Biggest penny stock fraud in history...

Curry, and his father Greg are currently in jail in New York in connection with what U.S. authorities are calling the biggest penny stock fraud in history. The Canadians are among nine people arrested in August in connection with the scam, which raked in about $140 million (U.S.) from investors.

The province’s stock market watchdog has ordered an Aurora man, his wife, and his companies to pay more than $160,000 in connection with a scheme to glean fees from penny stock investors. The Ontario Securities Commission has ordered Kolt Curry, American Heritage Stock Transfer Inc. (Ontario), and American Heritage Stock Transfer, Inc. (Nevada) to pay a penalty of $100,000 for breaching the province’s securities laws, and $60,000 in hearing costs. Curry’s wife, Laura Mateyak, was also ordered to pay a penalty of $2,500, the OSC said in a decision issued on Friday. She consented in the breaches in her capacity as an officer and director of AHST (Ontario). The OSC also reprimanded Curry and permanently banned him from trading or acquiring securities, from acting as a director or officer of a publicly-traded company, an investment fund manager, or a stock promoter. Mateyak received five-year bans in the same categories, the OSC noted in a press release issued Monday. Curry and Mateyak were also banned from telephoning residences for the purpose of trading in securities. In May, 2009, AHST sent letters to shareholders of Nanotech Industries.

 The letters said investors could receive “unpaid dividends” and offered a chance to buy more Nanotech shares for less than the current trading price. The letter stated that Nanotech stock traded at nearly $5 per share. In fact, the stock price was manipulated as part of a broader scheme, and it traded at 5 cents per share, the OSC found in its investigation. AHST did no “independent inquiry” to determine the accuracy of the statements in its letter, according to a statement of agreed facts filed with the OSC in May, 2013. Curry and the AHST companies traded securities without being registered and made illegal distributions of securities and prohibited representations, according to the statement. AHST did not receive money from investors,

the OSC noted. “Although no investors took the bait, the possibility of widespread losses by potential investors was significant, given that the Nanotech letter was sent to over 10,000 addresses around the word,” OSC commission James Carnwath wrote in his decision. “Curry was also instrumental in the preparation and distribution of the Nanotech letter.” found that Mateyak was not “an essential player” in the Nanotech scheme, as prosecutors for the OSC argued, but “merely followed the instructions of her husband.”

 In a separate decision released in August, the OSC found that a Toronto man, Sandy Winick, provided Curry with a draft of the Nanotech letter and addresses of the recipients. The commission determined that Winick traded without being registered and “engaged in an illegal distribution of securities.” It has not yet handed down sanctions against Winick. Winick,

Curry, and his father Greg are currently in jail in New York in connection with what U.S. authorities are calling the biggest penny stock fraud in history. The Canadians are among nine people arrested in August in connection with the scam, which raked in about $140 million (U.S.) from investors.

The Star Source

Equity investors as a whole had a great year 2013 BUT Income Investors did not do nearly as well.

While equity investors as a whole had a great year, those weighted toward income-generating stocks and bonds—including many retirees—did not do nearly as well. Canada’s real estate investment trust sub-sector was down 11.5% as of late November, and utilities were off 7.3%. Long-term bonds fell too, dragging the DEX Universe Bond Index down nearly 4% in 2013. You read that right, ye of short memory: bonds can lose value.

This marked a break from the pattern since the 2008 crash, when there was no better investment to own than an income-generating one. The inflection point came in June, when the U.S. Federal Reserve announced that it would start tapering its quantitative easing purchases. The interest rates on long-term debt immediately began rising on the expectation that an improving U.S. economy and creeping inflation would force the Fed to eventually raise overnight lending rates. When rates climb, bond prices drop and certain yielding stocks start looking less attractive, explains Josh Peters, Morningstar’s director of equity-income strategy.

Dividend-paying equities had it worse than bonds because they ran into valuation issues. During the post-crash years, these stocks became so popular as a higher-yielding alternative to bonds that many of them became overpriced. Once bond yields began rising again, the investor exodus affected stock prices more than if they were undervalued.

Defensive stocks generally tend to underperform in a higher-growth environment too. “When the market is expressing optimism, these companies don’t gain as much, and they’re not as profitable,” says Peters.

The most affected companies were those with bond-like characteristics, says Douglas Burtnick, a senior investment manager with Aberdeen Asset Management. “They have stable income streams, and investors value them with the same basic principles as a bond,” he says. That’s a benefit in a volatile environment, but not in a rising-rate climate. “These equities go down the same as bonds do.”

Where income investments go from here largely depends on whether or not rates continue to rise, says Burtnick. Given that rates are still extremely low, investors shouldn’t be surprised if long bonds and dividend payers end up taking another hit. Income stocks are still worth owning, he says, but stick to ones that are reasonably priced and raise their dividend every year. BRYAN BORZYKOWSKI