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by Mike Caswell

Michael Sun, one of the accused in the Jammin' Java Corp. pump-and-dump case, has asked that the judge throw out the charges against him. He says there is nothing to indicate that he even knew the alleged ringleader of the scheme, Kelowna's Shane Whittle. As he sees it, the case against him amounts to guilt by association.

Mr. Sun, 59, is responding to civil fraud charges that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed against him and others for the manipulation of Jammin' Java, a purported coffee company that went to a $6.35 high in 2011. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) The regulator claimed that the group boosted the stock with false news releases and fraudulent on-line reports. At the same time, offshore entities sold a massive number of shares, worth $78-million in total, according to the SEC. The regulator said that Mr. Sun aided the scheme by forming or controlling some of those offshore entities.

For his part, Mr. Sun contends that he had nothing to do with the scheme. In a motion to dismiss filed on Monday, April 18, he complains that the SEC has simply lumped him in with other defendants, without specifying his role. There are no specifics about him creating any offshore entities in the charges, he says. Those details are absent despite the SEC's detailed descriptions of the roles that others played, the motion states. "In the absence of Sun's participation in the key events forming the alleged pump-and-dump scheme, the SEC's attempt to lump Sun together with the other Defendants is classic guilt by association," the motion reads.

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