SEC Charges Penny Stock Company, CEO and Others with Multi-Million Dollar Fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced it charged an issuer, its CEO, and six other entities and individuals with participating in a penny stock fraud scheme. The SEC also charged certain of the participants with operating as unregistered dealers, and obtained emergency relief to halt their ongoing conduct. According to the SEC's complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, GPL Ventures purchased, since at least July 2017, more than 1.5 billion shares of HempAmericana Inc. stock through a Regulation A offering, with the understanding that HempAmericana would use a portion of the offering proceeds to secretly finance stock promotions that would enable GPL Ventures to sell its HempAmericana shares at a profit.