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by Mike Caswell

Prosecutors in Boston have asked a judge to impose a one-year sentence on Steve Bajic, the Vancouver man charged for pump-and-dump schemes that generated $35-million in gains. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) They say that Mr. Bajic "made a series of conscious, fraudulent choices" over a period of five years as he helped numerous pump-and-dumps. He allowed hidden insiders to unload their shares while he received a portion of the proceeds, according to the government.

The proposed sentence for Mr. Bajic is set out in a memorandum that prosecutors filed on Wednesday, Sept. 10, in federal court in Boston. In addition to one year of incarceration, prosecutors are asking that the judge impose an $837,834 forfeiture order. Once Mr. Bajic has completed his jail term, there will be no period of supervised release, as he lives in Canada.

In seeking the one-year jail term, prosecutors cite Mr. Bajic's use of offshore companies, including several in the Seychelles, that he personally owned and controlled. He used those entities to receive tradable shares, distributing the shares in a manner that hid the fact that a single insider was behind the holdings, according to the memorandum. Those shares were later sold as promotional campaigns and boiler room operations boosted the underlying companies, prosecutors say.

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