United States v. Hanna

198 F. Supp. 2d 236, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7005, 2002 WL 628642
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedApril 22, 2002
DocketCR-01-076(S-2)(ADS)
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 198 F. Supp. 2d 236 (United States v. Hanna) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Hanna, 198 F. Supp. 2d 236, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7005, 2002 WL 628642 (E.D.N.Y. 2002).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

SPATT, District Judge.

This case involves charges against the defendants Mark Hanna (“M.Hanna”), Marshall Bernstein (“Bernstein”), Shane Ferras (“Ferras”), John Bosco (“J.Boseo”), Steven Arevalo (“Arevalo”), Antonio Bosco (“A.Bosco”), Christina Classie (“Classie”), Christopher Finkle (“Finkle”), Steven Hanna (“S.Hanna”), Paul Karkenny (“Karkenny”), Douglas Pollicino (“Pollici-no”), William Richmond (“Richmond”), Corey Rockafeler (“Rockafeler”), Raymond Saulon (“Saulon”), James Scott (“Scott”), Michael Spagnoli (“Spagnoli”) and Alan Steiner (“Steiner”) (collectively, the “defendants”). In particular, the Government alleges that the defendants participated in a scheme to defraud investors in the sale of securities.

Presently before the Court are pre-trial motions by the defendants made jointly and separately. The motions of the defendants involve five subjects: (1) dismissal of the indictment, counts of the indictment or language of the indictment; (2) severance; (3) disclosure of Brady, Giglio, 404(b) evidence, government informants and coconspirators, agent notes and other memoranda; (4) disclosure of the grand jury minutes; and (5) production of bills of particulars.

I. BACKGROUND

In July of 1992, HGI Incorporated (“HGI”) began operating as a registered securities broker-dealer. At HGI, M. Hanna was the secretary, chairman of the board and owner of about forty percent of the company. During its operation, HGI employed traders who purchaséd and sold securities on behalf of HGI’s own accounts and brokers who purchased and sold securities on behalf of HGI’s retail customers.

At HGI, Ferras was a broker, general securities principal and minority interest owner in the company. Arevalo, A. Bosco, Classie, Finkle, S. Hanna, Pollicino, Richmond, Rockafeler, Saulon, Scott, Spagnoli and Steiner were employed as brokers at HGI. J. Bosco and Karkenny allegedly held themselves out to investors as brokers at HGI, when in reality, this was not true.

In February of 1994, Maidstone Financial, Incorporated (“Maidstone”) began operating as a registered securities broker-dealer. At Maidstone, Bernstein was the chairman of the board, principal controlling officer and owner of about sixty percent of the company. Maidstone also employed traders and brokers in the same manner as HGI.

From February 9, 1994 to April 24, 1997, HGI, usually along with Maidstone, underwrote initial public offerings (“IPOs”) for the following corporations: (1) Modern Medical Modalities (“Modern Med”); (2) Tivoli Industries, Inc. (“Tivo-li”); (3) Sims Communications, Inc. (“Sims”); (4) Natural Health Trends Corporation (“Natural Health”); (5) International Cutlery, Ltd. (“Icut”); (6) Surge Components, Inc. (“Surge”); (7) Community Care Services, Inc. (“Community Care”) and (8) Univec, Inc. (“Univee”) (collectively, the “IPO Stocks”).

After the underwriting of the IPOs, HGI and Maidstone acted as “market makers” for the IPO Stocks. As “market makers”, HGI and Maidstone held themselves out to the public as ready, willing and able to buy and sell shares of the IPO Stock in subsequent transactions. Initially, HGI customers paid for their stock *241 investments by mailing checks directly to HGI or by mailing or wiring funds to Hanifen Imhoff Clearing Corporation (“Hanifen Imhoff’), HGI’s clearing agent. Maidstone customers generally paid for their stock investments by mailing checks directly to Maidstone. HGI and Maid-stone sent customers, among other things, trade confirmations and account statements by mail.

During their operation, HGI and Maid-stone also acquired other unspecified stock in bulk for resale to the public. The second superceding indictment S-2 (“Indictment S-2” or the “indictment”) refers to the stock acquired in bulk and the IPO Stock as the “House Stocks”. The National Association of Securities Dealers (“NASD”) approved the House Stocks for trading on the NASD Automated Quotation System Small Capitalization Market (“NASDAQ Small Cap. Market”).

Indictment S-2 alleges the following fraudulent acts with respect to the House Stocks and the IPO Stocks in particular. First, M. Hanna, Bernstein and other unnamed individuals created sham “lock up” agreements with respect to the IPO Stocks. Specifically, they required the initial investors (the “Lock-up Purchasers”) to enter into an agreement not to sell the securities, absent written consent of the underwriter, for a certain period of time after the IPO offering (the date when the security was first offered for public sale).

M. Hanna, Bernstein and other unnamed individuals then allegedly agreed with certain Lock-up Purchasers before the IPO offering that these purchasers, in exchange for money or kickbacks, would sell their securities to HGI or Maidstone immediately after the IPOs became effective without disclosing this information to the investing public. M. Hanna, Bernstein and other unnamed individuals further directed the Lock-up Purchasers to sell their securities to HGI or Maidstone at prices substantially below the prevailing price of the stock in the secondary market (referring to the trading in existing or outstanding securities on exchanges and over the counter markets) which enabled HGI to earn substantial profits at the expense of investors.

Second, the defendants, except M. Hanna and Bernstein, artificially inflated the demand for the House Stocks through fraudulent and deceptive sales practices with respect to public customers. In particular, they falsely convinced customers to invest money in the House Stocks stating: (1) a big news announcement was coming out; (2) the broker was privy to inside information; (3) baseless price predictions; and (4) positive information only. They also executed unauthorized purchases of the House Stocks in their customers’ accounts and then attempted to compel the customers to pay for the unauthorized purchases by persuading them that the House Stocks were a good investment.

In addition, they prevented the customers from selling the House Stocks by means of: (1) avoiding customer telephone calls; (2) transferring customer calls to another broker; (3) failing to write out a sell ticket; and (4) failing to provide the sell ticket to a trader for execution. Moreover, they allegedly refused to execute a customer’s order to sell the House Stocks unless the sale was “crossed” with a purchase of the same or similar amount of the House Stocks by another customer.

In June of 1997, HGI ceased operations. Most of the HGI brokers allegedly went to work at Maidstone to continue to trade in the House Stocks. In December of 1997, Maidstone ceased operations.

On February 15, 2001, the Government filed an indictment naming twenty-nine defendants in fifteen counts. Thereafter, the *242 Government filed a superceding indictment S-l (“Indictment S-l”) on November 30, 2001 naming twenty-one defendants in one hundred twenty-eight counts. On March 6, 2002, the Government filed Indictment S-2 naming the defendants in one hundred and nineteen counts.

Count one of Indictment S-2 alleges that between July of 1992 and March of 1998, the defendants engaged in a conspiracy to defraud investors in the sale of securities arising out of the operation of HGI and Maidstone.

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258 F. Supp. 2d 299 (S.D. New York, 2003)

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Bluebook (online)
198 F. Supp. 2d 236, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7005, 2002 WL 628642, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-hanna-nyed-2002.