Las Vegas CEO charged with securities fraud
The chief executive of a Las Vegas company marketing smoke-free cigarettes and his firm were charged Thursday with securities fraud after he was allegedly caught in an FBI investigation involving manipulation of penny stocks.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit in Florida against Thomas Schroepfer, aka Thomas Schroepfer Baetsen, of Las Vegas, president and CEO of SmokeFree Innotec Inc.
The indictment accuses Schroepfer, SmokeFree Innotec and a stock promoter, Charles Fuentes, of Dana Point, Calif., of engaging “in a fraudulent scheme involving the stock of SmokeFree involving illicit kickbacks and phony agreements.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami on Thursday separately charged Schroepfer, 54, and Fuentes, 66, with one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud in a “scheme to defraud the investing public by engaging in deceptive and manipulative trading practices in connection with SmokeFree Innotec stock.”
A message left with Schroepfer late Thursday seeking comment was not returned. SmokeFree Innotec is located at 2300 W. Sahara Ave in Las Vegas.
The SEC said SmokeFree Innotec was one of four cases filed in Miami involving the illegal deals to manipulate the price of penny stocks.
“Investors deserve better than secret investment strategies based on kickbacks and bribes,” said Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, in a statement.
In the 11-page complaint, the SEC says Schroepfer, with the assistance of Fuentes, paid illegal kickbacks to the FBI agent, posing as a pension fund trustee, so the trustee would purchase 400,000 restricted shares of SmokeFree stock.
Schroepfer attempted to conceal the kickbacks through a consulting agreement with a phony company crated to receive the kickbacks, the SEC said.
Shares of SmokeFree Innotec were trading at 3 cents before the charges were announced, but finished trading Thursday at 1 cent a share on the OTC Market Pink Sheets.
