Ibrahim Almagarby and Microcap Equity Group LLC
U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 23992 / November 20, 2017
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Ibrahim Almagarby and Microcap Equity Group LLC, No. 17-cv-62255 (S.D. Fla. November 17, 2017)
SEC Charges Individual and His Company with Operating an Unregistered Dealer Business
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a Florida-based individual and his company with acting as unregistered dealers in the sale of billions of shares of numerous penny stock issuers.
The SEC's complaint, filed in federal district court in south Florida, alleges that, beginning in January 2013, Ibrahim Almagarby and his company, Microcap Equity Group LLC (MEG), engaged in a business that purchased aged penny stock issuer debts. After converting the debts into equity, they sold the resultant shares into the market. At the time of this conduct, the complaint alleges that neither Almagarby nor MEG were registered with the SEC as a dealer and Almagarby was not associated with a registered broker or dealer. Through these activities, Almagarby and MEG purchased over $1.1 million of aged debts of 39 microcap issuers and sold into the market over 7.4 billion shares generating over $1.4 million in ill-gotten gains.
The SEC's complaint charges both Almagarby and MEG with violating Section 15(a)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Almagarby as a control person under Section 20(a) of the Exchange Act for MEG's registration violations. The SEC seeks permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest, civil penalties, surrender for cancellation of MEG's remaining shares in the penny stock issuers that are the subject of this action and surrender of any conversion rights in its remaining holdings of issuer debts, and penny stock bars.
The SEC's investigation was conducted by James Thibodeau of the Salt Lake Regional Office, and the litigation will be led by Daniel Wadley and Amy Oliver.
