Joseph Arcaro is a shell hijacker and a shell peddler. He looks for zombie tickers that have been abandoned but still trade so that he can steal the shells from their previous owners by filing for custodianship of the shells through the Nevada court systems.
Arcaro has been at it for many years going back to the mid to late 2000s.
Once he gets control of the shells he then tries to peddle them (sell them) to new owners for a profit.
Some of his shells get cleaned up (reverse splits, etc) and even go on to do registration statements to become SEC filers, but others end up being sold to dirty groups who have nefarious plans for the shells as insider enrichment schemes and pump&dump scams.
Because some of Arcaro's hijacked shells saw some big runs (like NUGS and CYPE and others) he has become a popular shell hijacker gaining a big following on social media and message boards. Because of his large following, his shells often become long term pumps based purely on speculation.
You'll notice many shells linked to Arcaro (and his associates like Jeffrey and Thomas DeNunzio and Frederick Bauman) that have been long term pumps based solely on speculation despite the fact that the shells haven't been sold to new ownership yet and some haven't even completed the court process necessary to make Arcaro their custodian. Some recent Arcaro speculation pumps include LRDR, AXMP, JADA, LVCA, GMOS, and UCRP.
People will actually go to the Clark County Court site and look for new custodianship filings made by Arcaro and his crew to start buying up stock in the shells ahead of the crowd.
One of the most interesting Arcaro hijackings was AMOG. After Arcaro hijacked the shell the FBI gained control of the shell then used the shell for an undercover sting. The sting led to Indictments against Andrew J. Affa, Michael A. Affa, Mitchell H. Brown, Christopher R. Putnam, and Christopher G. Nix.
