Phillip W. Offill, Jr. and Justin Wallace Herman, Securities and Wire Fraud, Virginia 2023

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Table of Contents

Defendants Guilty of Manipulating Penny-Stock Shares

Alexandria, VA – In a shocking case of financial deceit, two men have pleaded guilty to their involvement in a penny-stock manipulation scheme that duped investors out of $1.3 million.

Phillip W. Offill, Jr., 64, of Dallas, Texas, and Justin Wallace Herman, 52, of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, were charged with conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. Court documents reveal that the duo, along with others, conspired to misappropriate millions of shares of a publicly traded company with mining claims in Arizona and Idaho.

The defendants then marketed the shares through third-party call centers, making false statements to potential investors and artificially inflating the stock’s appearance of market activity. This scheme ultimately led to the loss of $1.3 million for unsuspecting investors.

Offill’s history of deceit is long-standing, having been convicted in 2010 for his role in multimillion-dollar pump-and-dump stock manipulation schemes. He served an eight-year prison sentence and was on supervised release when he committed the new offense.

Offill and Herman are set to be sentenced on June 21, 2023, and face a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison. However, actual sentences for federal crimes often fall short of the maximum penalties.

The guilty pleas were announced by U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr., and FBI Special Agent Wayne A. Jacobs following U.S. District Judge Rossie D. Alston, Jr.’s acceptance of the pleas.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Pedersen and Trial Attorneys Andrew Tyler and Amanda Fretto Lingwood are prosecuting the case.

A copy of the press release is available on the U.S. Attorney’s Office website for the Eastern District of Virginia, and related court documents can be found on the District Court website or by searching for Case No. 1:22-cr-152 on PACER.