SAN DIEGO, Calif. (KGTV) — A San Diego attorney whom prosecutors say ran a pair of "pump-and-dump" stock fraud schemes was sentenced Friday to just over seven years in prison.
Andrew Coldicutt, 44, was convicted by a federal jury earlier this year for a pair of scams aimed at inflating companies' stock through false and/or misleading information, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
In "pump-and-dump" schemes, the inflated shares are then sold off, leaving investors with losses after the price plummets.
Prosecutors say the first scheme involved inventing a fake company, with Coldicutt then filing misleading securities registration statements regarding various aspects of the purported business. The U.S. Attorney's Office said no investors were harmed through that scheme because Coldicutt's business partners turned out to be undercover FBI agents.
For the second scheme, Coldicutt asked the same undercover agents to invest in one of his clients, then acted in his role as a securities attorney to write a false opinion letter in order to help stock get sold. No investors were harmed in that scheme because the stock transfer was denied, prosecutors said.
Coldicutt was found guilty of 17 counts, including securities fraud and wire fraud. Along with 85 months in prison, Coldicutt was ordered by a judge to pay a $100,000 fine and forfeit more than $42,000.
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