Category: SEC actions

Where in the world is John Babikian? Probably in the UAE

It is time for another John Babikian update. And as always we must ask, where in the world is he? Lebanon, UAE, and Russia are all possible. My current bet is the UAE (United Arab Emirates). I will explain why below.


It turns out that Babikian’s Seychelles shell company Middlebay Trade Ltd. had purchased a vineyard in The Dalles, Oregon. See coverage of this in The Oregonian and The Dalles Chronicle. The SEC obtained a writ of attachment for that vineyard and for Babikian’s houses in California so that those properties will not be sold. See the SEC’s complaint (pdf) against Babikian. Here is the SEC press release from March 13th about obtaining an asset freeze against Babikian.

SEC v. Babikian Doc 6 Filed 13 Mar 14 by scion_scion

By the way, follow Scion_scion on Scribd to see updates to the legal case against Babikian.

Today the SEC filed a detailed declaration (PDF) in seeking a temporary restraining order and asset freeze. This document (also shown below through Scribd) gives some details not previously disclosed. It also shows that the SEC has relied a lot on Babikian’s ex-wife’s lawsuits, which goes to show that Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Also, this document explicitly links Robert Kalfayan to Babikian — something that has been known by penny stock researchers for years but with the SEC stating it the odds increase that he will be named in a suit soon. It is also quite possible that he or others are cooperating with the SEC. Kalfayan’s company is directly linked to paying for some Awesomepennystocks.com (APS) emails (see page 6 of the declaration).

Other interesting tidbits include the fact that Babikian acquired his ASWR shares directly from the company in a PIPE and deposited them at John Thomas Financial and from there he transferred the shares to an account at Frankfurter Bank (Brown Brothers Harriman was the US custodian of the shares). On the day that AWSR was pumped he sold a number of shares from that account and also transferred some shares to an account held at Apex Clearing and sold some from that account. (On a side note, John Thomas Financial collapsed after being investigated by FINRA and the SEC for its involvement with AWSR.)

Getting back to the question in the title of this blog post, I believe that Babikian is in the UAE because NetJets recently agreed to repurchase the fractional jet ownership interest of Vertical International Relief Fund (Babikian’s front charity – see info PDF) for substantially below market cost. And:

Babikian has requested that NetJets wire the proceeds to an account in the name of “Elementos Ltd.” at a financial institution in the United Arab Emirates named Emirates NBD [page 17 of document below]

SEC v. Babikian Doc 15 Filed 21 Mar 14 by scion_scion

Disclaimer: No position in any stock mentioned above. I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above except that I am a paying subscriber of PromotionStockSecrets. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

SEC Suspends trading in third pot stock and perennial scam Citadel EFT $CDFT

Smart people have been saying for well over half a year that the SEC should do something about Citadel EFT. The stock almost never traded though until the company put out a press release three weeks ago announcing that the company was getting into the marijuana business.

SEC suspension press release
SEC suspension order

I warned about CDFT multiple times:

…


I shorted CDFT the day after the marijuana news came out and ended up getting squeezed badly. That is the problem with shorting scams, particularly in a bull market — the stock can go up a lot and squeeze you out before getting suspended by the SEC.

 

($2,713)lossCDFTShort Stock
IB batch import through 3/18/2014

Interactive Brokers

Posted by MichaelGoode /
http://profit.ly/1ModyH

Unlike with most of its suspensions, the SEC was quite detailed in its reasoning for the trading suspension of CDFT:

The Commission temporarily suspended trading in the securities of Citadel because of questions that have been raised about the accuracy and adequacy of publicly disseminated information concerning, among other things, the company’s business operations and assets. In particular, there are questions regarding the accuracy, completeness, and validity of Citadel’s several recent press releases, Form 8-Ks, and other public statements since January 2014 relating to transactions involving standby letters of credit (“SBLC’s”), see Prime Bank Instrument Fraud, TreasuryDirect.gov (U.S. Department of the Treasury), http://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/statreg/fraud/fraud_primebank.htm (last visited Mar. 20, 2014) and Brazilian Letras Tesouro Nacional (“LTN’s”), see Frauds Related to Public Bonds, Tesouro Nacional (Brazil), https://www.tesouro.fazenda.gov.br/en/about-the-federal-publicdebt/ frauds-related-to-public-bonds (last visited Mar. 20, 2014). Citadel is a Wyoming corporation based in Oceanside, California. It is quoted on OTC Link under the symbol CDFT. This order was entered pursuant to Section 12(k) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act).

The Brazilian bonds aren’t even the first fake bonds CDFT has been involved with: there were fake US bonds that they acquired last summer. Janice Shell’s expose of that led the company to threaten her and with a libel lawsuit. I love this quote from that PR:

Gary DeRoos, CEO, Citadel EFT, Inc., states, “The author, Janice Shell, who published batten falsehoods, undermines Citadel EFT, Inc.’s efforts to grow our company to our shareholders’ benefit. Our shareholders are quite perturbed with this website and its posting, and have been proactive in bringing attention to this matter. “

On a related note, George Sharp, the owner of Pumpsanddumps.com, sued CDFT and its CEO a year ago.

Disclaimer: No position in any stock mentioned above. I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

SEC Suspends trading in another pot stock: Petrotech Oil & Gas $PTOG

This morning the SEC suspended trading in former oil and gas stock and current me-too marijuana stock Petrotech Oil & Gas (PTOG). PTOG entered the marijuana business and put out a press release about that on February 19. PTOG has also been the subject of numerous email promotional campaigns since last May and continuing to this morning. Here is the disclaimer of one promoter that touted PTOG this morning at 7:53am:

AwesomeStocks.com is a web property owned by Empire Investment Group Ltd. AwesomeStocks.com has been compensated up to $10,000 for this profile of PTOG by a third party. .

The suspension of PTOG scared many traders of marijuana stocks and caused gaps down in TRTC and GRNH. Many traders I know were long PTOG overnight because of its strong close yesterday. PTOG will reopen for trading at market open on March 28th.

SEC suspension release (pdf)
SEC suspension order (pdf)

This is now the second suspension of a marijuana stock, following last week’s AVNE trading suspension. If this continues then the marijuana hype should die down.

The Commission temporarily suspended trading in the securities of PTOG because of questions that have been raised about the accuracy and adequacy of publicly disseminated information concerning, among other things, the company’s operations.

The Commission acknowledges FINRA’s assistance in this matter.

ptog

Disclaimer: I was long GRNH overnight and lost some money as it gapped down. I have no net position in TRTC at the moment but I am long 3183 shares in one account and short 3183 shares in another account. I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

Be careful what you smoke: SEC Suspends trading in pot stock $AVNE

Two days ago the SEC suspended trading in Aventura Equities, Inc (AVNE). AVNE is one of a large number of penny stocks that have recently issued press releases stating that they are getting into the marijuana business. While there are a few real marijuana-related penny stock companies (all of which are horrible companies and have overvalued stocks), most of the companies recently issuing press releases are little more than shells.

SEC suspension release (pdf)
SEC suspension order (pdf)

The reasoning given for the trading suspension should strike fear in everyone trading these ‘wannabe’ marijuana stocks:

The Commission temporarily suspended trading in the securities of Aventura because of questions concerning the adequacy and accuracy of publicly available information about Aventura, including, among other things, its financial condition, the control of the company, its business operations, and trading in its securities.

The press release that the company issued to announce that it was entering the marijuana business was issued on February 26, 2014. The stock more than doubled and traded a decent number of shares in the weeks following that press release. Also of note is that AVNE is linked to the Jan / Hipple company iEquity, which is also linked to SKTO and AEGY (which have both entered the marijuana business recently as well). I would not be surprised to see those stocks get suspended soon. I previously wrote about why I thought SKTO was at risk of an SEC trading suspension, almost a year ago.

avne

Disclaimer: I have no position in any stocks mentioned. I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

SEC Suspends trading in three recent pump and dumps

Today the SEC suspended trading in Suburban Minerals Corp. (SUBB),  Global Earth Energy, Inc. (GLER), and Broadcast Live Digital Corp. (BFLD).

SUBB suspension release (pdf)
SUBB suspension order (pdf)

SUBB has been promoted since January 7th of this year by most of the promoters out there. It was suspended by the SEC because of

The Commission temporarily suspended trading in Suburban due to a lack of current and
accurate information concerning the securities of Suburban including questions regarding the
accuracy of publicly available information about the company’s operations.

The SEC acknowledges the assistance of the Alberta Securities Commission, Quebec Autorité
des Marchés Financiers, and the British Columbia Securities Commission in this matter.

That is of course the standard SEC boilerplate language, although the 2nd paragraph quoted above indicates that the Canadians alerted the SEC about the problems with SUBB.

subb

GLER suspension release (pdf)
GLER suspension order (pdf)

GLER was promoted back in May of 2013 and again in November 2013 by various promoters including VIPStockReports.com. The SEC was more specific in its language about why GLER was suspended:

The Commission temporarily suspended trading in the securities of Global Earth because, among
other things, of questions regarding the accuracy and completeness of Global Earth’s
representations to investors and prospective investors in Global Earth’s public filings with the
Commission and Global Earth’s publicly-available press releases and other public statements. In
particular, there are questions regarding the accuracy and completeness of Global Earth’s public
assertions relating to its business transactions with Hawk Manufacturing Corp.

gler

BFLD suspension release (pdf)
BFLD suspension order (pdf)

BFLD was promoted all throughout 2013 and even through this morning, by many different promoters. This morning it was promoted by PennyPicks.net, BreakoutBulls.com, and InvestmentNewsalert.com.

The reasons given for the suspension of BFLD are the standard boilerplate language the SEC uses:

The Commission temporarily suspended trading in BFLD due to a lack of current and accurate
information concerning the securities of BFLD because of questions regarding the accuracy of
publicly available information about the company’s operations. BFLD’s ticker symbol is BFLD.

bfld

Disclaimer: I have no position in any stocks mentioned. I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

SEC Wins judgment against Jerry Williams of Monk’s Den in stock scalping suit

I previously wrote about how the SEC sued Jerry S. Williams aka Monk from Monk’s Den on InvestorsHub. I also wrote about how even if Jerry Williams hadn’t been scalping his followers (selling when he said he was buying) his ‘float lock-down’ schemes were illegal.

Well, the SEC won a judgment (filed February 12th) against Williams to the tune of $2,357,208 in disgorgement of illicit profits, $188,766 in interest, and $2,357,208 in civil penalties. It is nice to see the good guys win once in awhile and with a judgment of twice his illicit profits.

SEC press release

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that on February 12, 2014, a Connecticut federal court entered judgments against a former Connecticut-based stock promoter, Jerry S. Williams, and two companies that he controlled, Monk’s Den, LLC and First In Awareness, LLC, who are defendants in a Commission enforcement action filed in 2012 alleging that they operated a fraudulent Internet-based stock touting and scalping scheme. The judgments order the defendants to pay a total of over $9.6 million.

Judgment against Jerry Williams (pdf)

Credit goes to Scion for finding and posting the judgment first.

SEC v. Williams Et Al Doc 70 Filed 12 Feb 14 by scion_scion

Disclaimer: I have no position in any stock mentioned. I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

Spam pump Imogo Mobile Technologies $IMTC suspended by SEC as predicted

I previously wrote about the Imogo Mobile Technologies (IMTC) spam / hard mailer pump. I wrote the following in that post:

The most recent stock promoted by StockCastle was NVGC and that was suspended by the SEC. NVGC was also promoted via a hard mailer. IMTC is definitely at risk of a trading suspension.

So it is hardly surprising that the SEC suspended trading in IMTC this morning

IMTC suspension press release (pdf)
IMTC suspension order (pdf)

The reasoning given by the SEC is their boilerplate:

The Commission temporarily suspended trading in the securities of IMTC because of
questions that have been raised about the accuracy and adequacy of publicly disseminated
information concerning, among other things, IMTC’s business, revenue, and assets.

 

Disclaimer: I have no position in any stocks mentioned and no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

Other recent SEC trading suspensions

As I slowly work my way through my backlog of blog posts that I need to write there are three other recent SEC trading suspensions of note: OLIE, HSCO, and AMOG. Amogear (AMOG) is the simpler suspension so I address it first even though it came after the suspension of OLIE/HSCO.

AMOG suspension press release (pdf)
AMOG suspension order (pdf)

AMOG had trading suspended by the SEC on February 10th. The reason is shown below:

The Commission temporarily suspended trading in the securities of Amogear because the company has recently been the subject of spam e-mails touting the company’s shares and because of potentially manipulative conduct in the trading of the company’s shares.

Oddly enough I did not receive any spam emails promoting AMOG and the first opt-in promotional emails that I received were sent the same morning it was suspended. The SEC must have been watching AMOG prior to that. As to Hi Score Corp (HSCO) and Olie Inc (OLIE), they appeared to be engaged in blatant fraud. I tweeted that back in late December, linking to Janice Shell’s excellent article on OLIE and HSCO at Pumpsanddumps.com.

Excellent article by Janice Shell on what appears to be blatant fraud at $HSCO and $OLIE http://t.co/reEH79G7e6 via @PUMPSandDUMPS — Michael Goode (@goodetrades) December 22, 2013

Below is the reason given by the SEC for the trading suspensions of OLIE and HSCO:

The Commission temporarily suspended trading in Olie and Hi Score due to a lack of current and accurate information about the companies. There are questions regarding the accuracy of publicly available information about both companies’ assets, acquisitions, business activities, control persons, securities offerings, and financing arrangements

OLIE / HSCO suspension press release (pdf)
OLIE / HSCO suspension order (pdf) Disclaimer: I have no position in any stocks mentioned and no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

SEC Returns from vacation, suspends trading in Centor Energy $CNTO

Yesterday the SEC suspended trading in a major hard mailer pump and dump for the first time since it suspended trading in Makism (MDDD) last December 13th. I previously blogged about the initial CNTO pump last May and I blogged about the repump on January 1st.

 

SEC trading suspension release
SEC trading suspension order

Just like with the suspensions of trading of Sovereign Lithium (SLCO) and Guar Global (GGBL)  the SEC highlighted potentially manipulative trading in the stock in addition to the standard concerns about adequacy of information about the company:

The Commission temporarily suspended trading in the securities of Centor because of questions
regarding the accuracy and adequacy of assertions by Centor, and by others, to investors in press
releases and promotional material concerning, among other things, the company’s assets,
operations, and financial prospects.

 

cnto

 

Disclaimer: I have no position in any stocks mentioned and no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

Imogo Mobile Technologies $IMTC pump & dump

Again, my apologies for this delayed posting. Luckily others on the internet have posted about the IMTC pump:

Promotion Stock Secrets post about IMTC hard mailer
Direct link to IMTC full mailer (pdf) from Promotion Stock Secrets
Penny Stock Realist article on IMTC on SeekingAlpha

The SeekingAlpha article goes into the promotion of IMTC by StockCastle, a notorious spam promoter. The most recent stock promoted by StockCastle was NVGC and that was suspended by the SEC. NVGC was also promoted via a hard mailer. IMTC is definitely at risk of a trading suspension.

Disclosed budget: $3,000,000
Promoter: Wall Street Revelator / Andy Carpenter
Paying party: Fenvo Enterprises Limited
Shares outstanding:  73,500,000
Previous closing price: $0.46
Market capitalization: $34 million

 

Below is a screenshot of the top of the IMTCreport.com website.

 

Excerpt from disclaimer:

The Wall Street Revelator and/or its publisher, Andrew Carpenter has received a total amount of ten thousand dollars in cash compensation to assist in the writing of this Advertisement, as well as potential future subscription and advertising revenues, the amount of which is not known at this time with respect to the publication of this Advertisement and future publications. Fenvo Enterprises Limited paid three million dollars to marketing vendors to pay for all the costs of creating and distributing this Advertisement, including printing and postage, in an effort to build investor and market awareness.

Full disclaimer:

IMPORTANT NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER: DO NOT BASE ANY INVESTMENT DECISION UPON ANY MATERIALS FOUND IN THIS REPORT. This publication is distributed free of charge and does not provide an analysis of a company’s financial position. The information contained herein has been prepared for informational purposes only and is not intended to be used as a complete source of information on any particular company, including Imogo Mobile Technologies (IMTC). Imogo Mobile Technologies’ financial position and all other information regarding Imogo Mobile Technologies should be verified with the company. An individual should never invest in the securities of any company, including IMTC based solely on information contained in this advertisement. Information about many publicly traded companies, including Imogo Mobile Technologies, and other investor resources can be found at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at www.sec.gov. Investing in securities is speculative and carries risk. It is recommended that any investment in any security should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing all publicly available information, including the financial statements of the company. This mailing piece is not intended to be, nor should it be construed as, an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities, nor should it be construed as the provision of any investment-related advice or services tailored to any particular individual’s financial situation or investment objective(s). The Wall Street Revelator is a bona fide publication of general and regular circulation offering impersonalized investment-related research to readers and/or prospective readers and is not an investment adviser either with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or with any state securities regulatory authority. The Wall Street Revelator is neither licensed nor qualified to provide financial advice. As such, it relies upon the “publisher’s exclusion” as provided under Section 202(a)(11) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and corresponding state securities laws. Staff members of The Wall Street Revelator and its afiliates do not hold positions in investments mentioned herein. Investing in companies like Imogo Mobile Technologies carries a high degree of risk. Do not invest in this company unless you can afford to possibly lose your entire investment. Individuals should assume that all information contained herein about IMTC and other companies is not trustworthy unless verified by their own independent research. The Wall Street Revelator and/or its publisher, Andrew Carpenter has received a total amount of ten thousand dollars in cash compensation to assist in the writing of this Advertisement, as well as potential future subscription and advertising revenues, the amount of which is not known at this time with respect to the publication of this Advertisement and future publications. Fenvo Enterprises Limited paid three million dollars to marketing vendors to pay for all the costs of creating and distributing this Advertisement, including printing and postage, in an effort to build investor and market awareness. If successful, the Advertisement will increase investor and market awareness, which may result in increased numbers of shareholders owning and trading the common stock of Imogo Mobile Technologies increased trading volumes, and possibly increased share price of the common stock of Imogo Mobile Technologies. It is believed that all outside research, materials and information used to compile this Advertisement, is accurate and reliable. However, each person should perform their own due diligence and consult with advisors of their choice in making any investment decision. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Additionally, it includes forward-looking statements and information within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements regarding expected growth of the featured company. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectation, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, goods, assumptions or future events or performance may be forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained herein (which include all statements other than historical information) are based on expectations, estimates and projections at the time the statements are made that involve a significant number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to dier materially from those presently anticipated. To the fullest extent of the law, we will not be liable to any person or entity for the quality, accuracy, completeness, reliability, or timeliness of the information provided herein, or for any direct, indirect, consequential, incidental, special or punitive damages that may arise out of the use of information we provide to any person or entity (including, but not limited to, lost profits, loss of opportunities, trading losses, and damages that may result from any inaccuracy or incompleteness of this information)

PDF copy of pump page

imtc

Disclaimer: I have no position in IMTC. I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.