Guy Gentile, the owner of a New York broker-dealer, has been charged with fraudulently inflating the price of two micro-cap stocks before selling them to investors, creating $17.2 million in gross trading proceeds. Gentile was indicted in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, where a pair of stock promoters from Canada pleaded guilty last year for their role in the pump-and-dump scheme, according to U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.

Gentile and his accomplices purchased shares of Raven Gold Corp. and Kentucky USA Energy Inc. between April 2007 and June 2008. They then inflated the shares through manipulative trading and misleading promotional materials, said Fishman.

Gentile, who lives in Putnam Valley, New York, owns a broker-dealer in Carmel, New York, according to the indictment. He has been charged with securities fraud, which has a maximum prison sentence of twenty years, as well as conspiracy to commit securities fraud in connection to the pump-and-dump scheme.

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