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by Mike Caswell

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil fraud charges against Andiamo Corp. and its former chief executive officer, Michael Starkweather, over the company's supposed launch of a smartphone in 2018. The SEC claims that the phone never existed and that the phone's developer, a Toronto company owned by Andiamo, never had the money to build the phone. The SEC further cites Mr. Starkweather for accepting kickbacks in connection with share sales.

The allegations against Mr. Starkweather are contain in a civil complaint that the SEC announced on Thursday, Oct. 17. The complaint identifies Mr. Starkweather, 35, as a resident of Ohio who served as the CEO of Andiamo until Sept. 6, 2018. Andiamo, which trades on the OTC Markets, is also a defendant.

The case centres around claims that Andiamo made after it acquired a private Toronto company called Utopya Innovations Inc. in November, 2017. According to the SEC, Andiamo issued a series of news releases in which it touted the launch of three smartphones, with the devices to become available in 2018. "With two highly experienced teams of software developers in both Canada and India, we are creating an experience for users that will be nothing short of spectacular," the company proclaimed in one of the releases.

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