Unnamed Stocks in SEC fraud suit against Barry Honig Revealed

The Securities and Exchange Commission has finally filed an enforcement action against Barry Honig, Philip Frost, and Michael Brauser for trading as a group of affiliates without disclosing their true stock ownership. A group of ten men are named in the complaint as being part of the fraud with Honig listed as the ring leader. The regulator will be trying to ban the men from the industry and charge them millions in restitution and fines. I reported on September 5 the SEC could be bringing an enforcement action soon when I saw Honig’s attorney Harvey Kesner had been removed from the law firm the bore his name.

I was the first journalist who reported Honig and others were under SEC investigation for the actions detailed in their new complaint two years ago at www.growthcapitalist.com and here at this publication. Honig hired a bull dog attorney who makes his money attacking free speech named Charles Harder to sue me for reporting he was the target of an SEC investigation. I had the pro bono help of Eric David, a North Carolina attorney, to stand up to Honig’s lawsuit and we litigated until he dropped the suit against me. Honig’s goal was to get through discovery and force me to disclose the names of people I had interviewed that the regulator had spoken to about Honig and told them he was under investigation. I held my ground even when faced with the possibility of being held in contempt and never revealed my sources. I knew the story was true and it was important for the investing public to know how Honig illegally operates.

The SEC was very slow to sue Honig and the three stocks mentioned in the complaint are only the tip of the iceberg regarding pump and dump schemes Team Honig has done. Because I have interviewed multiple people who have worked with Honig or been company executives of small cap stocks that he has invested in I can report who are the unnamed companies in the SEC complaint.

Company A is Biozone. It was run my a Northern California man named Daniel Fisher. Then Honig came in with his crew and took it over. Eliot Maza and Brian Kelley were part of the Honig-Frost-Brauser ring in that company which later was renamed CoCrystal. Maza and Kelley are also charged for securities violations in the SEC’s Honig complaint.

Company B is MGT Capital. It is run by Rob Ladd and for some time John McAfee was an executive of the company. Honig made a bizarre move and sued Ladd and others in the company for basically stopping him from getting more cheap warrants and trying to take over the company so he could do probably do multiple pump and dumps with the stock. Honig won a partial motion to dismiss in his case against Ladd but also disclosed his behind the scenes strategy to give desperate small cap companies bridge loans that they can’t repay and then the debt gets turned in to discounted stock. Honig suddenly dropped the suit against Ladd in May on the same week another one of his investments filed an 8-K admitting the SEC was investigation preferred share investors for not disclosing they were trading as affiliates. That company is Company C in the complaint.

Company C is MabVax Therapeutics and it is odd that the company CEO’s were not charged with an enforcement action by the SEC when it is clear from the SEC complaint they allowed Honig to control decision making of the company and hide his involvement from investors.

The SEC said this case isn’t over in their press release yesterday and that the investigation is on going. I would bet the regulator’s goal is to flip a few of the men who work with Honig and are named in the complaint and then the DOJ could bring criminal charges against Honig and others. There could also be other companies added to the complaint like $COOL, $RIOT, $MARA. Each of these companies were subject of a recent Sharesleuth investigation and story.

Every time I print a story on Honig this publication is hit with a DDOS attack that tries to crash the site and drive up cost of hosting this news publication on the internet. My personal email has been hacked, I have had men show up at my NYC apartment building trying to speak to me about Honig, and teribuhl.com had a story removed by a hacker two years ago that involved Honig and his lawyer Harvey Kesner. Let’s just say reporting on this man is costly. That’s why reader donations are extremely important to keep the reporting up and free for the market to read. Please donate to support journalism that makes an impact. There is another story on Honig and other firms he works with and their illegal actions that are not described in the SEC complaint coming soon.

Update 9.10.2018: Bill Alpert at Barrons who has covered small cap bad actors for years has reported an excellent backstory on Philip Frost, Barry Honig and the rest of Team Honig. Bill was early in reporting on what could be stock manipulation run by Team Honig back in 2014. Bill also credited my original reporting in his story.

Here is how that story came about: In 2016 a trade publication I reported for as a freelance journalist called www.growthcapitlaist.com was the first financial news publication to report Barry Honig and others were under SEC investigation. That trade publication is behind a paywall for paid subscribers. I then rewrote that news here at teribuhl.com with more colorful language because I thought it was critical for the investing public to know the risk of investing in a stock that Honig invest in. Honig sued me but not the original publication that printed the news which was a clear sign this was nothing more than a bully lawsuit meant to intimated a freelance journalist. I have decided to continue my reporting on the Honig ring here where I can control the content but this publication will go through a legal review and have other journalist or editors review the work before I print so that it’s just not one set of eyes fact checking a story. Those reviews cost money which is why your donations are critical. Thank you to all the readers who have supported teribuhl.com this week.

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Comments

  1. Can any of these people receive jail time???

    • Yes but only if the Dept of Justice charges them. The SEC can’t give any one jail time.

      • this should be a RICO case. Look into MGTI. I got banned from posting on Yahoo because I posted articles on the history of MGTI management doing the same thing with another company about 10 years ago. Posters were saying the Yahoo moderators were in on the scheme before I got banned. They threatened to take my email away if I complained.

      • Is there “anyway possible” to provide you additional information that you currently do not have in private ?

    • BerniceMadoff says

      This has been allegedly (most who live in Micro/Small Cap world realize) going on for decades. Why has the SEC let it go for so long? And will there be restitution for all those investors that lost their shirts and the hangers they were on?

  2. Thank you Teri. I’ve been following your reporting on this sob for awhile. I’m a beleaguered shareholder of MGT and hope this all works out soon.

    • Kitty so sorry you were burned as I know you believed in the company. Then Gary just feeding you and the rest of us more of it…. FYI Teri , Phillip Frost, if the same person, also was involved with the symbol DRNE. Remember those images posted in the FB about Ladd being on the BOD of RIOT?

    • did you ever wonder why a company would pay retail for a few thousand machines? MGTI never was going to work. I do not think McAfee realized what was going on until it was too late.

  3. Bravo for reporting on this. Charles Harder, for your information is now the attorney of record for Trump on dealing with accusations from Omarosa. Harders long time partner, Douglas Mirell quit working with him in February of 2018. Mirell told Hollywood Reporter that he could no longer stand the type of clients Harder represented such as Harvey Weinstein. You have been attacked by some of the slimiest pit bulls out there.

  4. Please look into another shell company, that Michael and his son Dan opened up here in Tampa. Cousins Logistics… every story I read about these guys is always the same. Pump and dump, tearing companies apart, putting people out of work and stealing money.

  5. How did RedViolet get looked over? says

    Here is some Red Violet info that seems somehow connected by the players involved.

    The start of RVNT
    https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2016/08/23/hollywood-company-stripped-of-intellectual.html

    More searches
    https://realmoney.thestreet.com/articles/07/22/2015/idi-management-fires-back-against-blog-post

    RDVT is built on IP not theirs as per this
    https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-flsb-9_14-ap-01793/pdf/USCOURTS-flsb-9_14-ap-01793-0.pdf

    they had to pay $7 Million to TransUnion in IP suit
    https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170725005880/en/cogint-Announces-Settlement-Disputes-TransUnion

    More Spin offs
    http://investors.fluentco.com/news-releases/news-release-details/idi-inc-announces-ruling-transunion-litigation

    RDVT spinoff from Cogint
    https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1720116/000119312518069582/d528710dex991.htm

    New name same old faces including FROST GAMMA INVESTMENTS TRUST
    http://redviolet.com/company/board-of-directors/
    http://redviolet.com/company/management-team/

    Salary for RedViolet management. What’s their annual sales again?
    Derek Dubner $325,000
    Daniel MacLachlan $226,269
    James Reilly $264,000

    Red Violet Blockchain and analytical solutions has many cross-contaminated players from the other Frost / Honig companies.

    Steven Rubin has served as a director since the March 2018 spin-off of red violet from information and digital performance marketing solutions provider, cogint. Mr. Rubin served as a director of cogint (and its predecessor companies) from October 2009 until March 2018. Mr. Rubin has served as the Executive Vice President of OPKO since May 2007 and a director of OPKO since February 2007. Mr. Rubin currently serves on the board of directors of ChromaDex Corp.

    News page on RedViolet webpage does not list Chairman Brauser’s step-down in the news section?

  6. They (RDVT) may has just updated the website after this comment Fred F.

    Michael Brauser may of stepped down but he is still helping support the stock price with insider buying.

    https://www.fairfieldcurrent.com/2018/09/28/michael-brauser-purchases-2000-shares-of-red-violet-inc-rdvt-stock.html/amp

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