The SEC alleges that RVPlus Inc. CEO Cary Lee Peterson made bogus claims in the company’s public filings and in statements to private investors, and that he and RVPlus participated in an unlawful distribution of RVPlus’s stock. The SEC temporarily suspended trading in RVPlus securities in July 2013, citing “material deficiencies” in the company’s financial statements.“We allege that Peterson inflated RVPlus’s finances and expected profitability,” said Andrew M. Calamari, Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office. “We also allege that using a pseudonym, he posted hundreds of messages to an online investors’ forum calling RVPlus stock ‘undervalued,” and urging investors to ‘buy up as much as possible.’”
In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey today announced criminal charges against Peterson.
According to the SEC’s complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey:
- Starting in May 2012, Peterson filed periodic reports with the SEC claiming that RVPlus had a lucrative relationship with the United Nations and clean energy agreements with governmental bodies in Nigeria, Haiti, and Liberia worth $2.8 billion. RVPlus had no relationship with the U.N. and the contracts were fictitious.
- Peterson repeatedly claimed in RVPlus’s SEC filings that RVPlus had issued invoices and was owed millions of dollars in accounts receivable on the bogus contracts.
- RVPlus and Peterson gained control of more than 90 percent of RVPlus’s free trading shares and gave them to individuals who unlawfully sold them into the market.
SEC Press Release
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