Litigation Release No. 17616 / July 16, 2002
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Camilo Pereira a/k/a Camilo Agasim-Pereira, Civil Action No. 02-22058-CIV-MORENO/GARBER (S.D. Florida, filed July 15, 2002)
The Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") announced that it filed a federal civil action charging Camilo Pereira a/k/a Camilo Agasim-Pereira ("Pereira"), former chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors of Quest Net Corp., with securities fraud for his alleged "pump and dump" scheme involving Quest Net's common stock.
The complaint alleges that from July 1998 to April 1999, Pereira, age 42 and former resident of North Miami Beach, Florida, caused Quest Net to issue a series of fraudulent press releases to the public in an effort to manipulate the price of Quest Net's stock. Specifically, the complaint alleges that Pereira was responsible for approving and disseminating press releases that misrepresented that Quest Net had acquired its first wireless client, that it had purchased certain assets totaling $2 million from a foreign company and that it had purchased an e-commerce company. According to the complaint, Pereira was also responsible for issuing press releases and for making statements during an online interview that contained material omissions regarding Quest Net's financial condition.
The complaint alleges that the price of Quest Net's stock was inflated to artificially inflated levels as a result of at least some of these false press releases. According to the complaint, during the course of this manipulation, Pereira illegally sold approximately 215,000 shares of Quest Net's stock through nominee accounts and reaped proceeds of more than $2.0 million.
The Commission's complaint alleges that as a result of the conduct described above, Pereira committed securities fraud in violation of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Commission seeks a permanent injunction, an officer and director bar, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest and the imposition of a civil money penalty against Pereira.
 | SEC Complaint in this matter. |