In case you all have not seen my excellent coverage at AOL's "Motley Fool" Central, Here is their rightous testament to Low Rent Stock.
Yaaas, Just think kiddies, you could have dumped all yer money in Genesco last year when is was 1 15/16 and watched it go to 9 3/8 or so! Genesco has been around for a loooong time. Hooboy can we pick-em or what!
This reads very very sour if you are a 'holder'. In fact it is second best to a saline spray being applied to an open sucking chest wound...
BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE
Fools across the globe should herald this day. Today marks the first time the Securities and Exchange Commission has brought suit aimed at stopping securities manipulation over the net. As reported in today's New York Times, the chairman of a tiny company called Systems of Excellence (known by ticker symbol: SEXI), will have all of his assets frozen by the federal courts in Washington, D.C. This freeze is the result of accusations that the CEO conspired with authors of the SGA Goldstar investment newsletter to manipulate the stock higher. The authors also had their assets frozen.
Allegedly, the two authors Theodore R. Melcher Jr. and Shannon B. Terry received 300,000 shares of illegal stock in exchange for hyping SEXI in their newsletter research. Quoting from their letter earlier this year in regard to a possible SEXI contract: "SGA wrote that its unnamed source 'informed us of a rumored federal government order so large which we do not even want to rumor the size of the order.' "
Shares of SEXI were halted for trading on October 7 and have not resumed. We at the Motley Fool stand in strong support of today's actions by the regulatory bodies. Long-time Fools are aware that the Fool has a policy to not open message folders for stock trading under $5. This sort of manipulation is exactly why we refuse to do so. And, despite hundreds of requests for a SEXI folder earlier this year, no such folder was ever opened in our forum.
MotleyFool, David Gardner, commented to the Financial Times today that the Fool fully supports the actions of the SEC and will continue to educate our readers on such manipulative practices. The Fool "encourages the SEC to ferret out the unscrupulous and we feel the internet/Motley Fool provides a forum to shed light and truth *not* evil and falsehoods." It is David's strong belief that the Internet is a much stronger tool for exposing manipulation and that we are better off as an investment community because of it. Think about it, whenever one of these manipulators posts, they leave a permanent paper trail right to their front door. David argues, convincingly so, that boiler room operations with cold callers have no immediate checks and balances, whereas the Internet allows people to immediately react to such fraudulent practices.
TELETEK (NASDAQ:TLTK)
After reading the SEXI story, you might also want to flip the cyber page over at the Times to the story of Teletek. Quoting briefly from the Times:
"A Federal grand jury here has indicted 30 people, including former officers of Teletek Inc. and United Payphone Services Inc., on charges of money laundering and other improprieties in a scheme to run up the stocks of three companies by bribing brokers and stock promoters."
The grand jury alleges that former officers of Teletek bribed brokers by sending them cash in the overnight mail as well as illegally issuing millions of shares of Teletek stock as bribes. Teletek shares rose as high as $16.25 between 1991 and 1995, the time frame of the alleged laundering and fraud. Today, shares of Teletek are off $1/4 at $1 5/16.
Unlike the SEXI story, the Fool was not able to avoid opening a folder for Teletek earlier this year. Fans of the company barraged the Fool with requests as soon as the stock traded above $5. In keeping with our rules, we honored their requests and opened the folder. Heated debate over the merits of the company soon ensued. Press the link below for a sampling of posts from early on in the Teletek folder and the battles that were waged. Needless to say, the Teletek folder will be soon closed down at the Fool.
Transmitted: 11/8/96 11:53 PM (msgfraud) |
