Dynkowski, et al.

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 21463/ March 29, 2010

SEC v. Dynkowski, et al., Civil Action No. 09-361 (D. Del.)

SEC Files Charges Against Three Additional Individuals in Stock Manipulation Ring

The SEC announced that The Honorable Gregory M. Sleet, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, has authorized the SEC to file an amended complaint, alleging that three new defendants ¢€" Richard A. Bailey, Gary C. Heath, and Florian R. Ternes ¢€" each participated in the pump-and-dump scheme, described in the original complaint, involving GH3 International, Inc. during 2006. The amended complaint alleges that Bailey and Ternes, who were officers of GH3 at the time, made hundreds of millions of GH3 shares available, through Heath, to Pawel Dynkowski and other defendants to liquidate in the market once they had pumped the stock through manipulative trading and false, misleading and touting press releases. Bailey and Ternes shared in the scheme's proceeds of $747,609 and, when it was nearly over, sold almost a billion shares of GH3 on their own for proceeds of $272,000.

The original complaint alleged that Dynkowski and seven others had manipulated the trading in four penny stocks: GH3, Asia Global Holdings, Inc., Playstar Corp., and Xtreme Motorsports of California, Inc. They did so by pumping the stocks through manipulative trading (using washed sales and matched orders) and false or misleading press releases. They then dumped on the market billions of shares of unregistered stock that they obtained from the issuers. Together, these schemes reaped more than $6.2 million in illicit proceeds.

The amended complaint alleges that Bailey and Ternes violated Sections 5(a), 5(c) and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5 thereunder; and that Heath violated Sections 5(a) and 5(c) of the Securities Act. The complaint seeks against each defendant a permanent injunction against future violations, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, civil monetary penalties, and orders barring them from participating in penny stock offerings.

The SEC thanks the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Delaware; the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigations; and the Delaware State Police for their assistance in this matter.

For further information, see Litigation Release No. 21053 (May 21, 2009).

See Also: SEC Complaint