Marani Brands Inc. (MRIB)

[Matthew Berg]

Unfortunately there's nothing to hype and little to hope for. MRIB is little more than a shell now and seems to be contracting further with each passing month. Pretty much gone dark. No employees, no sales force, no marketing or advertising, no cash, virtually no sale, diminishing retail locations and a mountain of debt. And let's not forget who's running this distressed ship and track record for failure over the past decade.

I'm not saying Margrit will not try some fluff peice and might even bend the truth in doing so because it's going to have to be a doozy. And she's shown a propensity in pushing the envelope with the PR as things get worse. If you recall, the last PR we got was Imo, very risky and legally questionable as fraudulent. Margrit published an announcement with a headline that MRIB had shipped to Brazil. "Shipped", not preparing or arranging, etc. Yes the body of the peice used enough weasel words to indicate they hadn't actually shipped. But the headline could very well be seen as a blatant violation of SEC rules on false publications. Backing it up is the fact that a few days earlier Margrit announced on MoneyTV that Brazil was "on its way". Both instances were entirely false and deceptive. Really no arguing that there was lying involved with both knowledge and intention.

And I'll tell you what. Given the domestic situation, about the ONLY MRIB could put out would be about receipt of funds from Brazil. Signed, sealed, delivered and paid for. No letters of credit, no arrangements, no payment agreements, no hokey documents... Just cash in hand. Anything short of that would be met with significant doubt and skepticism. MRIB credibility is at a point about as low as it can go.

And just a side note. With the minimal amount of activity, virtually no sales and no employees, MRIB runs significant risk of getting targeted by a little known SEC operation that's been very active in the last year. Operation Shell-Expel has gone after hundreds of OTC companies in recent months and has actually shut down over 8% of all OTC companies. The crack down is to keep what amounts to shell companies being used for stock scams. MRIB is starting to look like a pretty good candidate.