U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 20375 / November 30, 2007

SEC v. Great American Technologies, Inc. and Vincent Setteducate a/k/a Vincent Sette, Civil Action No. 07-CV-10694 (S.D.N.Y.) (November 30, 2007)

Commission Charges New Jersey Company and Recidivist with Fraudulent Offering Scheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that today it filed a complaint in the Southern District of New York charging Great American Technologies, Inc. ("Great American") and Vincent Sette, the company's Vice President of Sales and Marketing, with violating the antifraud provisions of the securities laws by conducting a fraudulent offering of stock that raised over $2.3 million from more than 100 investors.

The complaint named the following defendants:

  • Great American, based in Newark, New Jersey, offers, among other products, a service called "MailCall" that purportedly allows users to hear readouts of e-mails and web pages over the telephone.
     
  • Sette, age 48, is a resident of New Jersey, and is Great American's Senior Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales. Sette controlled Great American and ran the company's daily operations. Sette is a recidivist securities law violator.

The complaint alleged the following. Between approximately May 2002 and February 2007, Great American and Sette sold unregistered common stock valued at more than $2.3 million to over 100 investors. Throughout the course of this stock offering, Great American and Sette made numerous materially misleading statements, and failed to disclose material information, to investors to induce them to purchase shares of Great American. For example, Sette told investors that Great American's MailCall system was capable of handling thousands of users, when, in fact, the system could not handle more than approximately 48 users simultaneously. Sette told investors that Great American had signed contracts with various entities to market and/or use the MailCall service, when, in fact, Great American had not entered into any such contracts. Sette made completely baseless revenue projections when he told investors that Great American would generate millions of dollars in revenue in its first years of operations. Sette also told investors that Great American would soon be conducting an IPO and its shares would increase in value, when in fact, Great American, had not taken any significant steps to conduct an IPO.

The Commission's complaint alleges that the defendants violated Sections 5(a) and 5(c) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 17(a) of the Securities Act and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Commission is seeking permanent injunctions, civil penalties, and disgorgement from Great American and Sette, and is also seeking an officer and director bar against Sette.

The Commission acknowledges the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

SEC Complaint in this matter