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.