BOSTON – A California legal professional pleaded responsible yesterday in federal court docket in Boston in reference to the unlawful sale of over $1.3 million value of unregistered shares of a Massachusetts-based well being care firm.
Daniel V. Martinez, 63, of Yuba Metropolis, Calif., pleaded responsible to at least one rely of sale of unregistered securities. U.S. District Court docket Decide Patti B. Saris scheduled sentencing for April 13, 2023. Martinez was charged by an Data on Sept. 30, 2022.
Between 2013 and 2016, Martinez served as a real-estate legal professional for Avtar Singh Dhillon, who was then chairman of the Massachusetts-based biotechnology firm, Arch Therapeutics, Inc. Dhillon and Martinez positioned 2.75 million Arch Therapeutics shares that Dhillon beneficially owned right into a restricted legal responsibility firm that Martinez created and for which Martinez was the only supervisor. At Dhillon’s route, Martinez then bought the shares within the open market with no legitimate exemption below the related securities legal guidelines and distributed the roughly $1.34 million in proceeds. Martinez distributed the proceeds primarily to 3rd events for Dhillon’s profit, taking a small portion immediately for himself.
On Dec. 8, 2022, Dhillon pleaded responsible to at least one rely of willful failure to reveal inventory gross sales, one rely of aiding and abetting the sale of unregistered securities, and one rely of touting compensation nondisclosure conspiracy earlier than U.S. Senior District Court docket Decide Douglas P. Woodlock, who scheduled sentencing for April 18, 2023.
The cost of sale of unregistered securities gives for a sentence as much as 5 years in jail, three years of supervised launch and a superb of $10,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court docket decide based mostly upon the U.S. Sentencing Tips and statutes which govern the dedication of a sentence in a felony case.
United States Legal professional Rachael S. Rollins and Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Particular Agent in Cost of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Workplace made the announcement. Precious help was offered by SEC’s headquarters and Boston regional workplace. Assistant U.S. Legal professional James R. Drabick of Rollins’ Securities, Monetary & Cyber Fraud Unit is prosecuting the case.
