The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Florida-based International Stock Transfer Inc and its owner, Cecil Franklin Speight, with defrauding investors by using high-pressure tactics to sell worthless securities, promising high returns or discounted prices.
The SEC alleges that Speight and IST, which was a securities registered transfer agent, created and issued fake securities certificates to both U.S. and international investors. “Speight and IST, together with other individuals, took more than $3.3 million from over 70 investors who were lured by aggressive boiler room tactics and a web of fake investment firms and websites promising high rates of return and discounted stock prices,” the SEC complaint reads. “After taking their money, the Defendants issued the investors counterfeit securities that—although they had all the indicia of real securities, including real CUSIP numbers and IST’s signature block—were in fact sham securities and not worth the paper they were printed on.”
