Bid.Com International Inc -
Bid.Com bogus booster settles with SEC
Bid.Com International Inc BII
Shares issued 48,339,072 1999-11-19 close $6.2
Friday Nov 19 1999
by Brent Mudry
In a consent settlement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, an Internet hoaxer who briefly boosted Bid.Com International's stock price in July, amid a flurry of heavy trading, has promised not to disrupt the market with such a stunt again. In a decision released Friday, the SEC notes the settlement with Leszek Zbierajewski, 25, of Chicago, includes no fine, based on his demonstrated inability to pay. The SEC filed its settled injunctive action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on Thursday.
The SEC notes that on July 8, at 12:53 p.m. EDT, or Eastern Daylight Time, Mr. Zbierajewski, using the screen name "jag_98_," posted a message on a Yahoo! Finance message board that included a fake press release purportedly made through PR Newswire, revealing an $89-million "strategic alliance" between Bid.Com and America OnLine. The bogus press release was a doctored copy of a legitimate release issued a few days earlier by another company. The SEC notes that Mr. Zbierajewski, using his same chat name, later retracted his bogus post, and Bid.Com and AOL declared it was a hoax.
Jag 98's bogus chat post was quite effective. The SEC notes that in the first two hours of trading that day, Bid.Com traded an average of 154,000 shares an hour, but the hourly volume shot up to one million shares after the false news was sent. Bid.Com traders pushed the stock price up from $8.50 (U.S.) at 1 p.m. to $9 (U.S.) at 2 p.m. Mr. Zbierajewski agreed to a permanent injunction against future violations. No other respondents were named by the SEC.
(c) Copyright 1999 Canjex Publishing Ltd. canada-stockwatch.com
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