Men Sentenced To Prison For $147M Stock Manipulation Scheme: DOJ

MELVILLE, NY — Two employees of a Melville-based fraudulent stock-trading company were sentenced to prison on Thursday for their roles in a $147 million stock manipulation scheme, the United States Department of Justice announced.

Ronald Hardy, a manager at Power Traders Press, My Street Research and earlier companies located in Melville, and Dennis Verderosa, a cold-caller and account executive at the business, tricked elderly investors into purchasing stocks at inflated prices.

Hardy, 42, of Port Jefferson, was sentenced to 10 years, while Verderosa, 67, of Coram, was sentenced to six.

Hardy was ordered to forfeit the contents of a bank account and two properties he owned in Sarasota, Florida, and Verderosa was ordered to pay $341,883 in forfeiture. The amount of restitution to be paid by the duo will be determined by the court at a later date.

Hardy pleaded guilty in August 2018 to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, substantive securities fraud and money laundering, and Verderosa pleaded guilty in April 2018 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

"Hardy and Verderosa have been punished for luring vulnerable victims, many of them in their 70s, 80s and 90s, into a web of lies in order to steal their life savings," said Richard P. Donoghue, United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, vowing to continue protecting investors from "calculating con-men."

Between January 2014 and July 2017, Hardy, Verderosa and 14 others participated in a scheme that defrauded investors in publicly traded companies by artificially inflating the price and trading volume of stock of the companies, and making misrepresentations while communicating with victim investors concerning the advisability of purchasing the stock and its potential profitability.

The schemers, some of whom controlled stock in the manipulated companies, profited while the victim investors lost millions of dollars when the stock prices plummeted.

Taped to the wall of the boiler room where the cold callers tricked their victims was a sign that read, "WE’LL POUND THE PHONE AND WITH A LITTLE BIT OF LUCK, WE’LL MAKE A TON OF MONEY AND WON’T GIVE A F---."

Ten others involved in the scheme already pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing, while four others are scheduled for trial.

Previously, Emin Cohen, 33, of Coram, was sentenced to two years in prison, and McArthur Jean, 34, of Dix Hills, received four years’ imprisonment for their roles in the scheme.