February 14, 2017

The SEC charged California-based penny stock company Terminus Energy, Inc. and four of its corporate officers with misleading investors about the research, development, and profitability of their purported business to manufacture power generation products such as fuel cells.  The SEC alleges that while raising approximately $7.9 million from investors, Terminus and its officers claimed to have a viable prototype capable of being sold and earning revenue.  In fact, Terminus did not have the fuel cell technology or the funding to match their claims.  Rather, the officers were allegedly converting substantial amounts of investor funds to their own use.  According to the SEC’s complaint, the company failed to disclose to investors that Terminus’ operations manager George Doumanis is a convicted felon who went to prison for securities fraud and was secretly acting as an officer of the company despite being barred from participating in penny stock offerings.  In addition, Emanuel Pantelakis served on the Terminus board of directors despite having been permanently barred by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.  Also charged are Terminus’ CEO Danny B. Pratte and its former president, director, and legal counsel Joseph L. Pittera.  Terminus also allegedly used unregistered brokers to sell its securities and paid them more than twice as much in commissions as was disclosed to investors in offering documents.  Joseph Alborano is charged with soliciting and selling investments for which he received more than $1 million in commissions.  SEC

Tagged in: Misrepresentations, Securities Fraud,