Securities Fraud, Recidivism, and Deterrence

By Jayne W. Barnard113 Penn St. L. Rev 189.

Legal scholars have expended considerable energy on the study of high-level securities fraud violators-Ken Lay, Bernie Ebbers, Dennis Kozlowski, etc.  There has been little attention, however, to the perpetrators of “retail” securities fraud-the con artists who sell bogus stock over the Internet, orchestrate elaborate pump-and-dump schemes, and create a never-ending array of purportedly “risk free” investment opportunities.

In this article, Professor Barnard examines this group of offenders, focusing particularly on those who recidivate-often moving from state to state and scheme to scheme, with little interruption from the law enforcement community . . . [keep reading]