Some Info About GeoInvesting, Part 2
An update to what has happened since my previous postings seemed appropriate at this time. Thank you, again, to all who have expressed interest in this subject. Also, please note that the opinions expressed are just my own opinions. Please confirm for yourselves the information I have provided.
1. It appears that The Market’s Edge has removed DLC Laundromat off of its venture capital ‘success stories’ page. Of course, no one who works directly or indirectly for GeoInvesting/ The Market’s Edge and who posts on the Yahoo message board or, unless I missed it, on the GeoIvesting website, has any comment about this. Could this be because The Market’s Edge was misrepresenting its success?
2. It also appears that The Market’s Edge has removed almost all of the real estate ‘success stories’ off of its real estate page. Again, of course, no one who works directly or indirectly for GeoInvesting/ The Market’s Edge and who posts on the Yahoo message board or, unless I missed it, on the GeoInvesting website, has any comment about this. Could this also be because The Market’s Edge was misrepresenting these successes? Plus, a VC success story is also repeated as being a real estate success story, so the company really only has 5 VC ‘success stories’ (most of which are owned or controlled by the same people who run The Market’s Edge/ GeoInvesting) and 2 real estate ‘success stories’ (one of which was, in all likelihood, either directly or indirectly owned by Maj, the founder of GeoInvesting/ The Market’s Edge). Wow… Way to go, guys: it looks like you pretty much have had no successes outside of companies (and one real estate deal) you either directly or indirectly own/ owned or control/ controlled.
3. New Energy Systems, in response to allegations made by GeoInvesting that the company’s SAIC and SEC filings don’t match, is making publicly available all of its SAIC filings so that investors who wish to confirm that the company has not lied about its financials may do so. GeoInvesting, in my opinion, was caught by surprise by this action, and is losing ground on the ‘filings don’t match’ campaign (interestingly enough, GeoInvesting never supplied any proof of these allegations so we are just supposed to take their word for it). Now, it appears that GeoInvesting is trying to save face by posting allegations that the company has somehow lied about the ownership of Kim Fai as evidence that New Energy has acted in a fraudulent manner. Good luck with that one, GeoInvesting.
(As an aside, I have posted this a few times before, but I wanted to remind people that individuals who are convicted of committing white collar crime in China may be executed for their crimes. Do people really think that New Energy’s management is so determined to defraud the Chinese government and investors that they are willing to risk death or other punishments like life in prison to do so? In my opinion, they are not.)
4. It appears that GeoInvesting is, in my opinion, losing credibility with investors as a result of its various attacks on New Energy being shown to be nothing more than one part nonsense, one part BS, and one part hot air. So, the people who run GeoInvesting are using the examples of the ‘successes’ they’ve had with researching other companies as proof that their research into New Energy also should be taken seriously. Give me a break… Just because you found ‘red flags’ regarding the business practices of some companies does not mean you are correct about other companies (like New Energy).
5. Thanks go out to Jettabab18 from Yahoo, who posted that the individuals who run GeoInvesting/ The Market’s Edge apparently are offering, for $25,000, a private course which lays out a blueprint for attacking Chinese stocks. The course comes with a booklet called The Red Flags for Fraud. The mission statement apparently is named Lucrative Settlement, and the goal is named Devastating Impact on the Stock Price. Unbelievable. If this is true, how could anyone think their research would be objective?
Employee Bios
I thought that a good place to continue with the examination of GeoInvesting would be to review the information provided on the website’s ‘About Us’ page.
Majed Soueidan, founder of GeoInvesting and The Market’s Edge.
It’s interesting that the founder of GeoInvesting and The Market’s Edge (a hedge fund) has, according to his own bio, absolutely NO EXPERIENCE working for any company on Wall Street (or, I guess, on any street) performing equity research. His lone experience working in finance, which is indicated on the ‘About Us’ page, is that he worked in the investor relations department of Vanguard.
Wow… So he worked in investor relations for a company whose founder (John Bogle) is famous for insisting that the performance of index funds, over a long period of time, will be better than that of actively-managed funds. Plus, I have to state this again: he worked in IR! IR is the group that, when you contact a company, offers to send you an investor packet which will explain, in more detail, a company’s operations (to be fair, it appears that he, through his IR experience, packaged various investments [probably Vanguard funds] together for clients). How could working in an IR department for Vanguard (of all companies) qualify Maj for running a hedge fund? In my opinion, it does not.
Also, please note that Maj, according to his own bio, has no experience researching Chinese equities for a major investment firm. In addition, it appears that he has never done any VC deals in China, nor has he lived in China or can speak/ read/ write Chinese. How is he qualified to research Chinese stocks? I’ll answer this question by stating that, based on the information provided, in my opinion he is not.
Dan David, an individual who apparently has a lot of responsibility at GeoInvesting, is up next: he oversees the daily operations of GeoInvesting and is The Market’s Edge’s chief compliance officer (among other things). Dan was previously, apparently, the president of The Skippack Community Sports Complex, which (as I have indicated before) is listed on The Market’s Edge as both a VC and real estate success story. In addition, he has extensive experience in management for a jewelry company named Finlay Enterprises.
In all likelihood, given his work history and description of his responsibilities, it looks like he is qualified for most of the work that he is required to perform. One thing did stand out for me, though: what are his qualifications for being The Market’s Edge’s chief compliance officer? This is an important and complex job, and yet I don’t see that he has any experience working in the compliance department of any other company, nor do I see that he has any legal education with respects to the securities industry (or any other field, for that matter). Therefore, how is it possible for this man, in addition to all the other responsibilities he shares between GeoInvesting and The Market’s Edge, to be The Market’s Edge’s chief compliance officer if he has no background in the field and did not study this type of law? Based on the information provided, in my opinion he is not qualified for this position.
Craig Bach is up next. According to his bio information, he’s a research partner at The Market’s Edge with a focus on interviewing management, and is also credited with founding a private investment firm. As with Maj, NOWHERE is there listed any experience working for a major investment firm on Wall Street (or anywhere else) performing equity research, in particular researching Chinese equities. In addition, like Maj, it does not appear that he has done any VC deals in China, nor has he lived in China or can speak/ read/ write Chinese. How is he qualified to research Chinese stocks? I’ll answer this question by stating that, based on the information provided, in my opinion, he, too, is not qualified.
Al Rivera is also a research partner at The Market’s Edge. His background – auto sales! Seriously, I’m not kidding – please check for yourselves: for 18 years he held sales management positions in the auto industry. How the heck does that qualify him to research Chinese equities? Plus, according to his bio, he doesn’t appear to have any equity research experience for a major investment firm on Wall Street (or anywhere else), has not done any VC deals in China, hasn’t lived in the country, and can’t speak/ read/ write Chinese. How can he be qualified to research Chinese stocks? Again, in my opinion, he is not.
Another person who conducts equity research at GeoInvesting/ The Market’s Edge is Zou Soueidan. According to his bio information, his background is in Engineering, which, for those who aren’t aware of this, is not considered to be a financial field. So, how did he get to work for GeoInvesting/ The Market’s Edge? His bio information states that from the engineering field he “made a smooth transition to Wall Street” and is now part of the GeoTeam. Engineering to Wall Street? That’s like me saying, “I started out working at Jiffy Lube, and then made a smooth transition to working in animal husbandry.” Plus, what sort of Wall Street experience does he have? According to his bio page, he doesn’t appear to have any equity research experience for a major investment firm on Wall Street (or anywhere else), has not done any VC deals in China, hasn’t lived in the country, and can’t speak/ read/ write Chinese. How can he be qualified to research Chinese stocks? Based on the information provided, Zou, too, in my opinion, is not qualified to research Chinese equities.
Andy Schmoyer is a trading assistant, and has been one for 8 years (according to his bio). The person who wrote his bio said some nice things about his contributions to the company, but in investment firms a trading assistant is really just the guy you turn to at 10:30 when you’re feeling like some Starbuck’s and you know that the caterer won’t be arriving for at least another hour. You pull a $10 bill out of your pocket, hand it to him, give your order, and let him know he can order whatever he’d like to with the change. Of course, trading assistants also enter trades into the trading system and perform other tasks, but they’re often treated like gophers.
On The Market’s Edge’s website, there is one person mentioned who is not on the GeoInvesting website, and that person is Michael Markowski, who is also credited as being the founder of Overbrook Capital, LLC (which, interestingly enough, also employs Majed Soueidan, Craig Bach, and Al Riviera). This individual also used to work at Vanguard. Just as with the other individuals who work for these companies, he doesn’t appear to have any equity research experience for a major investment firm on Wall Street (or anywhere else), has not done any VC deals in China, hasn’t lived in the country, and can’t speak/ read/ write Chinese. How can he be qualified to research Chinese stocks? Based on the information provided, this person, too, in my opinion, is not qualified to research Chinese equities.
So, let’s sum up what we’ve found out so far:
1. Even though the company refers continuously to accounting irregularities as being red flags, it seems that none of these people appears to be a CPA or have any extensive accounting experience.
2. Based on their own bio information, none of these people has had any equity research experience for any major investment firm prior to working at GeoInvesting/ The Market’s Edge.
3. According to their own bios, not a single person, apparently, can speak/ read/ write Chinese. In addition, it appears that anyone has ever lived in China or done any VC deals there. Plus, and probably most importantly, according to their own bios NOT A SINGLE PERSON HAS EVER RESEARCHED CHINESE EQUITIES FOR ANY MAJOR INVESTMENT FIRM! None!
Why do people still turn to this company for guidance regarding US-listed Chinese equities when, in my opinion, not a single individual who works for the company is qualified to research Chinese equities? The company repeatedly states that it is just looking out for its retail investors, but that is not entirely true in my opinion, as it appears that the company will enter in a position (short or long) prior to attacking or praising a company. Plus, if the information provided by Jettababe18 about the course on how to attack Chinese stocks is accurate, the company apparently has no interest in providing objective research into Chinese stocks, but instead just intends to raise ‘red flags’ about these companies as a means to destroy the value of their common stocks while GeoInvesting/ The Market’s Edge will apparently make money by shorting these stocks.
If all these things are true, why should anyone trust this company’s advice?
