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by Mike Caswell

Prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida have filed criminal charges against former Pacific International Securities Inc. broker David Ricci, 39, for his role in the CO2 Tech Ltd. market manipulation. In an information sheet filed in federal court on Monday, Jan. 23, the government claims that he helped dump millions of CO2 Tech shares at artificially inflated prices.

The criminal charges come almost one year after federal prosecutors indicted several others for the CO2 Tech manipulation, including recidivist securities violator Jonathan Curshen. The government claimed that Mr. Curshen and the others were part of a 2007 scheme to boost CO2 Tech with false claims about a pollution control product in which Boeing had purportedly taken an interest. The men pumped the stock to $1.65 and obtained $7-million in illegal profits, according to prosecutors. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.)

Mr. Ricci's role in the manipulation, according to Monday's information sheet, was to help with the trading part of the scheme. He boosted the stock with wash trades and helped sell millions of shares while CO2 Tech touted its purported Boeing relationship, prosecutors claim. The charges he faces are conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and mail fraud. The maximum sentence is five years.

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