Clinton Greyling {X}
A Tamarac man was sentenced to one year of probation Wednesday for targeting retail investors in a scheme peddling securities that proved worthless, federal authorities said.
According to the Department of Justice, Clinton Greyling, the ex-president of now-defunct Trends Investments, helped an unregistered broker sell securities in exchange for that man receiving an undisclosed 40 percent commission.
In addition to probation, a judge ordered Greyling to perform 200 hours of community service and to forfeit $229,576, authorities said.
Greyling, who federal prosecutors charged in July, has pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting an unregistered broker.
He was the president of the now-shuttered Florida investment firm that sold securities of fledgling public penny stock companies – those with shares that trade for less than $5 – and which were also engaged in mergers.
Trends sold shares of several companies to retail investors throughout the U.S. from February 2017 to June 2019, with Greyling touting the companies as promising “because they were supposedly about to enter new and exciting business lines,” including therapeutic cannabinoids and blockchain technology, prosecutors said in a press release Thursday.
To sell the securities, Trends worked with Brandon Rossetti, who was formerly registered as a broker with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission but unregistered when he sold the securities, federal authorities said.
Rossetti solicited customers to buy shares by falsely holding himself out as a licensed broker and wealth manager, government records allege.
At Greyling’s direction, Trends paid Rossetti an undisclosed commission of approximately 40 percent, totaling more than $800,000 on over $1.9 million in sales, records show.
Greyling also helped Rossetti by providing information about the penny stock companies, including when the companies’ securities would purportedly begin active trading.
Trends, however, ultimately failed to deliver shares to customers on time, and the promised investment returns never materialized, prosecutors said.
Several other people were also involved in the investment scheme, according to SEC records.
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