Mystery raider is a fake says SEC; launches prosecution

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is suing mysterious wannabe corporate raider and an entity he formed called Hollingsworth, Rothwell & Roxford (HRR) for allegedly making bogus buyout offers to pump up the stocks of several publicly traded companies.

Operating under the names of Theodore Roxford, alias David Niren, alias Theodore Vakil, alias Edward Pastorini, the SEC alleges, Roxford has been involved in manipulating prices through HRR in Sony Corp., Playboy Enterprises Inc. and an oil and gas company, Zapata Corp, founded by former President George Bush, father of the current US president.

The SEC says that HRR is shown as a partnership formed in January 2003 though Roxford is its sole owner.

Filed on 29 June in a federal court in Manhattan, the lawsuit says that Roxford and HRR made bogus offers to acquire companies and used the internet, press releases and even an SEC filing, in the case of Sony, to publicise those bids. The offers were originally made between 2003 and earlier this year.

In its lawsuit the SEC said, "Roxford''s intent in making the phony public tender offers was to manipulate the price of the target company''s stock by inducing investors to purchase the stock of the target company. Roxford and HRR did not intend to complete the offers and did not have the financial means to do so."