While I wish I were referring to myself, I refer to Andrew Left of Citron Research (see my other articles referencing him). Once again today his bold assertions of fraud were vindicated when a court ruled that Conversion Solutions Holding Company & Rufus Harris did bad things. The SEC’s press release on the matter is hilarious. Here is an excerpt:
On the basis of the evidence presented at the hearing, the Court found that Conversion never had any business-related revenue, and that its only source of funds was an ongoing offering of convertible notes and/or stock that began before the time period charged in the Complaint. The Court also found that Conversion had not paid any money for any of the purported assets carried on its books, which consisted of various series of bonds, uncollected interest due on the purported bonds, and a document called the UCC-1 Note. The Court found that the UCC-1 Note is not a standard piece of commercial paper, but an eight-page document signed by an individual named David Hawkins, which purports to be an “Affidavit of Obligation” in favor of Mad Dog Builders, Inc. and Mr. Hawkins, and which contains references to purported legal concepts including the “individual energy protection maxim,” the “social cooperation protection maxim,” and the “Hebrew/Jewish Commercial Code.”
This leaves me to say but one thing: Evidently Rufus Harris was not quite as cool as THE Rufus from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure:
Left’s articles on Conversion Solutions
Original report on Fronthaul Group (July 26, 2006)
Update on Conversion / Fronthaul (August 2, 2006)
Final report on Conversion (August 9, 2006)
I should also point out that as always, the penalty exacted upon Rufus Harris is utterly inadequate to deter future penny stock hucksters. Again according to the SEC press release: “The Court did not find a basis for disgorgement of any ill-gotten gains by Harris or Conversion.”
Disclosure: I have no connection to anyone mentioned above. I am not Andrew Left. I am not Rufus Harris. I cannot play the guitar. I have yet to meet a securities regulator who is neither stupid nor evil.
Better than Chanos, Ackman, Einhorn, or Livermore etc.? I don’t know if I agree with that. Left is very very good no doubt about it but I don’t know if one can really call him best without knowing more about the trades some of the big shots have made….
and hey man you are getting better all the time, who knows maybe Left will be forgotten by history because he was succeeded by the Reaper of the OTC when all is said and done.
It’s kinda fun to go back and read all your old posts sequentially.You know you certainly could write a really good book by telling the story of your progression if you wanted to, but no point in spilling all your beans till you get further along. 🙂 I’ve never read your defunct newsletter you’ve mentioned sometimes, but if you throw in content from that in as well I think you have a tale that has great human interest and lots of practical value (people like reading stories, how many investment books have a narrative that will keep sheeple entertained? Plus you’ve got writing chops. Many trading bloggers out there certainly don’t at all.).
my title suggestion would be “I R Hedge Fund” (from one of your posts), the internet speak I think would be eye catching to potential buyers without being immediately off putting to the elderly.. 🙂
Thanks for the kind comments, TastyLunch. I may exaggerate a bit, but I am impressed with how many frauds Left has exposed. While my analysis is not unskilled, I have yet to identify any blatant frauds.
Some of the articles I have posted were first written for my defunct investment newsletter. I have thought about writing a book and I already have a lot that would be good for it (anonymous threats on Yahoo! message boards, incompetent regulators, great investment successes and failures), but I think I should generate another few years of incredible performance first.