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Lawrence Isen, age 69, of California, was sentenced to five years behind bars in federal court in Central Islip Friday, Jan. 6.
It followed his March 2020 jury conviction on multiple charges, including conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and money laundering.
Federal prosecutors said between 2014 and 2016, Isen and others worked with a Melville-based “boiler room” to artificially inflate the price and trading volume of stock in struggling companies with poor prospects.
They then offloaded the stock onto unsuspecting victims, many of them elderly and vulnerable, according to prosecutors.
Islen was accused of colluding with “crooked” investors, both in the United States and overseas, to dump large volumes of shares in Hyrdrocarb Energy Corporation and Intelligent Content Enterprises.
According to prosecutors, he had been barred from acting as a broker in 1996 and was later convicted of wire fraud conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the Southern District of New York in 2000.
As part of the scheme, Isen connected investors with the Melville-based boiler room, which used lies and high-pressure sales tactics to lure victims.
He also transferred money and stock required by the boiler room for the campaigns and created fraudulent stock purchase agreements, consulting agreements, and invoices in an effort to conceal the illegal conduct, prosecutors said.
Altogether, federal prosecutors said the group’s market manipulation inflated the stock price of five companies by more than $147 million.
“Lawrence Isen and his co-conspirators used their skills to steal precious savings from elderly, hard-working people all over the country,” US Attorney Breon Peace said.
“Today’s sentence should serve as yet another reminder to fraudsters who prey on the vulnerable that this Office will hold them accountable for the damage they cause to the security and well-being of so many.”
All 16 defendants charged in the case have been convicted.
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