Shane Whittle who had been running the company is built on the name of the late reggae star Bob Marley has been charged in the US with running a stock scheme that netted US$78 million in illegal trading profits.
According to RJR News the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed fraud charges on Tuesday against Shane Whittle, the former CEO of Jammin’ Java Corporation, a company he co-founded in Los Angeles with Rohan Marley, the late singer’s son.
Marley, who is still involved with the company, was not accused of any wrongdoing.
According to the report Whittle helped by eight outside accomplices, illegally profited by secretly taking control of millions of shares of Jammin’ Java, inflating their value and later dumping them on unsuspecting investors.
It further continue that the scheme allegedly involved setting up a front company to make it appear that Jammin’ Java had a financial backer and making various promotional announcements that helped boost the share price.
The alleged accomplices , none of who are affiliated with the company, are accused of various promotional activities, including publishing false stock reports and facilitating illegal stock transactions through offshore holding companies.
The company was founded in 2008.The alleged illegal activities occurred in 2010 and 2011.
