THE box office success of Leonardo DiCaprio’s The Wolf of Wall Street has again flagged the risk of pump-and-dump scams fleecing investors.A few such schemes have hit the headlines globally this year.In January, a US court jailed 61-year-old David Levy for nine years for running a $20-million (about R210-million) business to manipulate the share price of small companies he helped list on the stock exchange.Levy and his wife would evidently put out inaccurate press releases about companies they helped list to boost their share prices while they were dumping shares in the market.Earlier this year, the US Securities and Exchange Commission laid a complaint against John Babikian, a 26-year-old who used an e-mail list called “Awesomepennystocks” to punt the shares of companies to drive their share prices higher by as much as $3-billion, while he was busy flogging the shares.The story of The Wolf of Wall Street is based on truth, relaying the yarn of how drug-infused rogue investor Jordan...
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