ALEXANDRIA,
Operating with co-defendant Lawrence Kaplan, Paloma gained control of seven small companies by fraudulently promising to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for them, the SEC says. He and Kaplan illegally arranged straw men to buy and sell shares on the Pink Sheets, "including wash sales and matched orders," which inflated the share price, the SEC says. He gave Kaplan hundreds of thousands of shares, pumped prices through "blast fax and spam email" and then both men dumped their shares, the SEC says. Paloma, 47, lives in Sign up for the Top 8, a roundup of the day's top stories delivered directly to your inbox Monday through Friday.Read the Top 8