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by Mike Caswell

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges over a scheme to boost Empowered Products Inc., a purported manufacturer of gels and other "sexual health" products. The regulator claims that two men, including Vancouver's Nathan Yeung, boosted the company with a misleading $1-million paid promotional campaign. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) The touting sent the now-worthless company to $1.11.

The allegations are contained in a civil complaint that the SEC filed in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday, Sept. 6. The complaint identifies Mr. Yeung, 28, as a resident of Vancouver who created promotional materials under the alias Mason Zhang. The other defendant is Las Vegas resident Scott Fraser, 51, a former broker who the SEC claims was the chief executive officer of Empowered.

The scheme, as described by the SEC, began in 2011 when Mr. Fraser took Empowered public on the OTC Bulletin Board. Shortly after, he hired his own company, Contrarian Press LLC, to provide investor relations services, according to the regulator. He then embarked on a three-year campaign in which he secretly wrote a series of purportedly independent articles on Empowered using the alias Charlie Buck, the SEC says.

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