Earlier this week, the SEC filed an emergency enforcement action against One Wall Street and its proprietors to stop a bogus offering of its stock. Like many fraud cases the Commission has brought in recent months, the scam targeted senior citizens.

According to its complaint One Wall Street raised more than $1.6 million from at least 64 investors from March 2003 until the present.

The defendants, who include Donte C. Jarvis, Alan Brown, Willis "Bill" White III, and Cecil Baptiste a/k/a John Latorri allegedly sold unregistered One Wall Street stock using misleading oral and written statements about the stock

Among other fibs, they told would-be investors that One Wall Street was on the verge of an initial public offering. They also claimed that E*TRADE Financial Corporation was in talks to buy the firm. And they also told investors that One Wall Street would use the investors’ assets to increase the public exposure of the company, to buy distressed financial research companies, to take larger steps into international markets, and also to further develop the company's information technology infrastructure.

But according to the Commission, the defendants never took steps toward launching an IPO of One Wall Street stock. And E*Trade never called One Wall Street about a deal. And the firm never used investor proceeds to build their business as they promised investors they would.

Instead, Jarvis used the proceeds from the sales of the unregistered stock to pay personal expenses. And those went beyond just the electricity bill, including jewelry purchases, gambling losses as well as "adult entertainment" services. He also used investor assets to pay for child day care, car loans and mortgages. He also gave at least $166,000 of investor funds to his wife, Hatter, which earned her a spot on the docket as a relief defendant. In addition, Jarvis gave money to the other defendants named in the SEC case.

As a firm, One Wall Street claimed to have offices in Fort Lee, New Jersey, Chicago, Illinois, and Atlanta, Georgia, according to the SEC. But on July 7 of this year, the firm closed its office in Hicksville, New York, to move less than one mile to a new office in the same town.

The SEC claims that Jarvis continues to use the assets from the sale of One Wall Street stock as “a personal piggy bank,” to use the regulator’s term. And the scam continued through this year, raising at least additional $533,000 in the first seven months of 2006. That’s why it filed the emergency enforcement action. The action charges Jarvis and the other defendants with violating the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

The Commission is seeking temporary restraining orders that prohibit the defendants from any further violations of the federal securities laws. It is also aiming to freeze their assets. In addition to the emergency relief the Commission is after, it is also seeking the disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and civil monetary penalties.

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