LOS ANGELES- Exotics.com, Inc., an online adult classified ad service that features escorts and modeling in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Toronto, Seattle, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., as well as other metropolitan areas, announced that it filed a complaint against Knight Securities, Inc., Red Rock, LLC, Ladenburg Thalmann & Co., its CEO Howard Lorber, Warren Lichtenstein and others in the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Exotics.com is seeking over $100,000,000 in damages and is represented by the law firms of O’Quinn, Laminack & Pirtle, Christian Smith & Jewell, and Heard, Robins, Cloud, Lubel & Greenwood, LLP, all of Houston, Texas and the Siegler Law Group, Inc, of Beverly Hills, California. Attorney Wes Christian commented: “Ladenburg, one of the oldest investment banks in the world, is also a defendant in several cases in New York and other jurisdictions brought by small to mid-size public companies which haveallegedly been destroyed by this same scheme.” The complaint also alleges that Howard Lorber, CEO of Ladenburg, is a participant and major conspirator in the stock manipulation scheme. The complaint alleges a pattern whereby in the 5 or 6 month period after associating with Ladenburg, Exotics.com’s stock price was manipulated downward by naked short selling and wash sales by broker dealers named as defendants.
As described in the complaint, when naked short selling, even in mass quantities, is no longer producing enough profit, the Defendant broker dealers begin to “pump the stock”, manipulating the price of the stock upward throughtrades between themselves. This intentional inflation of the stock price, the complaint states, lures innocent purchasers into the market only to fall victim to the “dumping side” of the price manipulation. The complaint allegesthat the manipulators obtain huge profits which are secreted to offshore accounts. The complaint further alleges that Scott London is one of the main links between the Red Rock Defendants, the broker dealer Defendants and the licensee Defendants because he is an owner of NY-Exotics which is a licensee ofExotics.com, an owner of Red Rock and an affiliate and business partner of the broker dealer Defendants.
Ingo Mueller, CEO of Exotics.com, stated: “We want to make sure that the parties found responsible are punished for the harm they caused our company and shareholders, and are prevented from doing the same to others.” Leadattorney John O’Quinn commented: “Entrepreneurship is the cornerstone of opportunity and the American ideal. We will vigorously pursue justice for Exotics.com and its shareholders.”