The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced a decision on Raymond J..Pirrello, Jr., Marcello Follano, Robert Cassino, Anthony DiTucci, Joseph Rivera and their New Jersey or New York-based companies Prior 2 IPO Inc.., Late Stage Asset Management, LLC, Pre IPO Marketing Inc.make charges。

According to the SEC's allegations, the defendants hired a nationwide network of unregistered sales agents to raise at least 5 from more than 4,000 investors worldwide in unregistered pre-IPO securities offerings..$2.8 billion。

The complaint alleges that the defendant falsely told investors that no upfront fees were charged for the offering and that the defendant only profited after the company went public prior to the initial public offering; however, all investors were charged undisclosed upfront mark-ups, some as high as 150%, from which the defendant and its network of unregistered sales agents profited more than $88 million.。

The SEC alleges that the alleged individuals went to great lengths to conceal the identity of Pirillo, one of the scam's ringleaders, from investors and potential employees to cover up the fact that he was barred from working with a broker-dealer in an earlier SEC administrative lawsuit, after a jury found him responsible for insider trading in August 2019.。

The SEC filed suit in the District Court for the Eastern District of New York alleging that the five individuals and four entities violated anti-fraud, securities and broker-dealer registration, and other provisions of the federal securities laws.。The SEC requested permanent injunctive relief for all defendants, forfeiture of illegal gains and payment of pre-judgment interest and civil penalties, and barred Pirrello, Follano, Cassino, DiTucci and Rivera from acting as executives and directors.。