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by Mike Caswell

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has asked a federal judge in California to permanently ban Andrew Hackett, a Toronto man jailed in the United States for a pump-and-dump on the OTC Markets. Prosecutors claimed that he ran a scheme to boost Arias Intel Corp., a supposed social media listing, though phone rooms and manipulative trades. Unfortunately for Mr. Hackett, one of those included in the scheme was co-operating with the FBI.

The proposed ban is a footnote to a case in which Mr. Hackett received four years in prison for the Arias Intel scheme. The evidence at Mr. Hackett's trial included testimony of a boiler room operator as well as text messages in which he and others agreed on a target price for Arias Intel. A California jury convicted him on Aug. 2, 2021, following a five-day trial, and the judge handed down the four-year jail term. He has since filed an appeal, and says that there is new evidence that could clear his name, but so far his conviction stands.

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