A former UCLA student accused of sending false messages about
stocks over the Internet in order to profit from buying or selling
sprees that followed was ordered to pay the government more than
$500,000, federal regulators said Tuesday.
The Securities and Exchange Commission contends that Refael
Shaoulian, 26, manipulated the price of five stocks while he was a
student at UCLA. Shaoulian created false online identities on
university computers then posted hundreds of false messages about
the stocks on Internet bulletin boards and chat rooms, the SEC
said.
According to the UCLA Alumni Association, Shaoulian received an
undergraduate degree in sociology in 1999.
Shaoulian pocketed more than $410,000 from the stock sales,
money he spread among 21 bank and brokerage accounts he controlled
along with his father, Samuel Shaoulian, and brother, Rabin
Shaoulian, the SEC said.
U.S. District Court Judge Consuelo B. Marshall ordered the
Shaoulians to pay the government $534,408.72, including $114,297.38
in interest and a $10,000 civil penalty against Refael
Shaoulian.
Marshall rejected the Shaoulians’ request for the judgment
amount to be reduced by the amount of income taxes they had paid on
their stock sales and by the decline in value their assets suffered
while frozen.
No number was listed for Refael Shaoulian. A phone number for a
Samuel Shaoulian of Los Angeles was unlisted. A message left at the
home of Rabin Shaoulian was not returned Tuesday.
With reports from Colleen Honigsberg, Daily Bruin
Contributor.