Matt Spillane

mspillane@lohud.com

A Putnam Valley man has been accused of running a $17 million"pump-and-dump" stock scam, officials said.

Guy Gentile, 39, is facing federal counts of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud. He was indicted by a New Jersey grand jury on March 23, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman's office said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said it filed a civil complaint against Gentile the same day.

Gentile was a Mahopac resident at the time of the scam, which involved two separate schemes between April 2007 and June 2008, according to the SEC's complaint.

Gentile is a registered broker-dealer in Carmel, and he has been the principal of multiple securities-related businesses, including a Bahamas-based online brokerage firm that he opened in 2011, the SEC said.

According to Fishman's office, Gentile and two Canadian stock promoters, Itamar Cohen and Michael Taxon, artificially inflated the stock price of two publicly traded companies, Raven Gold Corporation and Kentucky USA Energy Inc.

Gentile, along with Cohen and Taxon, gained control over a substantial number of Raven Gold's and Kentucky USA Energy's free trading shares, according to the SEC. The trio then used manipulative trading and misleading promotional materials to pump up the price of those shares, which they encouraged others to purchase, officials said.

Once prices were beefed up, the trio dumped the stocks by selling many of them to investors, officials said. Raven Gold's and Kentucky USA Energy's stock prices then plummeted, causing investors to lose money and Gentile's crew to reap about $17.2 million in proceeds, officials said.

If found guilty, Gentile faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $5 million for the securities fraud charge, and an additional five years in prison and another fine for the conspiracy charge, officials said.

Cohen, 53, and Taxon, 52, each pleaded guilty in May 2015 to conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

Twitter: @MattSpillane