Stock promoter sentenced to two years in jail for pump-and-dump scheme

CALGARY – An Alberta court has sentenced Caroline Meyers to two years in prison for her role in a 2010 stock promotion fraud that saw investors lose millions.

Meyers becomes the second person to be sentenced in Alberta in the so-called pump-and-dump scheme and the first to receive jail time. Her co-accused, Joseph Bucci, was given an 18-month conditional sentence last year.

The two were convicted of helping push a shell company called Coastal Pacific Mining Corp. into a roughly $30 million stock in 2010 before it crashed and became almost worthless.

Meyers, who has also gone by the last names Winsor, Danforth, and Winsor-Meyers, pled guilty late last year to acting as a dealer of securities without registration, not filing a prospectus and engaging conduct that resulted in a false appearance of trading activity and an artificial price for Coastal Pacific securities.

The Alberta Securities Commission said Meyers only recently returned to Canada from the United States, where she had spent time in jail for unrelated securities fraud.

The commission said penny stock fraud is a serious and growing problem in North America that’s undermines the integrity of capital markets.