Former Spongetech CEO Michael Metter will get a slap on the wrist after prosecutors made a major misstep in their case against the penny-stock pump-and-dump scheme.
Under a plea deal announced yesterday, Metter will pay a puny $100 fine and be recommended for probation after admitting to one count of lying to regulators about some $250,000 he received from the sale of Spongetech stock between 2007 and 2009.
Metter caught a big break last year when a federal judge suppressed e-mails and other evidence after the government sat on it for 15 months without declaring which documents fell within the scope of the search warrant.
Metter is the last defendant to plead guilty in the case, in which prosecutors accused execs of fabricating the amount of sales and customers to pump up the stock’s price before dumping shares on unsuspecting investors.
“We are very pleased that all of those charges that were filed against Michael are finally going to be dismissed,” his lawyer, Maranda Fritz, told The Post.