A West Hempstead-based lawyer was charged in a securities fraud case that has led the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida to convict six other alleged co-conspirators.
Mark Lubin was charged with a single count of conspiracy to unlawfully sell unregistered securities, Florida federal officials announced Wednesday. According to them, Lubin operated as a buyer, broker and attorney for various shell companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of an elaborate fraud scheme.
Prosecutors said Lubin helped to support the fraudulent schemes, at times issuing opinion letters that suggested shares of the shell companies were not owned by affiliates, making them available for public investment.
That was the case for Entertainment Art, which Lubin helped sell to one of the co-conspirators by creating fraudulent documents filed with the SEC, prosecutors say. The documents falsely represented the nature and control of the company's shares along with the terms of sale, prosecutors said.
While the co-conspirator who bought Entertainment Art was sentenced to federal prison on separate charges, Lubin allegedly worked with two other participants in the scheme to re-sell the company. The sale allowed for those involved to execute an alleged pump-and-dump scheme that saw them profit off shares that Lubin had inappropriately helped sell to the now-imprisoned co-conspirator and others.
Charles Ross of Charles A. Ross & Associates, who's representing Lubin, said that his client is "a wonderful man a great husband and father" and "is loved and adored by his community." He declined to address directly the government's charges against his client.