Weymouth Man Sentenced for Market Manipulation Conspiracy

BOSTON – A Weymouth man was sentenced yesterday for his role in a sophisticated, multi-year market manipulation conspiracy involving securities traded on securities exchanges within the United States, including the New York Stock Exchange and NADSAQ.

Jiali Wang, 44, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge William G. Young to time served (three months in prison) and nine months of home detention. Wang was also ordered to forfeit $7.75 million in illicit proceeds. On Aug. 5, 2022, Wang pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. 

From approximately 2013 through at least 2018, Wang participated in the manipulative trading activity of a group of securities traders located in China and, at times, in Massachusetts. Specifically, Wang and his co-conspirators used multiple brokerage accounts in their names, and in the names of others with whom Wang had a relationship, to artificially depress or inflate the prices of thinly traded securities. They did so by repeatedly placing relatively small sell (or buy) orders designed to send a false signal about a security’s supply (or demand) and to depress (or inflate) the security’s price. Wang and his co-conspirators then immediately placed relatively large buy (or sell) orders on the other side of the market to take advantage of their manipulations. Once the large orders executed, Wang and his co-conspirators cancelled their outstanding manipulative orders.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins and Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division, made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney James R. Drabick of Rollins’ Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.