Ready for His Close-up — Todd Eberhard, investment advisor and TV financial news personality, was sentenced to 13 years in the clink for stealing roughly $20 million from clients. Eberhard, 41, was a sometime commentator of CNN and CNNfn. Approximately 50 people entrusted Eberhard to oversee their investments. One victim lost not only her life savings, but also the insurance money she received in the wake of her sister's death in the World Trade Center attacks.
Pump n' Dumpers Get Served — Nearly a year after issuing an Investor Alert, the SEC finally collared the purveyors of a phony phone call stock-tip scam. The SEC filed a complaint against Michael O'Grady and two Georgia-based telemarketing companies, Telephone Broadcast Co. and Telephony Leasing Corp., alleging they were part of a scheme that enabled Houston-based stock promoters to make millions broadcasting “wrong number” touts of microcap stocks. Victims received messages on their voice mail from someone who seemed to have dialed the wrong number unknowingly. The caller then laid out the essentials of a hot stock tip. The scheme temporarily inflated the combined market cap of the stocks by $180 million.
