
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 1, 1995                   TAG: 9511010070
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

SEC CHARGES 10 WITH RUNNING FRAUD FROM FEDERAL PRISON

Being locked up in federal prison didn't stop a fraud ringleader from duping about 300 investors into buying more than $1 million of worthless stock, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Tuesday.

Anthony Sarivola ran the stock-fraud scheme for four months while jailed for an unrelated conviction at Allenwood Federal Prison in Pennsylvania, the federal watchdog agency alleged in a civil complaint filed in federal court.

While behind bars, Sarivola even bilked a fellow inmate of at least $170,000 by selling him the shares in ``shell'' companies with no real businesses, authorities charged.

Sarivola pleaded guilty to related criminal charges in September and was being held pending sentencing. A reputed mobster, he was described in a Village Voice article in December as a former Mafia enforcer nicknamed ``Tony Limo'' who became an FBI informant and eventually a millionaire.

The case is the latest alleging a securities fraud scheme run from jail. Two weeks ago, a prison inmate and a corrections officer were charged with using a cellular phone from a Colorado prison to dupe a Japanese brokerage firm out of thousands of dollars.

Sarivola and nine others, including two stockbrokers, were accused of inflating the underlying value of six companies they controlled by more than $60 million from October 1991 to July 1992. Actually, the companies never had assets of more than $400,000, including proceeds from ill-gotten gains, authorities alleged.

Authorities said the scheme began in October 1991 when Sarivola bought one of the shell companies, Leona Enterprises Inc., and concealed his control of it.

He and other parties to the fraud began peddling stocks of Leona and four other companies he controlled, saying their assets were worth tens of millions of dollars.

Two stockbrokers charged in the scheme, Michelle P. Suppes and Mark Anthony, allegedly spread phony information about the stocks through Suppes' securities firm in exchange for kickbacks.

As a result of the fraud, an unidentified broker-dealer lost $350,000, the SEC said. Sarivola and other defendants made more than $1.5 million.

by CNB