SECURITIES

SEC Says Student Manipulated Stock: A college student fraudulently manipulated the price of two stocks--one an Alameda company’s--by mailing anonymous letters with false information in a scheme that netted him $24,000, the SEC charged. Joseph Pandolfino Jr., 23, a business graduate student at State University of New York in Buffalo, paid a penalty of $26,000--the amount the government says he earned illegally plus interest--to settle with the SEC. One of the stocks was Aquanautics Corp. of Alameda. Pandolfino bought 2,600 shares before mailing anonymous letters in January, 1991, to an unknown number of people. The letters said: “Buy as much Aquanautics stock . . . as you can afford to before Feb. 5, 1991. Trust me. This will be the best investment you have ever made.”