Earlier this week, Christopher R. Esposito, a 57-year-old former Everett resident, was sentenced to five years of probation, three of which are to be served at a halfway house, for his involvement in a security fraud case. He had pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud in April 2023, related to Massachusetts company Cannabiz Mobile, Inc. This information is according to the United States Department of Justice. His co-conspirator, Anthony Jay Pignatello confessed to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud in March 2021 and his sentencing is to take place on December 12, 2023.
From the years between 2012 and 2015, Esposito and Pignatello organized behind-the-scenes control over Cannabiz Mobile. They manipulated backdated promissory notes to obtain free-trading shares in the company fraudulently. Additionally, Esposito arranged for an individual to be placed as the chairman, president, and CEO of the company to continue reporting to him. In October 2014, they coordinated a promotional campaign to falsely inflate the stock value and trading volume of Cannabiz Mobile, then sold their shares.
The court has ordered Esposito to pay $20,294 in penalties due to the fraudulent pump-and-dump of Cannabiz Mobile. He also has to pay restitution of $61,693.50 to investors who lost money in a separate operation involving company Code2Action, Inc. Investors were told the company was going to go public via a reverse merger, between August 2019 and February 2020. The reverse merger never happened, which led to financial loss for the investors.
