United States v. Bryan Laurienti

Defendant-appellant, Bryan Laurienti, appeals the district court’s order sentencing him to thirty-six months’ imprisonment and three years’ supervised release. A jury convicted Laurienti of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 , and two counts of securities fraud by use of manipulative and deceptive devices in violation of 15 U.S.C. §§ 78j(b), 78ff, and 17 C.F.R. § 240 .10b-5 (Rule 10b-5). For the following reasons, we affirm.

I. Factual Background

Laurienti worked as a stock broker at Hampton Porter, an investment firm in San Diego. The firm began selling extremely cheap and thinly-traded securities. The firm obtained the securities and aggressively stimulated a market for them by promoting them to clients and later dissuading clients from reselling. The firm, and several individuals, bought the securities in their own names at the lower price and later resold their shares at the higher, artificial price they had generated.

The firm did not allow its brokers, including Laurienti, to sell a client’s securities while the firm continued promoting them unless the brokers could find another buyer to offset the sale. If the broker failed to…