U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 23985 / November 13, 2017
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Michael Quigley et al., No. 17-cv-4695 (E.D.N.Y. filed August 10, 2017)
SEC Obtains Judgment against Defendant Charged with Conducting an Offering Fraud
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York has entered a final judgment against defendant Brian Quigley, who was charged in the case with conducting an offering fraud together with his brother, defendant Michael Quigley.
According to the SEC's complaint, Michael Quigley and Brian Quigley convinced overseas investors to send money to U.S. bank accounts for purported investments in various securities, including well-known issuers, investment funds and penny stock companies, and claimed to be associated with entities that did not in fact exist, including fictional broker-dealers. The SEC alleged that the Quigleys did not make any investments with the money, and instead simply stole the investors' funds. According to the complaint, they used various methods to continue to defraud investors after their initial investments, including sending phony account statements, using a fake firm name similar to the name of an existing firm, making up numerous phony excuses for their failure to return funds, manufacturing stock certificates, falsely claiming on various occasions to be helping the investor recover previous losses, and requiring payment of bogus transfer agent fees purportedly to obtain the investors' stock certificates.
The SEC's complaint, filed on August 10, 2017, charged Michael Quigley and Brian Quigley with violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. Without admitting or denying the allegations in the SEC's complaint, Brian Quigley consented to the entry of the final judgment imposing a permanent injunction and penny stock bar. The SEC's case against Michael Quigley, in which the SEC seeks a permanent injunction, penny stock bar, civil penalties, and disgorgement plus interest, is ongoing.
Michael and Brian Quigley's brother, William Quigley, was also involved in the fraud and set up some of the accounts into which investors wired money that was stolen by the Quigleys. On March 24, 2017, the Commission entered an order, with William Quigley's consent, directing him to cease and desist from committing or causing the violations found in the order, imposing securities industry and penny stock bars, and ordering disgorgement in the amount of $356,891, deemed satisfied by a forfeiture order in a parallel criminal case in which William Quigley pled guilty to criminal charges based upon the same conduct.
For additional information, see Litigation Release No. 23908 (August 16, 2017) and Securities Act Release No. 33-10327 (March 24, 2017).