Attorney Donald Harwood has over thirty years of experience in complex civil litigation and criminal defense, particularly in white-collar crimes like securities fraud. Securities fraud encompasses actions such as misleading financial reporting and insider trading, as exemplified by the Enron case. The document also describes 'pump and dump' schemes, where false information is spread to inflate stock prices for profit.

1. By Donald Harwood, Attorney

2. Introduction
 As a practitioner of the law for three decades, attorney Donald
Harwood has handled many kinds of court cases for his firm of
Harwood and Reiff, LLC. Donald Harwood's services as an
attorney include complex civil litigation and criminal defense
cases, often involving white-collar crime.
White-collar crime covers several types of financial misconduct,
such as fraud, which is defined as the act of obtaining money
under false pretenses. One common type is securities fraud,
often committed by a company issuing stocks. It involves the
inaccurate reporting of financial information to stockholders or
investors.
Persons making decisions on the basis of this false data stand to
lose their investments, especially if the company goes bankrupt.

3. Securities Fraud
 The Enron case is an example of securities fraud. The officers of the
company failed to report all its expenses, which artificially inflated the
stock's value.
Another well-known type of securities fraud is insider trading. Persons
committing this crime use information not available to the public to
make buying or selling decisions. For instance, an accountant may sell
stock knowing that the company is on the verge of bankruptcy. Doing
this before letting the board of directors know about the problem
constitutes insider trading.
In contrast is third-party misrepresentation, often called “pump and
dump”. This occurs when an investor spreads false news about a small,
less-known company, from which he has bought large amounts of
cheap stock. If the good news raises the stock's value sufficiently and
stimulates others to buy, the investor sells his share at a profit.