan Colvin, 56, of Chatsworth; John Larson, 50, of Beverly Hills, and Aldo Tarallo, 65, of Rancho Mirage each were charged with 25 counts of securities and mail fraud.

A man was sentenced to a year in federal prison and ordered to pay almost $1 million in restitution for conspiring to manipulate the stock price of a company that provided medical testing services in shopping malls, authorities said Tuesday. David Paletz, 54, formerly of Woodland Hills, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge George H. King. Others already sentenced are the father and son who served as chairman and president of the E.N. Phillips company.

The Securities and Exchange Commission settled Thursday with two former L.A. Gear executives accused of inflating the company's earnings and profiting from insider trading in 1990. Gilbert N. Schwartzberg, 52, a former vice chairman of L.A. Gear, and Arden Franklin, 42, a former controller, neither admitted nor denied guilt in settling the charges. Both men resigned from the Santa Monica-based footwear company in 1992.

A Lancaster stockbroker who pleaded guilty to bilking his clients out of more than $1 million has been sentenced to nearly two years in federal prison. Ronnie Raymond Lapora, 40, also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall in Los Angeles to pay more than $60,000 in restitution. Lapora, who worked for the A.L. Williams Corp., a securities brokerage firm and subsidiary of First American National Securities, pleaded guilty Nov.

Regulators charged a Southland man with securities fraud in connection with the sale of $828,000 worth of stock in a company investors were told would make and distribute latex gloves and would go public early this year. The Securities and Exchange Commission said a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order and froze the assets of Sam E. Harris and Assured International Inc. of Woodland Hills.

A man was sentenced to a year in federal prison and ordered to pay almost $1 million in restitution for conspiring to manipulate the stock price of a company that provided medical testing services in shopping malls, authorities said Tuesday. David Paletz, 54, formerly of Woodland Hills, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge George H. King. Others already sentenced are the father and son who served as chairman and president of the E.N. Phillips company.

A psychotherapist in Santa Monica faces a possible prison sentence and stiff fine for listening to more than his client's problems while he was in his office. Mervyn Cooper, 57, a licensed psychotherapist, pleaded guilty Wednesday to securities fraud for using insider information he gleaned from a patient to make a $7,000 investment in Lockheed Aircraft Co. The patient, a high-ranking Lockheed executive, told Cooper that a significant event would occur soon at the company.

Glendale Firm Faces SEC Suit: According to the Securities and Exchange Commission complaint filed in federal court in Washington, Qualified Pensions Inc. and its president, Jerry G. Allison, misappropriated at least $4.5 million of clients' retirement savings. The complaint also accuses the firm and Allen of failing to register as brokers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission settled Thursday with two former L.A. Gear executives accused of inflating the company's earnings and profiting from insider trading in 1990. Gilbert N. Schwartzberg, 52, a former vice chairman of L.A. Gear, and Arden Franklin, 42, a former controller, neither admitted nor denied guilt in settling the charges. Both men resigned from the Santa Monica-based footwear company in 1992.

In what authorities say is the largest stock manipulation case ever uncovered in Los Angeles or Orange counties, the former president of a Santa Ana paging company and three others were indicted Friday on charges of securities fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. Named in the 39-count federal indictment were two Orange County men, Ahmad Naim Bayaa, 41, of Lake Forest, the former president of Southland Communications Inc., and Abdul Deeb, 43, of Anaheim, a former oil consultant.

In what authorities say is the largest stock manipulation case ever uncovered in Los Angeles or Orange counties, the former president of a Santa Ana paging company and three others were indicted Friday on charges of securities fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. Named in the 39-count federal indictment were two Orange County men, Ahmad Naim Bayaa, 41, of Lake Forest, the former president of Southland Communications Inc., and Abdul Deeb, 43, of Anaheim, a former oil consultant.

In what authorities say is the largest stock manipulation case ever uncovered in Los Angeles or Orange counties, the former president of a Santa Ana paging company and three others were indicted Friday on charges of securities fraud, money-laundering and conspiracy. Named in the 39-count federal indictment were two Orange County men, Ahmad Naim Bayaa, 41, of Lake Forest, former president of Southland Communications Inc., and Abdul Deeb, 43, of Anaheim, a former oil consultant.

In what authorities say is the largest stock manipulation case ever uncovered in Los Angeles or Orange counties, the former president of a Santa Ana paging company and three others were indicted Friday on charges of securities fraud, money-laundering and conspiracy. Named in the 39-count federal indictment were two Orange County men, Ahmad Naim Bayaa, 41, of Lake Forest, former president of Southland Communications Inc., and Abdul Deeb, 43, of Anaheim, a former oil consultant.

The co-owner of a San Fernando Valley real estate investment concern believed by authorities to have defrauded 500 clients of $100 million was arrested Tuesday on charges of grand theft, money laundering and securities law violations. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office said the suspect, businessman Stanley I. Glickman, 54, of Beverly Hills, was one of the masterminds behind a scheme that victimized many prominent Westside investors, including relatives of the company's operators.