As one of the mods that received that request, it is clear to me that they want general political posts banned from this board.

I agree. There are plenty of other established political boards people can post on and argue away.

But it doesn't have a place here.

I also take a VERY narrow view of political posts as they apply to specific stocks, as most of them have no real association with them.

Hopefully things will become more clear on how some politically linked issues (such as tariffs) relate, and how the rest don't.

NASDAQ listed pump and dumps are not very common, but this was a big one. The Feds have already recovered $214 million in illicit proceeds.

Seven People Indicted for Allegedly Posing as Advisors in Multimillion-Dollar Fraud

The FBI is trying to determine the identities of hundreds of victims who were allegedly tricked by scammers in China posing as investment advisors on social media in a high-stakes pump-and-dump scheme.

The Justice Department announced earlier this month that it had seized about $214 million in proceeds from the alleged fraud. The DOJ is asking a court to have the money forfeited to the U.S., at which point it could be returned to the investors who fell victim to the scam.

Posing as advisors, the perpetrators of the alleged scam aggressively promoted investments in a company based in the Cayman Islands called Chinese Liberal Education Holdings, or CLEU, that trades on the Nasdaq Composite exchange in the U.S., according to prosecutors.

The scammers “made false representations and instructed investors to purchase shares of CLEU stock, promising significant returns on their investment,” the FBI says in a notice directing potential victims to a form they can submit documenting their experience.

The defendants’ promotion of the stock on social media and messaging platforms allegedly helped drive the share price artificially higher, “at which point the defendants sold thousands of shares and made millions of dollars in profits,” according to the Justice Department, which has charged seven individuals with wire fraud and securities fraud.

The defendants, described in the indictment as residents of Taiwan or Malaysia, aren’t in U.S. custody, but warrants have been issued for their arrest. Court records don’t indicate that any defendant has retained a lawyer in the matter.

The alleged scheme fits with a pattern of malicious activity on social media that has caught the attention of U.S. regulators and consumer advocates. In September, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy issued an alert warning of scams involving stock tips promoted through social media.

Among the red flags included in that bulletin were promises of “high investment returns with little or no risk.” The alert also warned about strangers claiming to be renowned investment professionals or employees of a registered investment advisor or a broker. The latest scheme appears to fit within that description.

The DOJ says that the seven individuals, pretending to be U.S.-based investment advisors, “engaged in misleading promotion and coordinated trading” of shares of CLEU stock, which purportedly provided educational services in China.

During the relevant period, there was a sizable increase in the number of CLEU shares issued. That wasn’t publicly disclosed until after the defendants had allegedly received millions of shares directly from the company.

CLEU didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

When the company accounted for the accurate number of shares outstanding—including those sold by the defendants—in an SEC filing at the end of January, CLEU’s share price fell about 99%. Those losses affected around 600 U.S. investors and others globally, according to the indictment.

Before that announcement, the defendants had each sold between 3.7 million and 9.3 million shares of the stock, the Justice Department says.

Musk's xAI buys social media platform X for $45 billion

(Reuters) -Elon Musk said on Friday that his xAI has acquired X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter, in an all-stock transaction for $45 billion, including $12 billion debt.

"xAI and X's futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent," Musk said in a post on X, adding that the combined company would be valued at $80 billion.

Neither X nor xAI immediately responded to a request for comment.

The billionaire's AI startup, which was launched in 2023, recently raised $6 billion from investors in a funding round that valued the company at $40 billion, sources told Reuters earlier.

Musk in February made a $97.4 billion bid with a consortium for the ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which was rejected, with OpenAI saying that the startup was not for sale.

As competition in AI intensifies, xAI has been ramping up its data center capacity to train more advanced models, and its supercomputer cluster in Memphis, Tennessee, called "Colossus", is touted as the largest in the world.

xAI introduced Grok-3, the latest iteration of its chatbot, in February, as it tries to compete with Chinese AI firm DeepSeek and Microsoft-backed OpenAI.

Musk clinched a deal in 2022 to buy X for $44 billion, ending its run as a public company since its 2013 initial public offering, declaring that "the bird is freed" once the acquisition closed.

(Reporting by Seher Dareen in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Sandra Maler)

Charlie Javice Found Guilty of Fraud in JPMorgan Case

A jury found Charlie Javice guilty of defrauding JPMorgan Chase when the young entrepreneur misled the bank about how many customers her buzzy startup had when selling it for $175 million.

The jury of 12 New Yorkers found Javice and one of her co-executives, Olivier Amar, guilty on three counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud. Both could go to jail for decades.

Javice was arrested in 2023 on charges that she defrauded JPMorgan when she sold her company, Frank, a startup focused on helping students get access to financial aid. Months after the sale, JPMorgan learned the number of people with Frank accounts was around 300,000—far less than the four million users Javice had said it had, according to court testimony from executives.

Javice’s lawyers are likely to appeal the verdict. They have argued for weeks that her trial has been improper because her co-executive’s lawyers have acted as a “second prosecutor” against her.

The weekslong trial in Manhattan brought to light embarrassing details about the bank’s failed due diligence process.

While in talks with JPMorgan about a potential sale, Javice helped create a dataset to convince the bank her startup had the millions of users she had told them it had. At first, she tried to enlist her company’s head of engineering to create the list, but he testified in court that he refused. She then paid a mathematics professor $18,000 to create a synthetic data file of four million fake people.

That file was provided to a third-party company that essentially counted the number of data fields and told JPMorgan that it showed she had four million customers. Current executives who were involved with the deal said their investment in Frank relied largely on Javice’s statements to them, even though some employees raised concerns about her data.

When JPMorgan later tried to launch a marketing campaign to Frank customers based on the synthetic data file, only 28% of the emails were successfully delivered.

GameStop to Borrow $1.3 Billion to Fund Bitcoin Buying Spree

The video-game retailer rallied after the company said on Tuesday that its board approved a plan to add Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset. That was followed on Wednesday by a filing announcing the planned sale of the bonds, which will be used for general purposes, including the acquisition of Bitcoin.

The Grapevine, Texas-based GameStop joins a growing list of public companies taking on convertible debt to buy Bitcoin in an attempt to capitalize on upswings in the cryptocurrency. The tactic was pioneered by Saylor’s Strategy, the enterprise software company formally known as MicroStrategy, which has acquired more than $40 billion in Bitcoin and seen its share price soar.

A convertible bond is a hybrid instrument that allows the holder to convert the bond into a predetermined number of shares if the stock rises above a certain level. GameStop is marketing its notes, which are due in 2030, with a 35% to 40% conversion premium, according to people familiar with the deal who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The premium determines the price at which the conversion happens.

GameStop’s entry into the market comes even as investors appear to be growing more skeptical of the strategy. The premium that GameStop is looking to offer on its bonds is less than the roughly 55% premium on a similar issue from Strategy in November. More recently, Strategy made a $2 billion sale in February that offered investors a more advantageous 35% premium. That along, with the terms on a growing slate of debt-like instruments offered by Strategy, suggest that investors are demanding more from the company.

GameStop’s stock fell after the filing was released on Wednesday, erasing some of the gains from earlier in the day. The shares were down 6.6% to $26.44 as of 5:30 p.m. New York time in after-market trading.

A spokesperson for GameStop didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

GameStop’s push to quickly ramp up its Bitcoin purchases comes against a starkly different backdrop than when Strategy and other copycats flooded the market at the end of 2024. The cryptocurrency is down roughly 18% from an all-time high in January and investors are bailing on a variety of risky assets amid tariff uncertainty and choppy economic data.

Still, the tactic is appealing for GameStop because it has been looking to diversify away from an underlying business that’s slowed as the video game business goes digital. The retailer reported late Tuesday that it would be closing more stores after fourth-quarter revenue declined 28% to $1.28 billion from the year-ago period. Sales of hardware, accessories and software declined in the quarter, though collectible sales rose.

Cohen became the chairman of GameStop in 2021 — and CEO in 2023 — after an activist battle that helped turn the company into a meme stock at the height of the pandemic. Since then he has tried various strategies to revive the faltering company. The company announced in 2023 that Cohen would be allowed to use the company’s cash to buy stock in other companies. Recently, there has been anticipation among investors that GameStop might follow in Strategy’s footsteps after Cohen posted a picture of himself and Saylor on social media in early February.

A variety of companies ranging from medical tech providers to hotel developers have been inspired by the rise of Strategy. Its stock has increased over 2,600% since co-founder Saylor began investing the company’s cash into Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation in 2020. The cryptocurrency is up close to 700% over the same period.

Many companies have used corporate cash to purchase digital tokens. But a growing number have also taken the riskier route of taking on debt to fund the strategy. Convertible bonds can be more attractive for companies than share sales because the bonds don’t immediately dilute stockholders. The instruments have been popular with hedge funds because the securities make it possible to pursue a kind of arbitrage that capitalizes on the volatility of the underlying stock. GameStop could be particularly attractive to this crowd because of the volatility it has experienced since becoming a favorite of retail traders back in 2021.

He only got 37 months. Courts the world around are FAR too lenient on financial crime. 37 months should be the first-time sentence, not one for a career fraudster and multi-time recidivist who stole hundreds of millions of dollars.

It is available for free on MSN:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/he-calls-himself-las-rags-to-riches-pot-billionaire-investors-allege-in-court-their-money-disappeared/ar-AA1B4FZ8

And yet the private industry regulator that ALL the judges belong to is never questioned.

The Bar Associations are much more authoritative than FINRA could ever hope to be, but any time any one, including government, even suggests reigning in their authority, or even reassigning some of it to an actual government body, all the lawyers close ranks and fight it tooth and nail.

The hypocrisy is sickening.

That is good news, but the battle against Alpine isn't won yet. The issue of the nondelegation doctrine is still in question in the courts.

But, I still have to laugh as so many anti-FINRA and anti-regulation keyboard warriors were certain that not only would the Supreme Court slap down FINRA and halt the proceedings, but that Trump would side with them and free poor little Alpine from the clutches of the evil regulators trying to destroy the hard-working and honest little guy.

Neither happened, obviously. Even the Trump administration recognizes how important industry regulatory bodies such as FINRA are, and maybe how heinous and evil Alpine's actions have been.

I will be looking to celebrate the day that Alpine is booted from the industry for good.

Uyeda's recent public statements have made a point to emphasize the Commission's "return" to its traditional mission, which includes offering fraud. I think the Commission is trying to make a point with the recent actions and we are likely to see more fraud cases in the near future.

"The Commission’s Division of Enforcement continues its work to expose securities fraud, recover stolen funds whenever possible, and punish wrongdoers."

"Finally, the Commission’s enforcement work has not stopped. The agency continues to bring charges for insider trading, inflating financial performance, and breaches of fiduciary duty by investment advisers,among other topics."

SEC Charges California-Based Company and Two Individuals with Offering Fraud

https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-26266

In addition to charging the perps who invented the Qatari Sheikh and his $7.98 billion bank account (more than the entire bank held for all depositors), they should have charged the CEO of that public company that believed it, and gave the fraudsters $1 million of shareholder cash for $2 billion in phony "senior secured credit linked notes" that were certainly used to pump the stock.

Yeah, billionaires always use free Gmail accounts. Everyone knows that, right?

And the company lawyer that facilitated the deal and got paid $15K should also be disbarred, as he is either too stupid or too corrupt to practice law.

Um, no, We don't have to see, as many of us KNOW the LAW and how things work.

So you can wait and see I guess instead of actually spending a few minutes to LEARN THE LAW that the rest of us already know.

But Mexus is dead. It ain't returning to trading. Anywhere.

SEC Granted Summary Judgment and Obtains Final Judgment Against Individual in $33 Million Fraud Scheme

https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-26253

Litigation Release No. 26253 / February 21, 2025
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Francisco Abellan Villena, et al., No. 18-cv-4309 (PKC) (S.D.N.Y. filed May 15, 2018)

On January 24, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted the SEC’s motion for summary judgment and ordered final judgment against James B. Panther, Jr. for his role in a fraudulent scheme to secretly control and inflate the price of shares of a microcap issuer, and then make millions by selling shares to unwitting investors.

This finding by the Court resolves all claims arising out of the SEC’s complaint, filed on May 15, 2018, which alleged that co-defendant Francisco Abellan Villena (“Abellan”) masterminded a scheme where, aided by Panther and two other co-defendants, he hid his ownership and sales of Biozoom, Inc. shares by using sham purchase agreements, a network of nominees, anonymizing techniques, and other deceptive practices. Panther also helped facilitate Abellan’s use of alleged manipulative trading techniques and carry out an extensive promotional campaign to artificially inflate Biozoom’s share price. The alleged scheme culminated in the defendants’ illegal sales of Biozoom stock, which netted over $33 million in unlawful proceeds.

In granting the SEC’s motion for summary judgment and entering final judgment against Panther, the Court permanently enjoined Panther from violations of the antifraud and registration provisions of the federal securities laws, ordered him to pay a $100,000 civil penalty, and imposed a ten-year bar on participating in the offering of a penny stock.

The SEC also previously obtained final judgments against the other three defendants. On November 27, 2019, the Court entered a default judgment against defendant Faiyaz Dean, a Canadian lawyer, in which he was ordered to pay a $160,000 civil money penalty. On September 11, 2020, the Court entered a default judgment against Abellan, permanently enjoining him from violating the antifraud and registration provisions of the federal securities laws and ordering him to pay a $15 million civil penalty. The SEC also obtained final judgment against Guillermo Ciupak, enjoining him from violating the antifraud and registration provisions of the federal securities laws.

In a prior action in 2013, the SEC obtained a court order freezing proceeds from the unlawful Biozoom sales. It subsequently obtained a default judgment and established a fair fund, which has returned over $16 million to harmed investors. The SEC previously obtained a judgment against Abellan for his role in another market manipulation scheme.

The SEC’s litigation was led by Daniel Maher and supervised by James Connor. The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Jennie B. Krasner, under the supervision of Deborah A. Tarasevich.

I guess Offill will finish serving his 72 month sentence for penny stock fraud in HELL.

https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-26249
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/former-securities-attorney-sentenced-13-million-penny-stock-scheme
 
Phillip W. Offill, Jr. and Justin W. Herman

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 26249 / February 19, 2025

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Phillip W. Offill, Jr. and Justin W. Herman, No. 3:22-CV-00121-N-BK (N.D. Tex. filed Jan. 19, 2022)

SEC Obtains Final Judgment in Penny Stock Fraud Scheme

On January 31, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas entered a final judgment dismissing the Securities and Exchange Commission’s claims against Phillip W. Offill, Jr. following Offill’s death. The Commission previously obtained a final judgment against Offill’s co-defendant, Justin W. Herman, who alongside Offill was charged with misappropriating and selling millions of shares of a penny stock company using forged documents and sham agreements.

The SEC filed its complaint against Offill and Herman on January 19, 2022, charging both with violating the antifraud provisions of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 10b-5(a) and (c) thereunder and Sections 17(a)(1) and 17(a)(3) of the Securities Act of 1933. The complaint alleged that Offill and Herman orchestrated a fraudulent scheme to misappropriate millions of shares of stock of a microcap company that belonged to the company’s former controlling shareholder and to then sell the stock and share the illicit proceeds between them.

On July 16, 2024, the Court entered a final judgment against Herman, permanently enjoining him from future violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act and Section 10(b) the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 thereunder and from participating in the issuance, purchase, offer, or sale of any security not for his own personal account. The Court also ordered Herman to pay disgorgement and prejudgment interest in the amount of $1,117,325, which the Court deemed satisfied by the criminal restitution ordered in a parallel criminal case.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Derek Kleinmann, Carol Stumbaugh, and Ty Martinez and supervised by B. David Fraser and Eric R. Werner of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office. The SEC’s litigation was conducted by Tyson M. Lies and Matthew Gulde and supervised by Keefe Bernstein.

US SEC seeks India's help in Adani fraud probe

https://www.reuters.com/business/us-sec-seeks-indias-help-adani-fraud-probe-2025-02-18/

NEW DELHI, Feb 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has asked Indian authorities for help in its investigation of Adani Group founder Gautam Adani and his nephew over alleged securities fraud and a $265-million bribery scheme, a court filing showed on Tuesday.

The regulator told a New York district court it was making efforts to serve its complaint on the founder and his nephew, Sagar Adani, and was seeking help from India's law ministry to do so.

Neither individual is in U.S. custody, and both are now in India.

"The SEC has requested assistance ... under the Hague service convention," it said in the court filing.

Adani Group and India's law ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he did not discuss the Adani case with U.S. President Donald Trump during his visit to Washington, describing it to reporters as an individual issue never discussed by leaders.

India's opposition Congress party has called for Adani's arrest and accused Modi of shielding him or favouring him in deals in the past. Modi's party and Adani have denied the charges.

Last year, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed an indictment accusing Adani of bribing Indian officials to convince them to buy electricity produced by Adani Green Energy (ADNA.NS), opens new tab, a subsidiary of his Adani Group.

He then misled U.S. investors by providing reassuring information about the company's anti-graft practices, it added.

Adani Group has called the accusations "baseless" and vowed to seek "all possible legal recourse".

In January, Adani Green said it had appointed independent law firms to review the U.S. indictment.

And where do those scotch and bourbon barrels go after they are done aging the original liquor?

In most cases now, they go to age beer.

And then occasionally they go back to age spirits again. Jameson's has a line where they take casks that originally aged Jameson's Irish Whiskey are sent to a brewery to age a beer, then it goes back to Jameson's for a new whiskey aging that is infused with the beer that was absorbed by the wood.

The Jameson's Caskmates series is pretty interesting.

AGAIN, Mexus does not qualify. The Company had its registration revoked by the SEC. That means they cannot trade publicly ANYWHERE. Not even on the gray market.

It is over.

Are we going to have to start calling them "Nickel Stocks"?

This is a very entertaining read. It has a little of everything we know about investment scams, with UFO's and high level government officials, both real and imagined (the real Wesley Clark, and fake Steven Mnuchin and Antony Blinken) mixed in.

Believing in Aliens Derailed This Internet Pioneer’s Career. Now He’s Facing Prison

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-02-05/aliens-derailed-this-silicon-valley-exec-s-career-now-he-s-facing-prison

Hindenburg might chalk up another win.

SEC Says Game Service Roblox Part of ‘Active Investigation’

Roblox Corp., the video-game service used by millions of young people, is part of an active investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, according to information obtained by Bloomberg News.''

Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request, the commission said in a letter Friday that it couldn’t share correspondence between staffers referencing Roblox, saying it could cause “harm to the ongoing enforcement proceeding.”

“We have confirmed with Division of Enforcement staff that there are responsive emails between Enforcement staff referencing Roblox and that these emails are a part of an active and ongoing investigation,” the commission said.

Bloomberg News couldn’t confirm the subject of the investigation. Roblox didn’t respond to requests for comment, and the SEC declined to make any additional comment.

Hunterbrook Media reported in November that Roblox was under investigation by the SEC, citing Freedom of Information Act requests. Hunterbrook cited an October letter from the commission saying it was withholding documents “which could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement activities.” Its affiliate, Hunterbrook Capital, had a short position in the shares.

In October, the now-defunct short-seller Hindenburg Research published a report on child-safety concerns at Roblox and also alleged that the company had inflated its metrics, including the number of users who regularly play Roblox games and the amount of time they spend on average on the platform.

“We totally reject the claims made in the report,” a Roblox spokesperson said at the time. “The authors are, admittedly short sellers (and have an agenda irrespective of the substance of Roblox’s business model and results).”

Hindenburg Research announced it was disbanding in January.

Shares of Roblox retreated as much as 4.8% following the Bloomberg News report. They were down 2.4% to $65.53 at 2:33 p.m. in New York.

The video-game company has faced scrutiny over children’s safety on the platform. Since 2018, At least two dozen people have been arrested by police in the US, accused of abusing or abducting victims they’d met or groomed using Roblox, Bloomberg News reported in July.

In 2024, Roblox implemented at least 40 safety changes to its platform, including barring children under age 13 from participating in social chatting games. The San Mateo, California-based company has said safety is its priority.

Shares of Roblox fell 11% on Thursday after the company reported slower-than-expected growth in daily users of its service. It reported 85.3 million active users as of year end.

SEC Obtains Judgment Against Defendant in Microcap Fraud Scheme

https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-26234

On January 21, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained a final judgment against defendant Joseph A. Padilla in an action filed in 2023 alleging a fraudulent microcap stock selling scheme.

According to the Commission’s complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Padilla knowingly enabled illegal stock sales by people who secretly held enough of the stock of various small publicly-traded companies to dominate the market for their stock. The complaint alleges that Padilla hid those individuals’ identities by selling stock for them through offshore brokerage accounts that he controlled, but that he opened in different names. The complaint further alleges that Padilla traded in his own brokerage account and accounts of family and friends to manipulate stock prices in support of the scheme. Padilla also allegedly enlisted a stock trader at a registered broker-dealer firm to facilitate stock trading as part of the scheme. According to the complaint, the stock sales coincided with stock promotions or news announcements intended to gain investor interest.

Padilla consented to a final judgment holding him liable for disgorgement of $3,139,685 and prejudgment interest of $20,975, offset by $3 million that the Court ordered Padilla to pay in a related criminal case. Padilla also consented to the judgment permanently enjoining him from violating Sections 5 and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The judgment also permanently barred Padilla from participating in an offering of penny stock and permanently enjoined Padilla from participating in the issuance, purchase, offer, or sale of any security other than purchasing or selling securities listed on a national securities exchange for his own personal accounts.

The Commission previously obtained consent judgments against defendant Kevin Dills and four relief defendants. The Commission’s case remains pending against two relief defendants. The litigation is being handled by Michael Moran, Kathleen Shields, Ryan Murphy, and Amy Gwiazda in the Boston Regional Office.

For additional information, see Litigation Release No. 25745 (June 14, 2023) and Litigation Release No. 25952 (March 20, 2024).

And the criminal case against Padilla where he pled guilty to these charges in August 2023.

Former Stockbroker Pleads Guilty to Penny-Stock Securities Fraud Scheme

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/former-stockbroker-pleads-guilty-penny-stock-securities-fraud-scheme

Defendant conspired to facilitate and participate in market manipulations and attempted to acquire a fraudulent Ukrainian passport to flee prosecution

BOSTON – A California man has pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to his involvement as the principal stock trader in a sophisticated securities fraud scheme that generated tens of millions of dollars in illicit profits.

Joseph A. Padilla, 54, of Carlsbad, Calif. and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, pleaded guilty on Aug. 17, 2023 to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, two counts of securities fraud and one count of attempting to cause the production of an identification document without lawful authority. U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns scheduled sentencing for Nov. 15, 2023. Padilla was charged in March 2023 along with an alleged co-conspirator.

Padilla is a former stockbroker who was barred from the securities industry in 2012 by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Between 2020 and 2022, Padilla allegedly conspired with others to commit securities fraud by facilitating and participating in market manipulation schemes involving the concealed-control of the shares of penny-stock companies.

Specifically, between October 2020 and July 2022, Padilla participated in a market manipulation scheme involving the shares of Oncology Pharma, Inc., a thinly traded company that traded on the over-the-counter securities market under the ticker symbol ONPH. As part of the scheme, a co-conspirator allegedly caused nearly all of ONPH’s free-trading shares to be transferred to multiple brokerage accounts for the benefit of Padilla’s clients at the Cayman Islands broker Valor Capital, with which Padilla had a close, unofficial association. Padilla then engaged in manipulative trading in ONPH designed, at least in part, to artificially drive up the company’s stock price, after which Padilla began dumping the ONPH shares—which were under common control—to unsuspecting investors in Massachusetts and throughout the United States during a promotional campaign, generating illicit proceeds alleged to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

Additionally, between January 2020 and April 2021, Padilla participated in a similar scheme involving the shares of Charlestowne Premium Beverages Inc., a thinly traded company that traded on the over-the-counter market under the ticker symbol FPWM. As part of the scheme, Padilla orchestrated an effort designed, at least in part, to artificially increase Charlestowne’s stock price. He then facilitated the sale of millions of Charlestowne’s shares during a promotional campaign to unsuspecting investors in Massachusetts and throughout the United States, generating illicit proceeds alleged to be in the millions of dollars.

Padilla was arrested on a criminal complaint in August 2022 and released on pre-trial conditions, which included surrendering his passport and not obtaining another passport. While on pre-trial release, Padilla attempted to acquire a fraudulent Ukrainian passport so that he could flee prosecution. Padilla was arrested in January 2023 for violating his terms of release and his pre-trial release was revoked.

The charge of securities fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $5 million. The charge of conspiracy to commit securities fraud provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. The charge of attempt to cause the production of an identification document without lawful authority provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy and Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement today. Assistant United States Attorneys James R. Drabick and Ian J. Stearns of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit are prosecuting the case.

The details contained in the charging document are allegations. The remaining defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Even after 92 consecutive years of dividends, this is a good reminder that the payments are never guaranteed.

I wonder how many people bought WBA shares after seeing that juicy 10% yield and thinking it was a steal. Ironically, though, the suspension of the dividend will probably stabilize the stock price.

Walgreens Suspends Nearly Century-Old Dividend to Save Cash

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. is suspending the quarterly dividend it’s paid for the past 92 years in a bid to conserve cash as the troubled pharmacy chain attempts to revive the business.

The company said the decision stems from a need to strengthen its balance sheet by reducing debt and improving free cash flow. “Cash needs over the next several years,” including litigation and debt financing, were also important considerations, Walgreens said Thursday in a statement.

The shares fell as much as 9.3% in extended New York trading. The stock has lost about half of its value in the past 12 months through Thursday’s close.

Walgreens had cut its quarterly dividend payout almost in half in early 2024, to 25 cents a share.

Suspending the dividend “is prudent and somewhat overdue,” Leerink Partners analyst Michael Cherny wrote in a research note. The move will aid turnaround efforts even though it will cause some shareholders to offload the stock in the near term.

Evercore ISI analyst Elizabeth Anderson said management is making progress on plans “to put the company in better financial shape over the next few years.” She estimates that the suspension will save about $650 million in fiscal 2025.

Walgreens has struggled as declining pharmacy reimbursements and increased competition from online retailers have dragged on revenue. The company has reportedly been in talks with private equity firm Sycamore Partners to potentially take the company private. Walgreens has also been cutting costs and saving money by closing stores and reviewing its investments.

COWI was a pump and dump from Day 1. Lloyd Spencer has run FOUR pump and dumps on this ticker. There is absolutely NO excuse for any "investor" to not have known this BEFORE they gave him their money to line his pocket. NONE.

I hate to see people get scammed, but damn, this one was so damn obvious that I wonder how any COWI investor was foolish enough to fall for it when the truth was more obvious than the nose on their own face.

No, that GameOn is a different company. Unrelated. That is a Canadian Esports company traded on the CSE.

GameOn was, and is, private, so the SEC would have had a very difficult time investigating them and discovering any information without any tips from those involved. It appears that investors didn't find out until after the Board did, and since the Board self-reported, it would have been the first opportunity for anyone to complain to the SEC, anyway.

This is an example of why the SEC, including Hester Peirce, would rather larger companies raising large amounts of cash were public, not private. Not enough sunshine.

Although Beckman and Lau didn't get married until 2023, they were partners for some time before that. She was working with him at GameOn since at least 2019 when the fraudulent activity seems to have started, or at least kicked into gear. Who is to say that perhaps she was the crooked one and influenced Beckman?

SoftBank-Backed Fish Startup Allegedly Faked Most of Its Sales

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/softbank-backed-fish-startup-allegedly-141253969.html

EFishery Pte, one of Indonesia’s most prominent startups, may have inflated its revenue and profit over several years, according to an internal investigation triggered by a whistleblower’s claim about the company’s accounting.

A preliminary, ongoing probe into the agritech startup, backed by investors including SoftBank Group Corp. and Temasek Holdings Pte, estimates that management inflated revenue by almost $600 million in the nine months through September last year, according to a 52-page draft report circulated among investors and reviewed by Bloomberg News. That would mean more than 75% of the reported figures were fake, the report said.

EFishery, which deploys feeders to fish and shrimp farmers in Indonesia, was a darling of the nation’s startup scene and scored a valuation of $1.4 billion when G42, an AI firm controlled by United Arab Emirates royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, backed its latest funding round. It has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in an attempt to modernize the country’s fish industry, providing farmers with smart feeding devices as well as feed, and then buying their produce to sell into the broader market.

Investors were initially enticed by its profitability at a time when layoffs, CEO resignations and plummeting valuations in the tech sector dominated headlines. It presented a $16 million profit for the first nine months of 2024 to investors, but the investigation commissioned by the board alleges the firm actually generated a $35.4 million loss.

Revenue for the period was estimated at $157 million, rather than the $752 million investors were told, according to the report. Management also inflated revenue and profit numbers for several previous years, the report said.

The report was initiated after a whistleblower approached a board member with allegations that the accounts weren’t accurate, according to people familiar with the matter. The board then commissioned a formal investigation in December, and dismissed co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Gibran Huzaifah after the accounting inconsistencies were discovered, the people said.

“We are fully aware of the gravity of the market speculation and we take this matter with the utmost seriousness,” eFishery said in an emailed statement. “We remain dedicated to upholding the highest standards of corporate governance and ethics in all of eFishery’s operations.”

The report, authored by FTI Consulting, is marked as a draft and subject to further changes as the investigation continues. It’s based on more than 20 interviews with company staff and reviews of accounts and messages on WhatsApp, Slack and other channels, according to the report. The draft report notes that investigators haven’t yet spoken with the auditors or reviewed any audit workpapers or other documentation. The numbers are likely to change further, with bank statements, interviews and other accounts still yet to be found or completed.

Huzaifah didn’t respond to messages seeking comment. Temasek and SoftBank declined to comment, while representatives of FTI and G42 didn’t immediately respond to queries.

Shareholders and directors have been surprised at the scale of the alleged fraud given the protective measures that were put in place, including channel checks and exit interviews of staff, said one of the people, who asked not to be named as the matter is private. EFishery had previously hired PricewaterhouseCoopers and Grant Thornton to audit financial results. The two accounting firms didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Investor calls have been taking place since the investigation began and the key question will be what to do with the company’s assets and remaining cash, one of the people said.

While eFishery said it had over 400,000 fish feeders in operation at customers, initial investigations estimate it only had about 24,000. In total, internal books show retained losses at roughly $152 million from its inception until November 2024. While the total assets of the firm stand at $220 million, this includes $63 million in accounts receivable and $98 million in investments, according to the report.

The allegations of fraud may be damaging for Indonesia’s startup scene, and come at a critical time as young companies and investors in the country struggle to raise new funding. EFishery was the nation’s latest so-called unicorn, or a startup valued at more than $1 billion.

I don't. But I would also like to know. Either he is being thrown under the bus, or his lack of knowledge of the regulations put himself there.

Elon needs to write the check.

There is ZERO question that he violated the reporting requirements under Section 13(d). As the SEC states in their compliant, "Section 13(d) of the Exchange Act is a strict liability statute". You either comply, or you don't. Period. Ignorance of the law, or a mistake by his lawyers, is not now, nor has ever been, a legitimate excuse for failure to comply with the law. Not here, not anywhere.

The second issue, the filing of the wrong schedule (13G vs. 13D) is a little less clear, but I still have no doubt that was wrong. Again, a strict liability statute. But I can imagine the SEC will let that one slide but not the first. If they did, it would send the message the rich and powerful, and connected, are allowed to play by different rules than everyone else, and are allowed to screw the public out of their hard earned money whenever it suits them without consequence.

He needs to write the check and just let it quietly go away.

I agree - shorts are just part of the market. Why shouldn't a person have a different opinion of something? But that also explains why a lot of people are so vehemently angered by the shorts. They don't like someone saying they are wrong. It very much mirrors broader society these days, doesn't it? The facts that matter is a person's own and only their own. Everyone else's facts/opinions are wrong, and shouldn't even be allowed to be voiced, much less acted upon.

Anson's relationship to Hindenburg is unclear. It is very possible, if not likely, that Anson is one of Hindenburg's investment partners, if not one of their direct investors. If that were the case, the snapshot provided would make a lot more sense, and discredit the claims of securities fraud.

And the claims themselves are quite outrageous. It starts by claiming that Anson actually did the research and wrote the piece, but the evidence is pretty clear that was not the case and Hindenburg wrote it and sent it to Anson for suggested revisions - not the other way around.

Canoo has filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Another EV maker bites the dust.

The stock (GOEV) closed today at $1.35. It will be wiped out, and shareholders will receive nothing.

But how many pumpers will claim otherwise?

BANKRUPT. Chapter 7 liquidation.

The stock will be wiped out, and shareholders will receive nothing.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/canoo-inc-announces-chapter-7-011500409.html

Hindenburg The Movie is more likely to be Hindenburg the Series. It has Netflix or Apple+ all over it.

No joke. I am very serious. If they present it well, it could be a very positive catalyst on the financial markets.

My god, someone spent $20 on this stock and people go nuts.

Twenty whole dollars. I likely have more than that in my car's change drawer.

People must really be desperate and lost a TON of money on these lies. Pump and dumps will do that to people.

Oh come on Janice. Naked shorting IS a fraud. Not the shorting itself, which is pretty much non-existent, but the CLAIMS of naked shorting, which are made by so many penny pumpers and scammy companies when they know the claim is false. They shout naked shorting as a mechanism for their pump and dumps.

That is the very definition of fraud.

But something tells me that is not what the other poster was getting at...........

The SEC today just charged an organized group of shorting ahead of secondary offerings. They did it to at least 200 offerings, but the take was relatively small. Less than $3 million.

Of course, they broke the law on this type of shorting, as they used insider/non-public info from an underwriter who tipped them off that there would be an upcoming offering set below the current market price. The group shorted the stock, then used the tipster to buy the shares post-offering they used to cover the short position as a way to compensate them for the tip through brokerage commissions.

This is a very different type of shorting than Hindenburg did. What this group did was criminal. Hindenburg was legal.

https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2025-12

Yup, and that is another reason why I don't think the deal is quite what it appears to be on the surface. Certainly if he hasn't been making that much money from Hindenburg due to the original structure, he definitely would have been thinking about changing it up for quite some time. This would also dovetail with his claim of winding up only after all the research ideas they have been working on have played out - there might be some non-competes in the structure that would prohibit him from taking any ideas generated and researched by Hindenburg to any new vehicle, so he had to wait until they were all complete before he could jump ship.

I agree. It was very jumbled and a little rambling.....

But I look at it this way. On the long side, investment vehicles (funds, LLC's, partnerships) open and close all the time. I don't know how Hindenburg was structured, not only from a legal standpoint, but in terms of investment and profit distributions and percentages. But, I doubt it is very much different than we see in other investment vehicles.

There is no doubt that Anderson and Hindenburg have proven themselves to be very skilled at what they do. Anderson was not a known, or even proven, name in the short business when he started. His letter admits as such. He was also broke. For those reasons, he almost certainly needed deeper pocketed outside investors to bankroll his short bets. His percentage of the take was probably pretty low for quite some time, perhaps even now.

By disbanding Hindenburg, he may be just jettisoning the legal vehicle in which he receives a small percentage of the profits for new vehicles in which he will get a much bigger piece of the pie utilizing his larger pile of personal capital he accumulated with Hindenburg.