By Chad Bray Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- A Queens stock promoter pleaded guilty Monday in a kickback scheme designed to manipulate the penny stock of a Nevada mineral exploration company, prosecutors said.
In a statement, the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan said Jason Jadidian, 24 years old, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit commercial bribery at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson in Manhattan on Wednesday.
Jadidian, of Forest Hills, N.Y., faces up to five years in prison on the charge. Jadidian was arrested on the charge in September.
A lawyer for Jadidian didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Jadidian is one of nine persons who have been charged criminally in a wide-ranging undercover probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation into kickbacks by stock promoters.
Prosecutors had alleged that Jadidian, in conversations with an undercover FBI agent, agreed to pay a cash bribe to stock brokers to buy shares of Tecton Corp. (TTNC) in accounts over which the brokers had discretion. The FBI agent was posing as a middleman representing the stock brokers.
Jadidian allegedly told the FBI agent in April that he would pay a 30% kickback to the undercover agent and the brokers he represented in exchange for their purchase of shares, the government.
Tecton is a Carson City, Nev., uranium exploration company whose stock is traded on the over-the-counter bulletin board.
The SEC separately filed civil charges against Jadidian in September.
-By Chad Bray, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-227-2017; chad.bray@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 12, 2008 17:54 ET (22:54 GMT)

Publié le 12 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones