On February 9, 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against two individuals for violations of the Securties Exchange Act of 1934 alleging that:
From approximately January 2005 until March 2007, the Defendants spearheaded a sophisticated scheme to defraud the banks and their depositors by secretly using relatives as nominees to acquire stock in those conversions in contravention of the offering terms and applicable banking regulations. Over the course of the fraudulent scheme, the Defendants reaped ill-gotten profits from secondary market sales of the illegally obtained stock. The Defendants used four relatives and several business entities they controlled as nominees to fraudulently acquire the bank shares prior to the public offerings.
SEC v. Vitales, No. 10-cv-20408-JAL (S.D.Fla. Feb. 9, 2010).
