The chairman of a Boston-based biomedical company was arrested Monday on federal charges of conspiracy and fraud stemming from an alleged scheme to inflate the company’s stock prices, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz announced.
Endeavor Power Corp. Chairman Edward Withrow III, 51, of Malibu, Calif., was charged in U.S. District Court with one count of securities fraud, two counts of wire fraud, and two counts of making false statements. Another person involved with the company, Marco Babini, was charged with one count each of conspiracy and securities fraud, and two counts of wire fraud. Babini, 54, is at large and believed to live in Vancouver.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has also announced securities fraud charges against Withrow, Babini and Idaho stock promoter Samuel Brown. Withrow is further charged by the SEC with failure to disclose his stock holdings.
Withrow and Babini, the indictment alleges, worked to orchestrate a promotional campaign and engage in manipulative trading designed to boost investor interest, while concealing their own significant control of the company’s publicly traded stock.
The SEC stopped the scheme in 2013 when it suspended trading in Endeavor’s securities, after which Withrow lied under oath to SEC attorneys about his involvement, Ortiz said in a statement.
