The Securities and Exchange Commissioner barred San Diego's Paul Thomas Rampoldi from acting as a broker, several months after Rampoldi's conviction in US District Court for the Southern District of California of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.
The Rampoldi conviction and bar relates to SEC's 2015 bar of Southern California brokers Chad Edward Wiegand and Akis Costas Eracleous, formerly of National Planning Corp. Wiegand and Eracleous were similarly accused of insider trading, earning $530,000 in illegal trading profits, which includes ill-gotten commissions.
Though Rampoldi's was most recently registered via FINRA with First Allied Securities of San Diego, the SEC order pertains to alleged insider trading involving Ardea Biosciences, Inc. securities while Rampoldi was associated with National Planning Corp, also of San Diego, similar to the Wiegand and Eracleous charges.
According to the findings, Rampoldi (CRD #2183491) participated in the insider trading scheme to profit in advance of two major announcements from the California-based company Ardea Biosciences, which had been acquired by pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca. A report on Rampoldi's conviction indicates that the insider information allegedly was leaked from Ardea by IT director Michael Fefferman to Wiegand, who shared the nonpublic intel with Eracleous, who in turn passed it on to Rampoldi and another person charged in the scheme, William Scott Blythe.
The SEC said that Rampoldi made approximately $90,000 in illicit profits by trading ahead of the announcements using nonpublic information. The order additionally bars Rampoldi from participating in any offering of a penny stock.
In 2000, Rampoldi settled with a customer who alleged that he misrepresented mutual funds; the SEC bar is Rampoldi's sixth disclosure.
If you have invested with Paul Thomas Rampoldi in Ardea Biosciences/AstraZeneca or with any other broker or financial adviser whose use of nonpublic and confidential information and associated illicit insider trading or other illegal activity has proven harmful to your investments or interests, please call The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates at (800) 699-1881 for investigation and consultation.