REUTERS U.S. SEC cracks down on spam-driven small stocks [GVCFPZN]
By Karey Wutkowski
WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading on Thursday in the stocks of 35 small companies linked to spam e-mail campaigns urging small investors to buy shares.
The SEC said it launched an enforcement effort to protect investors from potentially fraudulent spam e-mail promoting small company stocks with phrases like, "Ready to Explode," "Ride the Bull," and "Fast Money."
"It's estimated that 100 million of these spam messages are sent every week, triggering dramatic spikes in share price and trading volume before the spamming stops and investors lose their money," the SEC said in a statement.
The SEC said the stocks halted typically sell for less than $1 per share and are quoted on the Pink Sheets quotation service. The trading suspensions began on Thursday and will last for 10 business days, ending at noon on March 21, the agency said.
In one spam campaign involving Apparel Manufacturing Associates <APPM.PK>, the SEC said the company's stock closed at 6 cents on trading volume of 3,500 shares on Friday, Dec. 15, 2006.
After a weekend spam campaign distributed e-mails proclaiming "Huge news expected out on APPM, get in before the wire, We're taking it all the way to $1.00," trading volume on Monday, Dec. 18, 2006, soared to 484,568 shares with the price spiking to over 19 cents a share.
Two days later the APPM price climbed to 45 cents. However, by Dec. 27, 2006, the price had slumped to 10 cents on trading volume of 65,350 shares, the agency said.
The SEC said it suspended trading in the following stocks:
* Advanced Powerline Technologies Inc. <APWL.PK>
* America Asia Petroleum Corp. <AAPM.PK>
* Amerossi Int'l Group, Inc. <AMSN.PK>
* Apparel Manufacturing Associates, Inc. <APPM.PK>
* Asgard Holdings Inc. <AGHG.PK>
* Biogenerics Ltd. <BIGN.PK>
* China Gold Corp. <CGDC.PK>
* CTR Investments & Consulting, Inc. <CIVX.PK>
* DC Brands International, Inc. <DCBI.PK>
* Equal Trading, Inc. <EQTD.PK>
* Equitable Mining Corp. <EQBM.PK>
* Espion International, Inc. <EPLJ.PK>
* Goldmark Industries, Inc. <GDKI.PK>
* GroFeed Inc. <GFDI.PK>
* Healtheuniverse, Inc. <HLUN.PK>
* Interlink Global Corp. <ILKG.PK>
* Investigative Services Agencies, Inc. <IVAY.PK>
* iPackets International, Inc. <IPKL.PK>
* Koko Petroleum Inc. <KKPT.PK>
* Leatt Corporation <LEAT.PK>
* LOM Logistics, Inc. <LOMJ.PK>
* Modern Energy Corp. <MODR.PK>
* National Healthcare Logistics, Inc. <NHLG.PK>
* Presidents Financial Corp. <PZFC.PK>
* Red Truck Entertainment Inc. <RTRK.PK>
* Relay Capital Corp. <RLYC.PK>
* Rodedawg International Industries, Inc. <RWGI.PK>
* Rouchon Industries, Inc. <RCHN.PK>
* Software Effective Solutions Corp. <SFWJ.PK>
* Solucorp Industries Ltd. <SLUP.PK>
* Sports-stuff.com Inc. <SSUF.PK>
* UBA Technology, Inc. <UBTG.PK>
* Wataire Industries Inc. <WTAF.PK>
* WayPoint Biomedical Holdings, Inc. <WYPH.PK>
* Wineco Productions Inc. <WNCP.PK>
