A Palo Alto man has been charged by the SEC with defrauding clients out of $900,000 by selling stocks twice, the SEC said Wednesday.
Vinay Kumar Nevatia, who was the owner of several now-defunct investment vehicles, sold shares in a privately held information technology company, CSS Corp. Technologies Limited to two sets of investors, the SEC says.
He deceived the buyers into believing that he owned the shares, orchestrated a series of secret wire transfers and induced the stock transfer agent into recording his fraudulent sales. He stole the money he obtained and used it for his own purposes, according to the SEC. The SEC complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
He has never been registered with the SEC nor licensed to trade securities. The SEC’s complaint seeks permanent injunctions, the return of ill-gotten gains and a financial penalty.