San Diego attorney Andrew Coldicutt, 44, has been found guilty by a federal jury on 17 counts, including securities fraud, false securities registration statements, and wire fraud due to his role in orchestrating two pump-and-dump schemes. The rapid-fire deliberations, which took less than four hours, led the jury to convict Coldicutt of employing his legal expertise to mislead clients, in truth undercover FBI agents, in the creation of fake companies, misleading public filings, market manipulations, and his efforts to hide their connections to these entities, per a report from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Coldicutt schemed from 2017 to 2019 to implement a fraudulent backyard fruit-harvesting company and in 2019 presented another illicit strategy when a client needed fast capital, these plans crafted complete with falsified business outlines and fraudulent public filings were aimed at inflating and dumping stock prices for profit. During the trial, prosecutors unveiled evidence that included recordings wherein Coldicutt is heard fabricating a business plan on the spot and accepting cash for his involvement, which could not escape the jury’s notice.
The weight of the evidence was significant, featuring multiple recordings that revealed Coldicutt’s direct engagement in the crimes, including a moment where he conjured up a business plan in situ with the undercover agents and a separate instance of him taking $2,500 in cash as upfront payment for his role in the fraudulent action, testimony during the trial projected the predicted profit for the first scheme around $4.85 million, with Coldicutt poised to make approximately $240,000…