Could someone please explain to me why Diversinet has some of
the sleaziest I.R. in the business?
For starters, we have BG Capital.
bgcap.com
This is the investor relations firm of Bobby Genovese.
This firm was at one time a member of the NASD, but was suspended:
Firms Suspended
The following firms were suspended from membership in the NASD for failure
to comply with formal written requests to submit financial information to
the NASD. The actions were based on the provisions of NASD Rule 8120 and
Article VII, Section 2 of the NASD By-Laws. The date the suspensions
commenced is listed after the entry. If the firm has complied with the
requests for information, the listing also includes the date the suspension
concluded.
BG Capital, Inc., Syosset, New York (September 3, 1997)
nasdr.com
They just recently had their registration cancelled:
BROKER-DEALER CANCELLATIONS
The registrations of the following broker-dealers with the
Commission were cancelled by Commission order pursuant to Section
15(b)(5) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 on the dates noted
below. The following broker-dealers either failed to comply with
applicable requirements of the Securities Investor Protection Corp.
(SIPC) or failed to be a member of a self-regulatory organization.
Any customer of one of the following broker-dealers who has not
received his or her cash or securities from the broker-dealer should
immediately contact the National Association of Securities Dealers
Inc. (NASD), at 1-800-289-9999 and ask to be referred to the
appropriate local NASD office. Representatives of your local NASD
office will be able to assist you with any questions you may have.
Persons with cash or securities in a securities account at one of
the broker-dealers listed below may have a claim against the
broker-dealer under the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970
(SIPA). SIPC may act to protect customers for only 180 days from
the date of the cancellation. For information regarding the nature
of SIPC protection, please contact SIPC at 805 Fifteenth Street,
N.W., Suite 800, Washington D.C., (202) 371-8300.
Broker-Dealer Date of Cancellation
Aaron, Charles Securities Inc. 6/29/1999
Alden Capital Markets Inc. 6/29/1999
Alliance Asset Group Inc. 6/29/1999
Bassock, Jeffrey L. 6/29/1999
BG Capital Inc. 6/29/1999
etc.
sec.gov
There is the usual disclaimer at the BG Capital web site, but no mention of
the fee paid by Diversinet to BG Capital. Anyone know?
Next, we have:
stockhouse.com
Stockhouse fancies itself as a kind of small cap investment portal, but the real
agenda here is touting highly speculative junior stocks, mostly from the VSE,
ASE, and the Canadian OTC. Companies pay to be featured by Stockhouse
and to be included in their "Insider Report" email list. While often the most
recent recommendations perform well, one only needs to scout back 8 or 10 months
and check stock prices to realize that virtually all companies featured here are
of the pump and dump variety. Cases in point: Dynamic Ventures (DVL.Alberta),
featured during July '88, was recently issued a cease trade order by the Alberta
Stock Exchange for "failure to file certain required financial information" and
MicroMem Technologies, last mentioned in Dec. '98 recently moved from the OTC
BB to the pink sheets for failure to file financials.
Check the recent interview with CEO of Diversinet Nagy Moustafa at Stockhouse:
stockhouse.com
Interesting to note that the interview was conducted by Stockhouse "Senior Columnist"
Christos Livadas. Mr. Livadas is best known for blowing up dozens of investors via
his now defunct internet newsletter known as the "Central Investment Agency".
Dozens of mostly mining and oil/gas juniors were highly touted, and prices
were driven to high levels as a result of manipulation and very thin
public floats. In every case, they ended up in the
recycle bin or trading for a few pennies. Among the more high profile were
Goldtex Resources (GXR.Alberta), promoted to $14 in '96 even though it had no producing
properties, now renamed Cantex Mining and trading at $.16, Erin Ventures (EV.Alberta),
$5 in '97 to a current $.12, and Everest Mining, which peaked at $3.50 and now
trades on the VSE at $.04.
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