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102-590: Operation Varsity Blues was the code name for the investigation into the 2019 criminal conspiracy scandal to influence undergraduate admissions decisions at several top American universities . The investigation and related charges were made public on March 12, 2019, by United States federal prosecutors. At least 53 people have been charged as part of the conspiracy, a number of whom pled guilty or agreed to plead guilty. Thirty-three parents of college applicants were accused of paying more than US$ 25   million between 2011 and 2018 to William Rick Singer, organizer of

204-527: A long snapper recruit for USC. In one of the most notable cases, actress Lori Loughlin, famous for her role on the American sitcom Full House and the drama When Calls the Heart , and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli of Mossimo fashion, allegedly paid $ 500,000 in bribes to arrange to have their two daughters accepted into USC as members of the rowing team , although neither girl had participated in

306-492: A marketing buzz for the project). Still others (such as Microsoft ) discuss code names publicly, and routinely use project code names on beta releases and such, but remove them from final product(s). In the case of Windows 95, the code name "CHICAGO" was left embedded in the INF File structure and remained required through Windows Me. At the other end of the spectrum, Apple includes the project code names for Mac OS X as part of

408-729: A nonprofit organization owned by Singer and previously granted 501(c)(3) status; that status allowed him to avoid federal income taxes on the payments, while parents could deduct their "donations" from their own personal taxes. Singer offered college counseling services as The Edge College & Career Network, a limited liability company registered in 2012, which he operated out of his home in Newport Beach. Singer primarily used two fraudulent techniques to help clients' children gain admission to elite universities: cheating on college entrance exams and fabrication of elite sports credentials. Singer arranged to enable clients' children to cheat on

510-453: A "B", cargo aircraft with a "C". Training aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft were grouped under the word "miscellaneous", and received "M". The same convention applies to missiles, with air-launched ground attack missiles beginning with the letter "K" and surface-to-surface missiles (ranging from intercontinental ballistic missiles to antitank rockets) with the letter "S", air-to-air missiles "A", and surface-to-air missiles "G". Throughout

612-478: A "pivotal" role in Soviet air-strategy. Code names were adopted by the following process. Aerial or space reconnaissance would note a new aircraft at a Warsaw Pact airbase. The intelligence units would then assign it a code name consisting of the official abbreviation of the base, then a letter, for example, "Ram-A", signifying an aircraft sighted at Ramenskoye Airport . Missiles were given designations like "TT-5", for

714-462: A $ 250,000 fine. The charges were announced by Andrew Lelling , United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts . Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric Rosen, Justin O'Connell, Leslie Wright, and Kristen Kearney of the securities and financial fraud unit were assigned as prosecutors of the case. FBI special agent Laura Smith signed the 204-page affidavit in support of the charges. On April 9, 16 of

816-622: A Boston federal court. This trial was centered around phony credentials which the two defendants paid to admit their children into the University of Southern California. Both men were convicted by a jury in October 2021, after 10 hours of deliberation. However, in May 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed all of Aziz's convictions and reversed all of Wilson's conviction (except for filing

918-649: A charge of racketeering conspiracy. At Wake Forest , head volleyball coach William "Bill" Ferguson was placed on administrative leave following charges of racketeering . Former Georgetown University tennis coach Gordon "Gordie" Ernst is alleged to have facilitated as many as 12 students through fraudulent means while accepting bribes of up to $ 950,000. On March 20, 2019, the University of San Diego (USD) revealed that its former men's basketball head coach Lamont Smith allegedly accepted bribes. Hours after that revelation, Smith resigned from his position as assistant coach at

1020-515: A criminal mastermind", university staff he bribed, and parents who were alleged to have used bribery and fraud to secure admission for their children to 11 universities. Among the accused parents are prominent business-people and well-known actors. Those charges have a maximum term of 20 years in prison, supervised release of three years, and a $ 250,000 fine. One month later, 16 of the parents were also indicted by prosecutors for alleged felony conspiracy to commit money laundering . This third charge has

1122-479: A false tax return). In a 154-page decision, the court determined the trial court had erred by instructing the jury admissions spots were "property" for purposes of the offenses of mail and wire fraud , and Wilson's conviction for conspiracy must be overturned because the trial court erred by allowing the admission of "significant amount of powerful evidence related to other parents’ wrongdoing in which these defendants played no part, creating an unacceptable risk that

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1224-489: A fine on colleges and universities that have the smallest proportion of low-income students. One of the parents who was convicted, Robert Zangrillo, was pardoned by President Donald Trump on his final day in office. Indicted coaches were fired or suspended, or had already left the university at the time of the charges. Mark Riddell, who took tests on behalf of the students, was suspended from his position as director of college entrance exam preparation at IMG Academy and fired

1326-596: A half years in prison, with an additional three years probation as well as over $ 10 million in restitution to the IRS and forfeiture of millions of dollars in assets. Singer apologized for his actions, saying "I lost my ethical values and have so much regret. To be frank, I’m ashamed of myself." A total of 50 people have been charged in the investigations. This number includes 33 parents of college applicants and 11 named collegiate coaches or athletic administrators from eight universities. Numerous other universities were not implicated in

1428-574: A maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, supervised release of three years, and a $ 500,000 fine. The investigation's name, Operation Varsity Blues, comes from a 1999 film of the same name . The case is the largest of its kind to be prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice . The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alleged that beginning in 2011, 33 parents of high school students conspired with other people to use bribery and other forms of fraud to illegally arrange to have their children admitted to top colleges and universities. The first reporter

1530-479: A maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, supervised release of three years, and a $ 500,000 fine. Two parents in the scandal, Gamal Abdelaziz and John B. Wilson, did not settle and went to trial. In October 2021, they were both convicted of fraud and bribery conspiracy charges. In February 2022, the two parents were sentenced respectively to 12 months and 15 months in jail as well as fines and community service. Both parents appealed their convictions. On May 10, 2023,

1632-743: A middleman, not involving William Singer. Khoury, who was represented by attorney Roy Black , was the only defendant in the Varsity Blues investigation to gain an acquittal at trial. Federal prosecutors alleged a college-admission scheme that involved: Court documents unsealed in March 2019 detail a scheme led by William Rick Singer, at the time a 58-year-old resident of Newport Beach, California. Wealthy parents paid Singer to illegally arrange to have their children admitted to elite schools by bribing admissions testing officials, athletics staff, and coaches at universities. Payments were made to Key Worldwide Foundation,

1734-445: A money-laundering operation to pay coaches a bribe for labeling applicants as athletic recruits. He also fabricated profiles highlighting each applicant's purported athletic prowess. In some cases, image editing software (e.g., Adobe Photoshop ) was used to insert a photograph of a student's face onto a photograph of another person participating in the sport to document purported athletic activity. In one such incident, Michael Center,

1836-429: A negligent false statement about the assets was convicted and banned from being a director. The investors who lost as much as £100 million sued one of the fraudsters and recovered £30 million. In April 2018, Morrie Tobin and others, using offshore accounts , gained over $ 165 million from a pump-and-dump scheme. When questioned by federal agents, Tobin told the agents that he was involved in another scheme implicating

1938-439: A number of differences between the schemes: Pump-and-dump scams differs from many other forms of spam (such as advance fee fraud emails and lottery scam messages) in that it does not require the recipient to contact the spammer to collect supposed "winnings", or to transfer money from supposed bank accounts. This makes tracking the source of pump-and-dump spam difficult, and has also given rise to "minimalist" spam consisting of

2040-404: A result of this and other public endorsements by Singer, many former clients have made statements to distance themselves and their children from any perceived involvement in the scandal. The table below lists parents in connection with the nationwide college admissions prosecution as listed by CNN , CBS News , and People . Morrie Tobin is not included in the above total due to the fact that he

2142-425: A small untraceable image file containing a picture of a stock symbol. One variation of the pump-and-dump scam is known as "scalping." In a scalping scheme, a stock promoter takes a position in a stock and then touts the stock without disclosing his or her intent to sell the stock. By recommending the stock (often, but not always, by providing inflated price targets or more generic promises of substantial returns),

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2244-871: A soccer coach from Yale University , which in turn led to the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal . In February 2019, Tobin pled guilty to conspiracy and securities fraud . On June 7, 2019, a federal judge hit Tobin with a $ 4 million forfeiture . Being an unregulated market, and due to the concentration of a large amount of cryptocurrency in a small number of hands, the price of many cryptocurrencies are sensitive to pump-and-dump schemes. There are organised pump-and-dump schemes run through social media platforms including Telegram and Discord . Pump-and-dump stock scams are prevalent in spam , accounting for about 15% of spam e-mail messages. A survey of 75,000 unsolicited emails sent between January 2004 and July 2005 concluded that spammers could make an average return of 4.29% by using this method, while recipients who act on

2346-399: A superseding indictment. The indictment added those defendants to an existing case against David Sidoo , another of the 33 parents, that was already pending before Judge Nathaniel Gorton . The indictment alleged that the parents engaged in a conspiracy to launder bribes paid to Singer "by funneling them through Singer's purported charity and his for-profit corporation." This third charge has

2448-448: A week later. On March 26, 2019, Yale became the first university to rescind the admission of a student associated with the scandal. On April 2, Stanford announced they also expelled a student connected to the fraud. In July 2020, Grand Canyon University ended its relationship with Singer, who was enrolled as a student of the university's psychiatric school since November 2019. The Hallmark Channel cut its ties to Lori Loughlin , star of

2550-610: Is a means of identification where the official nomenclature is unknown or uncertain. The policy of recognition reporting names was continued into the Cold War for Soviet, other Warsaw Pact , and Communist Chinese aircraft. Although this was started by the Air Standards Co-ordinating Committee (ASCC) formed by the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, it was extended throughout NATO as

2652-427: Is a type of economic bubble , with the main difference between this scheme and most other types of bubbles being that the pump-and-dump bubble is deliberately perpetrated by unlawful activity. A pump-and-dump scheme is similar in many ways to a Ponzi scheme (in that both types of scam use misrepresentations in an effort to enrich the promoters and/or initial investors with money from later investors), however, there are

2754-423: Is an unindicted cooperating witness supporting the prosecution's case. To date, 38 of the indicted parents have either pleaded guilty or have been convicted. November 13, 2019 September 26, 2019 September 24, 2019 He had been accused of bribing athletic officials at USC to designate his daughter as an athletic recruit and having CW-1's employee, Mikaela Sanford, take classes on behalf of his daughter. Zangrillo

2856-590: Is successful, it will entice unwitting investors to purchase shares of the target company. The increased demand , price, and trading volume of the stock could convince more people to believe the hype, and to buy shares as well. When the promoters behind the scheme sell (dump) their shares and stop promoting the stock, the price plummets, and other investors are left holding a stock that is worth significantly less than what they paid for it. Fraudsters frequently use this ploy with small, thinly traded companies—known as " penny stocks ", generally traded over-the-counter (in

2958-447: Is to never have to report to anyone that their son "was killed in an operation called 'Bunnyhug' or 'Ballyhoo'." Presently, British forces tend to use one-word names, presumably in keeping with their post-World War II policy of reserving single words for operations and two-word names for exercises. British operation code names are usually randomly generated by a computer and rarely reveal its components or any political implications unlike

3060-477: The AIM or OFEX . A more modern spin on the attack is known as hack, pump and dump. In this form, a person purchases penny stocks and then uses compromised brokerage accounts to purchase large quantities of that stock. The net result is a price increase, which is often pushed further by day traders seeing a quick advance in a stock. The original stockholder then cashes out at a premium. Pump-and-dump schemes also permeate

3162-651: The Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California , to begin her sentence. She was meant to be released from prison on October 27, 2019, but was released two days early because October 27 fell on a weekend. No charges were filed against Huffman's husband and Sophia's father, actor and director William H. Macy . On September 8, 2021, the scandal's first criminal trial, which saw parents John Wilson and Gamal Aziz (also called Gamal Abdelaziz) as defendants, officially began, with jury selection commencing in

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3264-504: The First Circuit vacated most of Abdelaziz and Wilson's convictions. The appellate court found that prosecutors had read honest services fraud too broadly and that universities did not have a property interest in admissions slots. The court affirmed Wilson's conviction for filing a false tax return after he attempted to deduct his bribes from his tax return. Wilson was ultimately sentenced on September 29, 2023 to one year of probation with

3366-669: The NATO reporting name for aircraft, rockets and missiles. These names were considered by the Soviets as being like a nickname given to one's unit by the opponents in a battle. The Soviets did not like the Sukhoi Su-25 getting the code name " Frogfoot ". However, some names were appropriate, such as "Condor" for the Antonov An-124 , or, most famously, "Fulcrum" for the Mikoyan MiG-29 , which had

3468-504: The Rhine ) was deliberately named to suggest the opposite of its purpose – a defensive "watch" as opposed to a massive blitzkrieg operation, just as was Operation Weserübung ( Weser -exercise), which signified the plans to invade Norway and Denmark in April 1940. Britain and the United States developed the security policy of assigning code names intended to give no such clues to

3570-514: The SAT or ACT college admission tests . Singer worked with psychologists to complete the detailed paperwork required to falsely certify clients' children as having a learning disability ; this in turn gave them access to accommodations , such as extra time, while taking the tests. Singer said he could obtain a falsified disability report from a psychologist for $ 4,000 to $ 5,000, and that the report could be re-used to fraudulently obtain similar benefits at

3672-528: The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against the universities and Singer, alleged that they were defrauded of both application fees and a fair admission process. In 2020, the court dismissed both lawsuits for lack of legal standing , because, "No plaintiff alleges that they applied for, were being considered for, or were denied an athletic spot ... hence, even if the college admissions scheme occurred as plaintiffs claim, no plaintiff

3774-598: The USAAF , invented a system for the identification of Japanese military aircraft. Initially using short, " hillbilly " boys' names such as " Pete ", " Jake ", and " Rufe ", the system was later extended to include girls' names and names of trees and birds, and became widely used by the Allies throughout the Pacific theater of war. This type of naming scheme differs from the other use of code names in that it does not have to be kept secret, but

3876-434: The University of Texas at El Paso . Two San Diego families were accused of paying $ 875,000 as part of the scheme. Bill McGlashan, a private equity investor, allegedly discussed using Adobe Photoshop to create a fake profile for his son as a football kicker to help him get into USC. Similarly, Marci Palatella, wife of former San Francisco 49ers player Lou Palatella , allegedly conspired with Singer to pass her son off as

3978-403: The 2000 film Boiler Room ). Often the stock promoter will claim to have "inside" information about impending news. Newsletters would purport to offer unbiased recommendations, then tout a company as a "hot" stock, for their own benefit. Promoters also post messages in online chat groups or internet forums, urging readers to buy the stock quickly. If a promoter's campaign to "pump" a stock

4080-565: The American names (e.g., the 2003 invasion of Iraq was called "Operation Telic" compared to Americans' "Operation Iraqi Freedom", obviously chosen for propaganda rather than secrecy). Americans prefer two-word names, whereas the Canadians and Australians use either. The French military currently prefer names drawn from nature (such as colors or the names of animals), for instance Opération Daguet ("brocket deer") or Opération Baliste ("Triggerfish"). The CIA uses alphabetical prefixes to designate

4182-541: The Inter Services Security Board (ISSB) staffed by the War Office . This procedure was coordinated with the United States when it entered the war . Random lists of names were issued to users in alphabetical blocks of ten words and were selected as required. Words became available for re-use after six months and unused allocations could be reassigned at discretion and according to need. Judicious selection from

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4284-677: The Second World War, the British allocation practice favored one-word code names ( Jubilee , Frankton ). That of the Americans favored longer compound words, although the name Overlord was personally chosen by Winston Churchill himself. Many examples of both types can be cited, as can exceptions. Winston Churchill was particular about the quality of code names. He insisted that code words, especially for dangerous operations, would be not overly grand nor petty nor common. One emotional goal he mentions

4386-588: The US (just across the Bering Strait from Nome, Alaska). The names of colors are generally avoided in American practice to avoid confusion with meteorological reporting practices. Britain, in contrast, made deliberately non-meaningful use of them, through the system of rainbow codes . Although German and Italian aircraft were not given code names by their Allied opponents, in 1942, Captain Frank T. McCoy, an intelligence officer of

4488-506: The United States code names are commonly set entirely in upper case. This is not done in other countries, though for the UK in British documents the code name is in upper case while operation is shortened to OP e.g., "Op. TELIC". This presents an opportunity for a bit of public-relations ( Operation Just Cause ), or for controversy over the naming choice (Operation Infinite Justice, renamed Operation Enduring Freedom ). Computers are now used to aid in

4590-477: The United States, and obstruction of justice for alerting a number of subjects to the investigation after he began cooperating with the government. He faced up to 65 years in prison and a fine of $ 1.25   million. He was sentenced in January 2023, with federal prosecutors asking for six years in prison and Singer's attorneys asking for home detention and community service. Judge Rya Zobel sentenced him to three and

4692-524: The United States, regulators have defined a penny stock as a security that must meet a number of specific standards. The criteria include price, market capitalization , and minimum shareholder equity . Securities traded on a national stock exchange , regardless of price, are exempt from regulatory designation as a penny stock, since it is thought that exchange traded securities are less vulnerable to manipulation . Therefore, Citigroup (NYSE:C) and other NYSE listed securities which traded below $ 1.00 during

4794-640: The United States, this would mean markets such as the OTC Bulletin Board or the Pink Sheets ), rather than markets such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or NASDAQ —because it is easier to manipulate a stock when there is little or no independent information available about the company. The same principle applies in the United Kingdom, where target companies are typically small companies on

4896-477: The University of Southern California (USC). Portions of recorded conversations between Buckingham and a cooperating witness were included in the FBI's affidavit. Singer also bribed college athletics staff and coaches. At certain colleges, these personnel can submit a certain number of sports recruit names to the admissions office, which then views those applications more favorably. Singer used his Key Worldwide Foundation as

4998-486: The allegations "to determine the extent to which NCAA rules may have been violated". U.S. Senator Ron Wyden ( D - OR ), of the Senate Finance Committee , plans to sponsor a bill making donations to schools taxable if the donor has children attending or applying to the college. Separately, Senators Chris Coons ( D - DE ) and Johnny Isakson ( R - GA ) have agreed to reintroduce 2017 legislation that imposes

5100-403: The available allocation could result in clever meanings and result in an aptronym or backronym , although policy was to select words that had no obviously deducible connection with what they were supposed to be concealing. Those for the major conference meetings had a partial naming sequence referring to devices or instruments which had a number as part of their meaning, e.g., the third meeting

5202-580: The charges brought against him in court. On April 9, 2022, a federal jury in Boston convicted Vavic of fraud and bribery. On September 15, 2022, Vavic's conviction was overturned, with Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ruling that evidence presented at trial did not determine that the payments “served the defendants’ interests and harmed the university's,” and a new trial was ordered. In 2019, applicants who had been rejected from elite colleges that had accepted Singer's clients filed two civil lawsuits in

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5304-663: The company's president were ordered to pay over $ 113,000 in fines and penalties. Started as Crown Corporation, Langbar International was the biggest pump-and-dump fraud on the Alternative Investment Market , part of the London Stock Exchange . The company was at one point valued greater than $ 1 billion, based on supposed bank deposits in Brazil which did not exist. None of the chief conspirators were convicted, although their whereabouts are known. A patsy who made

5406-403: The crypto-market, targeting especially low-market-cap, illiquid coins on cryptocurrency exchanges . In the early 1990s the penny-stock brokerage Stratton Oakmont artificially inflated the price of owned stock through false and misleading positive statements in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price. Firm co-founder Jordan Belfort was criminally convicted for applying

5508-810: The fifth rocket seen at Tyura-Tam . When more information resulted in knowing a bit about what a missile was used for, it would be given a designation like "SS-6", for the sixth surface-to-surface missile design reported. Finally, when either an aircraft or a missile was able to be photographed with a hand-held camera, instead of a reconnaissance aircraft, it was given a name like " Flanker " or " Scud " – always an English word, as international pilots worldwide are required to learn English. The Soviet manufacturer or designation – which may be mistakenly inferred by NATO – has nothing to do with it. Jet-powered aircraft received two-syllable names like Foxbat , while propeller aircraft were designated with short names like Bull . Fighter names began with an "F", bombers with

5610-411: The first six months to be served in home detention , and 250 hours of community service. He was also ordered to pay a fine of $ 75,000 and restitution in the amount of $ 88,546. On March 10, 2022, the first criminal trial involving a former coach, former USC water polo coach Jovan Vavic , began in the same Boston federal court as well. Vavic was the only coach implicated in the case who opted to challenge

5712-457: The first six months to be served in home detention, 250 hours of community service, a fine of $ 75,000 and restitution in the amount of $ 88,546. In June 2022, the final defendant in the investigation, Amin Khoury, was acquitted at trial of bribing a Georgetown University tennis coach to get his daughter into Georgetown. Khoury was accused of delivering $ 180,000 in a paper bag to the tennis coach through

5814-530: The future. As late as April 2001, before the Enron collapse , executives at the large energy company Enron participated in an elaborate scheme of pump and dump. Studies of the anonymous messages posted on the Yahoo board dedicated to Enron revealed predictive messages that the company was akin to a house of cards , that the company had "fooled even the most sophisticated analysts", and that investors should bail out while

5916-440: The jury convicted Abdelaziz and Wilson based on others' conduct" rather than evidence they had joined Singer's scheme as conspirators . Aziz would be the only accused parent to avoid punishment. Despite having most of his convictions overturned and evading prison time, Wilson would later be re-sentenced for his false tax return conviction that was upheld. On September 29, 2023, Wilson was sentenced to one year of probation , with

6018-565: The market downturn of 2008–2009, while properly regarded as "low priced" securities, were not technically "penny stocks". Although penny stock trading in the United States is now primarily controlled through rules and regulations enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the genesis of this control is found in state securities law. The State of Georgia

6120-1029: The men's tennis coach at the University of Texas (UT), accepted about $ 100,000 to designate an applicant as a recruit for the Texas Longhorns tennis team. A similar fraud occurred at Yale, where the then-head coach of the women's soccer team, Rudolph "Rudy" Meredith, allegedly accepted a $ 450,000 bribe to falsely identify an applicant as a recruit. USC's senior associate athletic director Donna Heinel and water polo coach Jovan Vavic allegedly received $ 1.3   million and $ 250,000, respectively, for similar frauds. They were indicted alongside former USC women's soccer coaches Ali Khosroshahin and Laura Janke. Coaches at two other Pac-12 programs, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) men's soccer coach Jorge Salcedo and Stanford University sailing coach John Vandemoer, were charged with accepting bribes. Vandemoer admitted that he accepted $ 270,000 to classify two applicants as prospective sailors, and agreed to plead guilty to

6222-465: The official name of the final product, a practice that was started in 2002 with Mac OS X v10.2 "Jaguar". Google and the AOSP also used this for their Android operating system until 2013, where the code name was different from the release name. Pump-and-dump This is an accepted version of this page Pump and dump ( P&D ) is a form of securities fraud that involves artificially inflating

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6324-470: The original 33 charged parents ( Lori Loughlin , her husband Mossimo Giannulli , Gamal Aziz , Douglas M. Hodge , Bill McGlashan , Diane and Todd Blake, I-Hsin "Joey" Chen, Michelle Janavs, Elizabeth and Manuel Henriquez, Elisabeth Kimmel, Marci Palatella, John Wilson, Homayoun Zadeh and Robert Zangrillo), who had not pleaded guilty to the original charges, were additionally charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering by federal prosecutors in Boston in

6426-503: The part of the agency supporting an operation. In many cases with the United States, the first word of the name has to do with the intent of the program. Programs with "have" as the first word, such as Have Blue for the stealth fighter development, are developmental programs, not meant to produce a production aircraft. Programs that start with Senior, such as Senior Trend for the F-117, are for aircraft in testing meant to enter production. In

6528-553: The past relied on cold calls , the Internet now offers a cheaper and easier way of reaching large numbers of potential investors through spam email , investment research websites, social media , and misinformation. Pump-and-dump schemes do take place on the Internet using an email spam campaign, through media channels via a fake press release, or through telemarketing from " boiler room " brokerage houses (such as that dramatized in

6630-447: The penny stocks sector. Meyer Blinder was jailed for securities fraud in 1992, after the collapse of his firm. However, sanctions under these specific regulations lack an effective means to address pump-and-dump schemes perpetrated by unregistered groups and individuals. The 2000 film Boiler Room stars Giovanni Ribisi as Seth Davis, a young man who gets a job as a trainee at a small brokerage firm called J.T. Marlin. He finds out that

6732-454: The price increase. Allegedly, when other investors bought the stock, Lebed sold his for a profit, leaving the other investors holding the bag . He came to the attention of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which filed a civil suit against him alleging security manipulation . Lebed settled the charges by paying a fraction of his total gains. He neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing, but promised not to manipulate securities in

6834-414: The price of an owned stock through false and misleading positive statements (pump), in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price (dump). Once the operators of the scheme "dump" (sell) their overvalued shares, the price falls and investors lose their money. This is most common with small-cap cryptocurrencies and very small corporations/companies, i.e. " microcaps ". While fraudsters in

6936-408: The price per share increased by $ 14.00 and over 100,000 shares were traded each day, netting Spear & Jackson around $ 3 million in profits. In 2005, Spear & Jackson and International Media Solutions were fined over $ 8 million, including its two executive officers, Kermit J. Silva and Yolanda Velazquez, each paying an additional $ 420,000 out of their personal accounts. On December 5, 2007, Park and

7038-448: The price, using the same techniques as the pump and dump but using criticism or negative predictions regarding the stock. The scammer then covers their short position when they buy back the stock at a lower price. One method of regulating and restricting pump-and-dump manipulators is to target the category of stocks most often associated with this scheme. To that end, penny stocks have been the target of heightened enforcement efforts. In

7140-472: The program Garage Sale Mystery and When Calls the Heart , after she was named as a parent in the indictments. According to The Hill , Netflix decided to drop Loughlin from Fuller House as well. Her younger daughter Olivia Jade also lost her partnerships with TRESemmé and the Sephora chain of beauty products. A USC spokesperson confirmed in March that both of Loughlin's daughters remained enrolled at

7242-537: The promoter convinces others to purchase the stock, providing a temporary rise in share price and volume which allows the "scalper" to then sell his shares on unsuspecting investors and obtain a profit. Scalping scams are frequently effectuated through social media (e.g., Twitter), and may lead to both criminal and civil liability in the United States. Like other pump-and-dump schemes, scalping scams frequently target microcap stocks because their low volume allows relatively small purchase volumes to cause significant spikes in

7344-461: The scandal but were themselves victims of Singer's and his clients' actions, such as by considering applications of students with fraudulent test scores. The following universities, their associated athletic programs, and 11 university personnel were involved in the case: Officials said Singer had many legitimate clients, who did not engage in any fraud. Singer cited famous clients on his Facebook page while promoting his 2014 book Getting In and, as

7446-561: The scheme around April 2018 when Los Angeles businessman Morrie Tobin, who was under investigation in an unrelated case for alleged pump-and-dump conspiracy and securities fraud , offered information in exchange for leniency in the previously existing, unrelated case. Tobin, who attended but did not graduate from Yale University , told authorities that the Yale women's soccer head coach, Rudolph "Rudy" Meredith, had asked him for $ 450,000 in exchange for helping his youngest daughter gain admission to

7548-491: The scheme, Key Worldwide Foundation and The Edge College & Career Network (also known as "The Key"). He pled guilty and cooperated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in gathering incriminating evidence against co-conspirators . He said he unethically facilitated college admission for children in more than 750 families. Singer faced up to 65 years in prison, and a fine of $ 1.25   million. In January 2023, he

7650-402: The scheme, who used part of the money to fraudulently inflate entrance exam test scores and bribe college officials. Of the 32 parents named in a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, more than half had apparently paid bribes to have their children enrolled at the University of Southern California (USC). Singer controlled the two firms involved in

7752-501: The scheme. He later turned his story into a memoir, The Wolf of Wall Street , which was later adapted into an Academy Award –nominated film of the same name . During the dot-com bubble , when stock-market fever was at its height and many people spent significant amounts of time on stock Internet message boards, a 15-year-old named Jonathan Lebed allegedly used the Internet to run a successful pump and dump. Lebed bought penny stocks and then promoted them on message boards, pointing at

7854-498: The school, but in October the school's registrar stated they were no longer enrolled. According to the San Jose Mercury News , USC scheduled a hearing in March 2019 to determine if Olivia Jade should be designated a "disruptive individual", which would result in her lifetime ban from the university's campus and properties. Loughlin was found guilty and began serving a two-month prison sentence on October 30, 2020. Giannulli, who

7956-833: The school. As part of his cooperation with the FBI, Tobin wore a recording device while talking to Meredith in a Boston hotel on April 12, 2018; Meredith subsequently agreed to cooperate with the authorities and led them to Singer. Meredith pleaded guilty as part of his cooperation with the prosecution. Tobin was not charged in this case, but in February 2019 he pleaded guilty in the unrelated securities fraud case. United States Federal Sentencing Guidelines , to which judges often refer when deciding sentences, call for between eight and ten years behind bars. According to The Wall Street Journal , Vanity Fair , and CBS , prosecutors recommended 36 months of supervised release. In addition, Tobin agreed to forfeit $ 4   million as part of his plea deal. Tobin

8058-537: The schools. Once the paperwork was complete, Singer told clients to invent false travel plans to arrange to have their child's test locations moved to a test center under his control, either in West Hollywood or Houston . Parents might also be advised to fabricate a family event that could provide a pretense for the student to take the SAT, ACT, or other test at a private location where Singer could have complete control over

8160-452: The selection. And further, there is a distinction between the secret names during former wars and the published names of recent ones. A project code name is a code name (usually a single word, short phrase or acronym) which is given to a project being developed by industry , academia , government, and other concerns. Project code names are typically used for several reasons: Different organizations have different policies regarding

8262-438: The share price. Given the rise of social media, scalping scams have become a significant focus of regulators in the United States in recent years. Another variant of the pump-and-dump scam, the "short and distort" works in the opposite manner. Instead of first buying the stock, and then artificially raising its price before selling, in a "short and distort" the scammer first short-sells the stock, and then artificially lowers

8364-431: The spam message typically lose close to 5.5% of their investment within two days. A study by Böhme and Holz shows a similar effect. Stocks targeted by spam are almost always penny stocks, selling for less than $ 5 per share, not traded on major exchanges, thinly traded, and difficult or impossible to sell short . Spammers acquire stock before sending the messages and sell the day the message is sent. A pump-and-dump scam

8466-538: The sport . On March 13, 2019, media sources reported that, when news of the scandal broke, Loughlin's younger daughter was on Rick Caruso 's yacht in the Bahamas with her friend, Gianna, Caruso's daughter. Caruso is the chairman of the USC Board of Trustees . Singer pleaded guilty on March 12, 2019, in the U.S. District Court in Boston to four felony counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to defraud

8568-414: The stock was good. After Enron falsely reported profits, which inflated the stock price, they covered the real numbers by using questionable accounting practices. Twenty-nine Enron executives sold overvalued stock for more than a billion dollars before the company went bankrupt. Park Financial Group, Spear & Jackson , and International Media Solutions, LLC were involved in a pump-and-dump scheme where

8670-452: The test. So most of these kids don't even have issues, but they're getting time. The playing field is not fair. For example, Jane Buckingham was arrested on March 12, 2019, for allegedly submitting false paperwork saying her son had a learning disability; and paying $ 50,000 to Key Worldwide Foundation for a proctor to take the ACT on her son's behalf, scoring a 35 out of 36. The goal was entrance to

8772-640: The testing process. In some cases, the student was involved directly in the fraud. In others, the fraud was kept secret from the student and corrupt proctors altered tests on their behalf after the fact. In some cases, other people posed as the students to take the tests. Mark Riddell, a Harvard alumnus and college admission exam preparation director at IMG Academy , was one of the stand-in test takers who took over two dozen exams; he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud and one count of money laundering, and agreed to cooperate with investigators. Prosecutors said he

8874-442: The transcripts of which were included in court filings, Singer claimed that the practice of fraudulently obtaining accommodations such as extra testing time, intended for those with legitimate learning disabilities, was widespread outside of his particular scheme: Yeah, everywhere around the country. What happened is, all the wealthy families that figured out that if I get my kid tested and they get extended time, they can do better on

8976-681: The uninitiated. For example, the British counter measures against the V-2 was called Operation Crossbow . The atomic bomb project centered in New Mexico was called the Manhattan Project , derived from the Manhattan Engineer District which managed the program. The code name for the American A-12 / SR-71 spy plane project, producing the fastest, highest-flying aircraft in the world,

9078-438: The use and publication of project code names. Some companies take great pains to never discuss or disclose project code names outside of the company (other than with outside entities who have a need to know, and typically are bound with a non-disclosure agreement ). Other companies never use them in official or formal communications, but widely disseminate project code names through informal channels (often in an attempt to create

9180-594: Was Oxcart . The American group that planned that country's first ICBM was called the Teapot Committee . Although the word could stand for a menace to shipping (in this case, that of Japan), the American code name for the attack on the subtropical island of Okinawa in World War II was Operation Iceberg . The Soviet Union's project to base missiles in Cuba was named Operation Anadyr after their closest bomber base to

9282-545: Was "TRIDENT". Joseph Stalin , whose last name means "man of steel", was given the name "GLYPTIC", meaning "an image carved out of stone". Ewen Montagu , a British Naval intelligence officer, discloses in Beyond Top Secret Ultra that during World War II , Nazi Germany habitually used ad hoc code names as nicknames which often openly revealed or strongly hinted at their content or function. Some German code names: Conversely, Operation Wacht am Rhein (Watch on

9384-577: Was Julie Taylor-Vaz, a guidance counselor at Buckley School (a private school in Los Angeles), who in 2017 learned that a Buckley student identified as "Eliza" Bass – a pseudonym given by Vanity Fair – had been accepted to Tulane University , Georgetown University and Loyola Marymount University as an "African-American tennis whiz, ranked in the Top 10 in California," according to the report. However, "Eliza"

9486-490: Was also accused of wiring $ 200,000 to one of Key Worldwide Foundation's false charitable accounts. October 18, 2019 Elizabeth Henriquez sentenced March 31, 2020. Manuel Henriquez sentenced July 29, 2020. September 13, 2019 In response to the scandal, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the chief governing body for college sports in the United States, announced plans to review

9588-454: Was also found guilty, began serving a five-month prison sentence on November 19, 2020. On March 12, 2019, William Singer, the CEO of Edge College & Career Network who masterminded the scandal, pleaded guilty to four criminal charges involving racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and obstruction of justice. On January 4, 2023, William Singer

9690-489: Was paid $ 10,000 per test, and the government was seeking to recover almost $ 450,000 from him in forfeiture. Riddell did not have advance access to the test papers, but was described as "just a really smart guy". He could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, but reportedly prosecutors said that because of his cooperation they would instead likely recommend 33 months' imprisonment at his November 1, 2019 (originally July 18) sentencing hearing. According to recorded phone calls,

9792-456: Was particularly affected by the scheme." Code name During World War I , names common to the Allies referring to nations, cities, geographical features, military units, military operations, diplomatic meetings, places, and individual persons were agreed upon, adapting pre-war naming procedures in use by the governments concerned. In the British case names were administered and controlled by

9894-533: Was scheduled for sentencing at a hearing in June 2019, but this did not in fact take place. On March 12, 2019, federal prosecutors in Boston unsealed a criminal complaint charging 50 people with conspiracy to commit felony mail fraud and honest services mail fraud in violation of Title 18 United States Code , Section 1349. Those charges have a maximum term of 20 years in prison, supervised release of three years, and

9996-497: Was sentenced to 3.5 years in federal prison, 3 years of supervised release, and forfeiture of over $ 10 million. On May 13, 2019, actress Felicity Huffman formally pleaded guilty to honest services fraud, which involved hiring someone to take the SAT using the name of her daughter, Sophia. On September 13, she was sentenced to 14 days in jail, one year of supervised release, fined $ 30,000 and ordered to undertake 250 hours of community service . On October 15, 2019, Huffman reported to

10098-554: Was sentenced to three and a half years in prison plus forfeiture of over $ 10 million. He was released from prison in August 2024. Prosecutors in the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts , led by United States Attorney Andrew Lelling , unsealed indictments and complaints for felony conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud against 50 people, including Singer, who has been "portrayed [...] as

10200-487: Was subsequently challenged in court. However, the law was eventually upheld in U.S. District Court , and the statute became the template for laws enacted in other states. Shortly thereafter, both FINRA and the SEC enacted comprehensive revisions of their penny stock regulations. These regulations proved effective in either shuttering or greatly restricting broker/dealers, such as Blinder, Robinson & Company, which specialized in

10302-534: Was the first state to codify a comprehensive penny stock securities law. Secretary of State Max Cleland , whose office enforced state securities laws, was a principal proponent of the legislation. Representative Chesley V. Morton , the only stockbroker in the Georgia General Assembly at the time, was a principal sponsor of the bill in the Georgia House of Representatives . Georgia's penny stock law

10404-600: Was white and did not play tennis. Eliza's father, Adam J. Bass, a member of the Buckley School Board, initially denied that he had used an outside admissions consultant before finally admitting to Buckley that his family had hired Rick Singer, the Newport Beach, California man who became infamous in March for being at the heart of the admissions scandal. Bass was a business partner of Singer's and therefore did not have to pay any money to Singer. Authorities became aware of

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