SEC bars former rep for alleged share price manipulation

The Securities and Exchange Commission has barred George Thoreson, a former broker with Wells Fargo Advisors, for his alleged role in a scheme to manipulate the reported share price and volume of a penny stock. Mr. Thoreson, who lives in the Seattle, Wash., area, was discharged by Wells Fargo in October 2013. He then worked at a registered investment adviser, Northwest Asset Management, from November 2013 to March 2017. He is no longer employed in the securities industry. In its complaint, the SEC alleged that, between approximately April 2012 and September 2013, Mr. Thoreson and others placed trades at above-market prices at or near the end of trading days on several occasions for the purpose of achieving a reported closing price of $2 per share or higher for 90 consecutive trading days, which was a necessary condition for approval of the stock's then-pending Nasdaq listing application. Stock in the company involved in the case, Abakan Inc., recently traded at three-tenths of a cent per share. Mr. Thoreson began his career at Morgan Stanley in 1984 and joined Wells Fargo in 2008.