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by Mike Caswell

Thomas and Alexander Hunter, the U.K. twins facing civil fraud charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over a market manipulation scheme they set up at the age of 16, deny that they did anything wrong. In an answer filed on June 27, 2012, the brothers say any representations they made about stocks were mere "puffery" that included adequate disclaimers.

The charges the brothers face stem from a "stock picking robot" they claimed could identify penny stocks that would rise in value. They received $1.2-million selling an electronic newsletter called doublingstocks.com that was based on the purported robot, the SEC said. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) The stocks in the newsletter included Vancouver-linked OTC Bulletin Board listing Holloman Energy Corp. and Toronto-based OTC-BB listing UOMO Media Inc. (Neither company was accused of any wrongdoing.)

The brothers, for their part, claim that they did nothing wrong. In a sparse answer filed on Wednesday, June 27, they say the SEC has not shown any material misstatement or omission on their part. Although the answer is 10 pages long, it contains few other details. In response to most of the 63 paragraphs of the SEC's complaint, the brothers simply deny any wrongdoing. They ask for a trial by jury.

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