Wang Jiali, a Chinese citizen living in the greater Boston metropolitan area, was tried for multi-year stock market manipulation conspiracy by U.S. District Court for Massachusetts on Dec. 1.
Wang was accused of leading and participating “in a sophisticated market manipulation scheme aimed at the U.S. securities markets that was perpetrated primarily from China,” which illegally made more than $30 million on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.
Wang was sentenced to 3.5 months in prison, nine months of home detention, and $7.75 million in forfeiture.
From 2013 to 2018, Wang and co-conspirators manipulated the trading of listed U.S. companies, according to the Massachusetts District Attorney’s Office. Using multiple brokerage account names, they artificially depressed or inflated the prices of “light-traded stocks”—stocks that trade in low volume, are highly volatile, and are extremely sensitive to market buying and selling behavior—making them vulnerable to group manipulation. “The scheme tricked institutions providing market liquidity to trade at artificial prices,” said the District Attorney’s Office. Wang made illegal profits by manipulating market prices….