Clarence Friend, who hyped investments in voice-recognition technology, has been barred from associating with any broker or dealer by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Friend, of Fountain Valley, was chief executive of AirTrac Inc. He allegedly approved scripts telling potential investors that AirTrac was negotiating lucrative contracts with SBC, Cingular, AT&T and other well-known telecommunications companies. Those claims were lies, the SEC said. So too was the claim that AirTrac would go public in 2004 or 2005.
The SEC order, which became final this week, followed a federal court judgment April 2 imposing $130,000 in penalties on Friend and AirTrac, along with disgorgement of ill-gotten gains of $273,487.87 against Friend and $1,759,542.28 against AirTrac. Friend and AirTrac are appealing the judgment.
