Congrats Janice!
Penny Pincher
Powerful Warrior Joins Fight against Fraud
by Melissa Davis - 5/13/2011 7:36:14 AM
TheStreetSweeper is proud to formally introduce Janice Shell, one of the most experienced – and feared – investigators of penny-stock fraud in the country, as the newest member of its decorated editorial team. Shell most recently worked for StockWatch, where she focused on covering dubious microcap companies with ties to Canada: a notorious haven for shady stock promoters.
Heralded as “the unofficial queen of cybervigilantes” by Fortune magazine more than a decade ago, Shell boasts a long and impressive record of exposing fly-by-night microcap companies – and warning investors away from their stocks – well before their shares ultimately collapse. She has attracted a devoted group of followers, which includes some topnotch financial journalists, along the way.
“It wasn’t called ‘Internet sleuthing’ when Janice and a small band of colleagues at Silicon Investors invented it,” says Roddy Boyd, a former stock-market reporter for both the New York Post and Fortune who now runs a hard-hitting investigative news site of his own. “Yet, starting in the ‘90s, Janice and her cyber-partners did what the SEC, the FBI and frankly the media could not or would not do: They asked questions. They dug into files, found the forgotten postings and buried press releases and, slowly but surely, began to nail one fraud and witless promotion after another.
“In a just society, Janice and her partners would get medals,” Boyd adds. “We don’t live in a just society. But thankfully, Janice has found a roost at TheStreetSweeper to deliver well-reported, crisply written justice upon the sundry sleazebags of the capital markets.”
Since its inception, TheStreetSweeper has built a loyal fan base by providing detailed investigative coverage of small companies largely ignored by other media outlets in the financial arena. Dedicated to maintaining its incredible track record, with every risky penny stock now down – most of them dramatically – since this site first exposed them, TheStreetSweeper has hired one of the finest “detectives” in the microcap space to carry on this proud tradition.
Shell actually made a big splash at TheStreetSweeper last month, even before this introduction, when she published a widely read article on Lithium Exploration Group (OTC: LEXG.OB) entitled “LEXG: The Biggest Snow Job of the Year?” That stock, fueled by a massive seven-figure promotional campaign, had quickly skyrocketed from 12 cents to $4 a share – with its market value approaching $200 million despite the company’s nominal resources – by the time that Shell delivered her cold dose of reality.
LEXG nevertheless rallied even harder in the days that followed, peaking above $10 to give the company a fleeting market value of roughly $500 million, before dramatically reversing course and ultimately closing at $3.70 a share. The stock has continued to fade, ending Thursday at $1.59, in the two weeks since that time.
Shell is now putting the final touches on a new blockbuster report covering yet another microcap company, Jammin Java (OTC: JAMN.OB), that has staged a similarly breathless – and inexplicable – rally in recent weeks. Even though JAMN just started selling coffee a few months ago, records indicate, the company boasts a market value of $374 million following a rapid surge in its stock price from 10 cents to $5.42 a share. JAMN recorded those huge gains following bullish touts on several websites, including two that recently “suspended” operations on the same day that the company – hardly flying under the radar at this point – saw a record-breaking 20.4 million shares of its stock change hands.
Shell has watched a lot of “highfliers,” just like LEXG and JAMN, in PennyLand over the years. After closely monitoring the microcap sector for more than a decade, however, she can recall few – if any – lasting winners that actually managed to hold onto those kinds of gains.
“An awful lot of them wound up halted or simply disappeared,” she says. “Some of them didn’t totally crash and burn. But I can’t think of any of them that actually succeeded.”
Shell sounded loud alarms about many of those companies with their stocks still soaring to fresh highs. She often came under heavy attack by investors, who resented her work on penny stocks they owned, in the process. But she ultimately managed to convert even some of her fierce enemies into outright fans in the end.
“A lot of people were really hard on her,” one investor admitted to Fortune years ago. “They didn’t believe her, but she was right all along. We should have listened.”
For her part, Shell marvels that so many investors remain willing to place so much faith in – and money on – so many obviously overhyped penny stocks in the first place.
“It’s unbelievable what those investors will believe and, at the same time, the basic evidence they refuse to believe when it’s laid out right in front of them,” she says. “To them, it’s almost like, ‘If it makes sense, then I’m just not going to listen.’ And by the time they do listen – if they ever do – then it’s far too late.”
AI
