SEC Drops $17M Penalty In Case Against Former Informer

PUTNAM COUNTY, NY — The Securities and Exchange Commission filed court documents Friday dropping part of its case against Putnam broker Guy Gentile, the New York Post reports. But they are still chasing their one-time informer, though Gentile keeps winning.

He got the criminal case against him dismissed in January.

Now the SEC has dropped its demand for $17 million, after Gentile's lawyer pointed out that the Supreme Court had set a five-year statute of limitations for disgorgement.

"The SEC was forced to drop its baseless assertions, after Kokesh, that disgorgement was not a penalty," Gentile told Patch. "It was forced to let go that I am responsible for conduct of Gottbetter and DelPresto that resulted in their guilty pleas.

"Instead, the SEC erroneously now claims I admitted guilt right after my arrest to the DOJ who was unable to prove I committed any wrongdoing. An assertion by an AUSA in a motion is hearsay, especially when that AUSA wasn't present in the meeting he's referring too."

Gentile, 41, a Putnam Valley resident with a broker-dealer business in the Bahamas, has been dubbed a "rogue informant" by the New York Post.

In 2016 the SEC alleged that he engaged in manipulative trading, provided illegal kick-backs, and distributed promotional materials — with fake publication names like "Stock Trend Report" and "Global Investor Watch" — all in order to tout the stocks of purported gold and silver exploration company Raven Gold Corporation (RVNG) and natural gas production company Kentucky USA Energy (KYUS).

In reality, Gentile said, he had under duress been working with the Department of Justice for three years and had helped them with many convictions. But then he told them in 2016 he was going to stop being a cooperating witness.

That's when the feds indicted him.

Gentile was accused of perpetrating penny stock manipulation schemes. Pumping up the prices of stocks in the two companies and then selling them to investors generated $17.2 million in gross trading proceeds for Gentile and his associates, according to Bloomberg.com in March 2016.

The SEC dropped the criminal case in January. Now they've dropped the demand that Gentile forfeit $17 million.

But they're still in court trying to bar the broker from the securities business.

"This conduct by the SEC belies the truth that I worked for them for three years, conducted countless meetings with them about my work for them, but now they try to paint me as guilty to try and get their way?" Gentile said to Patch in an email. "When respect is earned, I am the first to bestow it; I have been a sworn law enforcement officer, I have family and friends in law enforcement. In fact, I worked with stellar results with the foremost law enforcement agency in this country, the FBI, as does the SEC.

"What I do not respect is a trampling of my Constitutional rights. I do not respect officers of the law, attorneys included, who twist and turn the law against the truth. I do not respect government representatives who severely lack integrity. It is against this that I fight for my rights as an American, to be free from unwarranted intrusions of the government into my life. I just want to live my life unmolested by the Government."

SEE: Former Informer Accuses SEC of Fraud, Witch Hunt