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by Mike Caswell

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has secured a permanent ban against Marc Riviello, the California broker who served a $6.2-million market manipulation scheme that included former Investors Hub operator Matthew Brown. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) The ban, contained in an administrative order dated Feb. 10, 2012, prevents him from acting as a broker and from trading penny stocks. The SEC has also secured a $283,268 disgorgement order against Mr. Riviello in a related civil suit, payment of which the judge has waived based on his financial condition. Both orders represented the product of settlements, in which Mr. Riviello did not admit to any wrongdoing.

The penalties stem from a scheme to manipulate four stocks with misleading news and manipulative trades in 2006 and 2007. The stocks included Playstar Corp., an Ontario pink sheets listing that was purportedly developing a text messaging system for cellphones. Mr. Riviello's role in the scheme was to help Mr. Brown and others dump 54 million improperly issued shares through nominee accounts at Los Angeles firm AIS Financial Inc., which he co-owned.

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