BOSTON – A securities trader pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston on Thursday to a charge of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
Securities is a general term for an investment and can include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and more.
Xiaosong Wang, 36, of Upton, initially charged in October 2019, agreed to forfeit $1,041,084 in proceeds from the conspiracy and agreed to removal from the United States to China when he completes his sentence.
According to federal prosecutors, from 2013 to at least 2018, Wang took part in the manipulative trading activity of a group of securities traders in China and Massachusetts. Along with a co-conspirator, Jiali Wang, Xiaosong used multiple brokerage accounts in both of their names and others they knew. They used the accounts to artificially depress or inflate the prices of thinly traded securities by repeatedly placing relatively small sell (or buy) orders designed to send a false signal about a security’s supply (or demand) and to depress (or inflate) the security’s price.
They then placed large orders to take advantage of their manipulations and cancelled their manipulative orders.
Jiali Wang pleaded guilty in August 2022 and was sentenced in December 2022 to time served, nine months of home detention, and agreed to forfeit $7.75 million in proceeds from the scheme.
The charge of conspiracy to commit securities fraud provides for a sentence of up to 25 years in prison, five years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss.
The judge scheduled sentencing for Dec. 17.
