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U.K. Brokerage Charged With Stock Manipulation After FBI Sting

U.K. Brokerage Charged With Stock Manipulation After FBI Sting

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. authorities charged a U.K. brokerage with criminal fraud for allegedly helping an undercover FBI agent manipulate shares of a penny stock.

Beaufort Securities and one of its investment managers, Peter Kyriacou, allegedly helped conceal the undercover agent’s ownership in a penny stock company whose price they planned to pump up with fake promotions, according to the Justice Department.

Executives of the company involved, HD View 360 Inc., were separately accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of participating in the scheme. Dennis Mancino, HD View 360’s chief executive officer, agreed to help manipulate the company’s stock in return for a kickback from the trading proceeds, the SEC said in a Friday statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Matt Robinson in New York at mrobinson55@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jesse Westbrook at jwestbrook1@bloomberg.net.

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