Mr. Fleming also identifies himself as the president of Diversified Marketing Concepts, the parent company of Wall Street West. He says Magna Advisors is a "strategic partner" of the Wall Street West site, but says it doesn't contribute to the site's content. He declines to name anyone who works for Magna, or to describe what the company does. The Wall Street West site says Magna is based in San Diego. Mr. Fleming says Wall Street West has three employees, including himself and that Magna has three or four employees.
Mr. Fleming says Wall Street West is trying to move away from promoting OTC Bulletin Board stocks and toward "larger, more stable" companies. "We want to get a good reputation and have some solid companies. We'd like to have more like nternetJet, one that went from $3.50 to the $9 to $10 range."
Jon Marple, president of InterjetNet, a Newport Beach, Calif., wireless telecommunications company first featured on Wall Street West in April, says Mr. Fleming approached him about promoting the stock. "They wanted to feature us in exchange for stock. We were looking for an introduction to the public, and it sounded like a good deal," says Mr. Marple.
But he says he felt "uneasy" after seeing the research report Wall Street West issued on InterjetNet, where it gave the company a "buy" recommendation. "I felt uncomfortable about giving stock in exchange for the recommendation," he says. InterjetNet gave Wall Street West 2,400 shares of stock in exchange for the promotion.
Mr. Marple says InterjetNet hasn't paid anyone to recommend its stock since, and never will again. "You've got a young guy out there, this Daryn Fleming, who is trying something a little unusual with a tricky name," says Mr. Marple, who believed the company was involved in financial research based on its name. "Just starting out, we were vulnerable to an appeal like that."
Gary Schulteis, president of International Industries, says he hired Wall Street West to get some exposure for his company, particularly on-line.
"[Mr. Fleming] said that he is very active in the Internet, and that he had lots of places to get us good corporate exposure," Mr. Schulteis says. He says he never specifically asked Mr. Fleming to post on message boards.
Mr. Fleming created a Silicon Investor message board to discuss International Industries, a Boca Raton, Fla., company that manufactures cigars and cigar vending machines. Mr. Fleming has posted 11 of the board's 27 messages. When some participants complained that the stock's price appeared to be slipping, he responded, "We think mostly big time investors bought [International], which is why we want to do a Wall Street West style SQUEEZE. This is where none of us will sell. In light of increasing demand, the stock could soar!!!!"
Mr. Fleming says Wall Street West handles investor relations for Leah Industries, a Canadian manufacturer of windows and doors that was profiled on the Web site and received a research recommendation.
But Leah's president, Alex Nafanailov, says the company no longer has a business relationship with Wall Street West.
"We're not happy with them and we want nothing to do with them," says Mr. Nafanailov. He says Leah gave Wall Street West 10,000 shares last month in exchange for promotion, but stopped working with the company a short time later.
