New York: A stock broker of Indian descent has been charged in an alleged $131 million stock manipulation scheme after investigations by a task force set up for President Barack Obama's war on financial crimes, federal officials announced Wednesday.

Pranav Patel of Tamarac, Florida, participated along with eight others in the multi-state scam "through a dizzying round of unauthorized trades" to pump up the share price of a company with no business operations, Robert L. Capers, the federal prosecutor in Brooklyn said.