SEC Says the Man Allegedly Behind the Avon Hoax Has Fooled Wall Street Before

U.S. regulators say the hoax that whipsawed Avon Products Inc. last month was hatched by a man in Bulgaria who had fooled Wall Street twice before with similar ruses.

Nedko Nedev, 37, hoodwinked the stock market from Sofia, the SEC said. Over the past three years, he allegedly did the same thing with Tower Group International Ltd. and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Inc. Each time, he bought shares just before sham entities filed fake takeover announcements on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s public filing system, the regulator said.