News Story

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that on October 25, 2009, it filed an emergency enforcement action against Thompson Price Holding Inc. to halt an ongoing fraudulent stock offering.

The Commission's complaint alleges that Defendants defrauded unsuspecting investors in the United States (many of whom are senior citizens) by inducing investors to send checks purportedly for the purchase of shares in the initial public offerings of several Australian companies. Thompson Price's president, Lukovic, using the alias "Greg Thompson," made false and misleading statements to prospective investors, including that: (i) Thompson Price had received an "allocation" of shares in the IPOs; and (ii) Thompson Price would use investors' funds to purchase IPO stock.

In fact, each of these representations was false and misleading. Thompson Price was not an underwriter or a broker-dealer. It had no affiliation with any of the Australian companies or their underwriters. It never received any allocation of stock from those IPOs. And most important, the Defendants did not purchase IPO stock with the investors' money, but instead misappropriated the money for their own use. Defendants induced at least ten investors to send investment checks worth at least $107,730.

The Court granted, among other emergency relief, a temporary restraining order, which prohibits Defendants from committing further violations of the federal securities laws and freezes the their assets.