Friday, March 09, 2007 3:42:16 PM
Dear Mr. Frog:
Thank you for your e-mail.
As you know, the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday suspended trading in the securities of 35 companies that have been the subject of recent and repeated spam e-mail campaigns, including Equitable Mining Corp. The trading suspensions - the most ever aimed at spammed companies - were ordered because of questions regarding the adequacy and accuracy of information about the companies. The trading suspensions are part of a stepped-up SEC effort code-named "Operation Spamalot"
Please see our press release at
http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2007/2007-34.htm
You also may wish to review an article that appears in Forbes magazine, "Why The SEC Can't Stop Spam"
<http://www.forbes.com/2007/03/08/sec-spam-stock-tech-security-cx_ll_0308spam_print.html>.
In this article, Cromwell Coulson chief executive of Pink Sheets, which provides financial services and electronic quotes for over the counter stocks, says as soon as his company can verify a spam complaint, Pink Sheets blocks trading on the stock on its site. The 35 stocks suspended by the SEC today won't be back on Pink Sheets once the 10-day suspension is over. "These things will get the skull and cross-bones," he says.
As you are aware, SEC investigations are conducted on a nonpublic and confidential basis. As yesterday's press release noted, the investigations will continue after the conclusion of the temporary trading suspensions.
While the SEC recognizes that a suspension often causes a dramatic decline in the price of the security, the SEC suspends trading only when it believes the public may be making investment decisions based on false or misleading information. Suspensions give notice to current and potential investors that the SEC has serious concerns about a company. A suspension may prevent potential investors from being victimized by a fraud or in the case of pump and dump schemes such as the ones resulting
in the trading suspensions from continuing in the present or at some future time. Please see our fast answer on trading suspensions at <http://www.sec.gov/answers/tradingsuspension.htm>.
The link to our FOIA office is: http://www.sec.gov/foia.shtml.
Once again, thank you for your e-mail. If you have any questions,
please contact me.
Sincerely,
Jim Daly
U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission
Office of Investor Education and Assistance
100 F Street, NE
Washington, DC 20549-0213
(202) 551-6340, (202) 772-9295 (fax)
oiea@sec.gov
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