JAMESTOWN — Jeffrey Brommer , a Republican candidate in N.C. Senate District 28, has twice been fined by stock regulators for misleading investors.
In both cases — one settled in 1999 and the other in 2008 — Brommer was accused of promoting a company’s stock offerings without disclosing that he owned some of those shares and benefited from an increase in stock values.
“I’d like to but I’m unable to comment on them,” Brommer said of the two fines by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“It’s nothing that I’m ashamed of or anything like that. It’s not going to affect my decisions on voting. It’s something that’s in the past,” he said.
Brommer, 45, owns a sales and marketing firm based in Jamestown.
He is one of four candidates running in the Republican primary for Senate District 28, the seat held by Democratic Sen. Katie Dorsett.
Dorsett withdrew from the race and two other Democrats are squaring off for their party’s nomination.
Bruce Davis , a Democratic Guilford County commissioner, is mounting a petition drive to get on the ballot as an independent candidate.
According to court documents and news releases by the SEC, Brommer’s most recent run-in with the Securities and Exchange Commission came in 2008.
He was involved with a company called Strategic Management & Opportunity Corp., known as SMPP.
The complaint in the case alleges that SMPP “issued a series of materially false and misleading press releases.” That marketing effort drove the company’s stock price from 10 cents to $4.50 , enabling the company to sell more stock at an inflated price.
Brommer was hired to provide investor relations services for the company.
The complaint alleges that Brommer “vouched” for the company without disclosing his own financial interest.
Brommer “without admitting or denying the allegations” entered a legal settlement in which he paid more than $25,000 to “disgorge” his profits and another $40,000 in penalties.
Greensboro City Councilwoman Trudy Wade , one of the other Republicans in the race, did not comment directly on the SEC proceedings when asked if she thought they should keep Brommer from office.
“I think the voters will have to make that decision,” Wade said.
Contact Mark Binker at (919)832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com
Not all of the newspaper's content appears online.
*There is a fee for downloading some older articles.