MIAMI (CN) - A securities recidivist has been criminally charged with obstructing justice by lying to officials investigating his sales of real estate securities, the SEC said.
Robert J. Vitale, of Lauderdale by the Sea, lied under oath about a bank account in which he had deposited $100,000, under the name B.L. Inc., in the days before he testified to SEC investigators in June 2012, the SEC said.
The SEC in 2004 charged Vitale with running a pump-and-dump stock scam and he settled in 2006 and was barred from the brokerage. As is customary with the SEC, he did not have to admit he had done anything wrong.
Now he's been criminally charged with obstructing justice and lying to the SEC, the SEC said in a statement.
"According to the criminal information filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the SEC issued subpoenas to Vitale and his investment company Realty Acquisitions & Trust in order to identify investor funds and assets related to the securities offerings," the SEC said in the statement. "The SEC investigators subpoenaed Vitale for all related bank records and took his sworn testimony.
"The criminal information alleges that Vitale lied about the existence of two separate bank accounts that he did not disclose to the SEC. Specifically, Vitale deposited $100,000 into a bank account in Fort Lauderdale under the name of 'B.L. Inc.' in the days preceding his testimony to SEC investigators in June 2012. Vitale then did not disclose the existence of the account to the SEC when asked under oath."
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