California lawyer charged in Boston stock case

A California attorney has become yet the latest person charged in a stock scam case that partly involves a shell company secretly controlled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Richard Weed, an attorney in Newport Beach, Calif., was indicted on multiple counts of securities and wire fraud for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to sell unauthorized over-the-counter stocks and cover up a pump-and-dump stock schemes.

In a filing at the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, federal officials charge that Weed regularly conspired to conceal the true ownership and intent of a publicly traded Nevada company that went under the various names of CitySide, Causeway and UBEX.

And he's charged with similar fraud activities involving a company called Amogear Inc., a purported Boston-based sports apparel firm that was actually owned and controlled by the FBI through an unnamed co-conspirator. From September 2013 through February 2014, an undercover FBI agent even served as Amogear's chief executive officer, according today's indictment filing.

The undercover operation allowed the FBI to have a bird's-eye view of the sometimes-shady world of over-the-counter stocks.

Last summer, federal officials announced charges against two South Carolina stock promoters for running a stock scam, also around the FBI's Amogear shell company, as part of an overall operation called "Operation Pennypincher."