Children's 'Facebook' lands Tampa man in jail

TAMPA — The Florida Office of Financial Regulation has charged a Tampa man, who convinced investors he had a “Facebook for children,” with allegedly bilking nearly $300,000.

Allan Michael Roth has been charged with 34 counts of selling unregistered securities, and 34 additional counts of selling securities without being registered as a dealer, according to the Pinellas County state attorney's office.

Roth is a former securities broker who reportedly pitched a penny stock investment opportunity into what he was calling Bizrocket.com. The site was touted as child-safe social media platform, similar to Facebook, and allowed Roth to collect $295,000 from 20 investors, despite allegedly not being registered to sell securities, and not disclosing that Bizrocket was not a registered security.

Roth listed his current job as a sales underwriter for Mid-Atlantic Finance, according to his LinkedIn page, where the 57-year-old had worked since last April. His previous listed work included Fleetmatics USA and as a licensed securities representative for Merrill Lynch between 1999 and 2007.

As of Tuesday morning, Roth was being held in the Hillsborough County Jail in lieu of a $340,000 bond.