Miami, Aug 16: At least 52 brokers, stock promoters and corporate officers were indicted on securities fraud, money laundering and other charges, culminating a two-year federal undercover operation, authorities said. The multi-agency undercover operation, dubbed "Bermuda Short", exposed fraudulent attempts to sell $200 million in securities from 23 publicly traded US companies, according to the US Attorney's Office in Miami Thursday.
No investors lost any money through the scheme, officials said.

Undercover agents posed as mutual-fund traders, pretending to represent investors. The agents told the defendants that they could arrange to buy large blocks of stock at significantly above market prices with millions from their fictitious funds.
According to the indictments, the defendants wanted the fund to buy their securities and agreed to give the agents kickbacks on the stock sales.

The kickbacks generally amounted to several millions and were paid through offshore corporations and bank accounts, officials said.
Some of the defendants, including licensed securities brokers, were also accused of manipulating market prices of the stocks involved in the scheme. Bureau Report