The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission brought fraud charges Tuesday against nine people who allegedly carried out a $78 million “pump-and-dump” scheme with stock of Jammin' Java Corp., a coffee company that was founded by one of Bob Marley's sons and uses trademarks of the late reggae legend.

In a 40-page complaint, the commission accused Shane Whittle, the company's former chief executive officer, of using a reverse merger to secretly gain control of millions of Jammin' Java shares and spread the stock to a network of offshore entities.

After fraudulent promotional campaigns pumped up the stock price, the defendants dumped millions of shares on the market, according to documents the commission filed in Los Angeles federal district court.

It was in Los Angeles where Whittle befriended Marley's son Rohan in 2005, according to the SEC. After learning that Rohan Marley had purchased a small Jamaican coffee farm, Whittle proposed creating a coffee distribution company built on the Marley name.

The Denver-based Jammin' Java, which was previously headquartered in Beverly Hills, operates as Marley Coffee. Rohan Marley, who serves as the company's chairman, has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Irving Einhorn, a former SEC attorney who is representing Jammin' Java, could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.

In a statement released Wednesday, Jammin' Java chief executive Brent Toevs said the company's current management had no knowledge of Whittle's alleged fraud and did not profit from it.

“Since the beginning of my tenure with the company, my objective has to been to win back the trust of our shareholders, gain the trust of the coffee community and build a company that everyone can be proud of,” Toevs said in the statement. “After working in compliance with the SEC for several years on this investigation, we're glad to finally see that the SEC complaint is coming to light.” He added: “Now there's a chance shareholders can get some level of closure and hopefully recoup any of the losses they incurred from the alleged 'pump and dump.'”

According to the commission's complaint, Whittle arranged the illegal stock offering by distributing some of the nominee stock to offshore entities controlled by Wayne S.P. Weaver, Michael Sun and Rene Berlinger. In late 2010, the four orchestrated a “sham financing arrangement” that was intended to create the false impression of third-party investment in the company, SEC attorney Lynn Dean wrote in the complaint.

Jammin' Java, which is named as a defendant in the case, announced the financing arrangement in December 2010, and entities connected to the pump-and-dump began trading shares of the company at elevated prices, according to the complaint.

As the stock price rose, Whittle distributed another large block of shares through Weaver, Sun, and Berlinger's network of offshore intermediaries.

Whittle also arranged for Alexander Hunter and his twin brother, Thomas Hunter, to promote Jammin' Java stock. The twin brothers, whom the commission has charged in separate case with making fraudulent promotions in other pump-and-dump schemes, hyped the stock on websites, on investor message boards, in posts on Yahoo Finance and in email blasts. To hide their identities, they used the false names Marc Lautner and John Bell and created fake business and email addresses, according to the SEC complaint.

Eric Bruce, a Kobre & Kim partner in Washington who's representing the Hunter brothers, declined to comment.

The Hunters, according to the SEC, also implied that former late-night host Jay Leno had endorsed the company's product.

After inflating the stock price and dumping 45 million shares on the public market, “a small number of foreign individuals and entities” made $78 million in profit between February and May 2011, according to the SEC. The defendants then transferred $2.5 million of the profits to Jammin' Java through the financing arrangement that the company had announced.

In May 2011, the share price collapsed after the company disclosed that it had become aware of an unauthorized Internet stock promotion. The stock price fell further after Jammin' Java released disappointing results in its annual financial filing with the SEC.

“As a result of defendants' illegal distribution and fraudulent promotion, investors in Jammin' Java stock lost millions of dollars,” Dean of the SEC wrote in the complaint.

The SEC's complaint is posted below. This story was updated on Nov. 18 with comment from Marley Coffee.