Patrick G. Rooney, John R. Rooney, and Positron Corporation

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 23103 / October 3, 2014

SEC v. Patrick G. Rooney, John R. Rooney, and Positron Corporation, Civil Action No. 9:14-cv-81224-KAM (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida)

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that on September 30, 2014 it filed a civil injunctive action charging Positron Corporation, a microcap company based in Westmont, Ill., Patrick G. Rooney of Oak Brook, Ill., the company's then-CEO, and John R. Rooney of Jupiter, Fla., a penny stock promoter, for orchestrating a market manipulation scheme involving the company's stock.

According to the SEC's complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Positron Corporation, Patrick Rooney, and John Rooney, engaged in market manipulation fraud in which they made an inducement payment to a stock promoter who would purchase shares of Positron in the open market ahead of planned press releases to help them manipulate the stock. The SEC alleges that the scheme was designed to generate the appearance of market activity in the company's stock to induce investors to purchase the stock and artificially increase the trading price and volume.

The SEC's complaint alleges that the defendants violated Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 10b-5(a) and 10b-5(c). The SEC is seeking permanent injunctions and civil money penalties against all three defendants, as well as penny stock bars against both Patrick and John Rooney and an officer-and-director bar against Patrick Rooney.

This matter was investigated by the SEC as part of a joint law enforcement effort between the SEC, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The U.S. Attorney's Office announced criminal charges against Patrick and John Rooney on the same day the SEC brought its action.