BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS

-- Paul Clinton

A U.S. District judge this week sentenced a Costa Mesa businessman to

30 months in prison for operating a boiler-room stock scheme.

Nicolas Myles Garcia, 37, who lives in Laguna Beach, used the identity

of Canadian company Force Technologies to sell stock in a shell company.

Garcia pleaded guilty to two counts of securities fraud during the

summer.

Garcia created the Geneva Group in 1997 so he could bill himself as an

investment banker who purportedly provided investor relations services to

small companies. Garcia later created ForceTek in Costa Mesa and began

marketing shares of the company using promotional materials essentially

identical to those used by Force Technologies.

As a result of the scheme, ForceTek’s stock rolled from 10 cents a

share to more than $5. The public invested more than $2 million in

ForceTek. Garcia had secured a Nasdaq ticker symbol.

During sentencing Tuesday, Judge Florence M. Cooper also ordered

Garcia to pay $1 million in restitution to his victims. The judge found

Garcia in violation of a Securities and Exchange Commission order to

cease selling the shares in September 1997.