Lie on messageboard runs up stock
Part 1: The Ultimate Proof That You Can't Trust Message Boards
By Herb Greenberg
Senior Columnist
Originally posted at 6:29 AM ET 6/21/00 on RealMoney.com
Tuesday morning's item about how somebody leaked info on Internet message boards about the Food and Drug Administration status of Cyber-Care's (CYBR:Nasdaq - news) electronic house-call patient-monitoring system took an unusual and bizarre twist. Before the column appeared, but after my associate Mark Martinez had a telephone interview Monday morning with the person who had posted the Cyber-Care info, the poster filed a new message claiming that what he originally posted about Cyber-Care and the FDA was a lie.
But if the confession is bizarre, so is Martinez's interview with Mike Mayer, the poster and former insider who worked for a company Cyber-Care acquired. At one point, Mayer posted his phone number on the Raging Bull message boards in an effort to give credibility to his posts that supposedly showed where Cyber-Care was in the FDA's application queue. As previously reported here, the only way to get info about where a company is in the FDA's queue is to give the FDA the application number of the product and the date the application was submitted. And the person making the request must be the authorized representative, whose name is on the application.
Wondering how he got the info, Mark called Mayer on Monday morning. Mark started the conversation by asking whether Mayer spoke with "a girl or a guy" at the FDA. It was "a girl and a guy," Mayer said. But Mayer said he couldn't identify the person at the FDA, and would say only that he was able to obtain the info.
Mark then told Mayer that anybody who had the application number easily could zero in on the Cyber-Care authorized representative contact person by just trying out different names with the FDA. Mark then ticked off a list of the company's highest officers. "They aren't the point of contact," at Cyber-Care, Mayer said.
"How do you know that?" Mark pressed. "How do you know that none of these people are the point of contact?"
"I am just assuming," Mayer responded.
Mayer then asked why Mark was asking so many questions. "I told him that it is interesting that someone could call the FDA and get this information -- especially when the FDA tells us that you have to be the authorized rep to get this information," Mark told me.
Mayer than accused Mark of trying to concoct a story. "I reiterated that when the FDA tells me that you can't get this information, and the ex-insider is telling me that he got it whenever he wanted, that is interesting," Mark reports. "Also reminded him that he was on the record, and that everything we speak about is quotable. I reminded him that the first thing I said when I called him was that I am Mark Martinez, a reporter at TheStreet.com, and that everything we talk about is on the record."
"Towards the end of our conversation -- after I reminded him about being on the record -- he then said that I had better not be recording this conversation, because doing so would be illegal. I told him that I could type quickly; I don't need to tape-record anything. He said it didn't matter anyway; even if we do publish this stuff, he said, 'I will deny everything that I told you up to this point.' I assured him that he could do whatever he wanted to do, but that even his denial comment was publishable."
"Mayer began to question the legality of our publishing this kind of information. I told him that he should simply be more professional about this interview. He then questioned whether this was an interview. At one point he attempted to school me on the rules of journalism. I asked him if he was a pharmacist or a reporter. And he said, 'I am a lawyer.'"
"Oh, a lawyer," Mark mused.
"I might be Bozo the Clown," Mayer continued. "Or I might be a doctor."
At this point, Mark reports, "I told him I'd like to keep this professional. He said I wasn't being professional and that he was basically sick of me. He then hung up."
Later Monday night this appeared under Mayer's Raging Bull handle: "To all about FDA approval. I wanted to inform everyone that I never did talk with the FDA. I just approximated the place that CYBR was in the queue based on a post back in May that said we were #6 in the cue. As you are aware, I was wrong by saying we were #2 in the queue, when CYBR had FDA approval already. I lied. I never had a discussion with anyone from the FDA or knew anything about the process that surrounded the CYBR-FDA process. I left my phone number to make you think I had talked with the FDA. The FDA would not release any information to me about CYBR when I did try to call once."
Mayer didn't return Mark's call Tuesday morning.
Interestingly, the message on Mayer's voice mail had been changed from one that identified Mayer to one with just the sound of someone blowing (hot?) air.
Was he lying? Was he trying to cover his tracks? Doesn't really matter: It shows just how dangerous and potentially misleading message boards can be.
SEC officials, meanwhile, say they are continuing with their informal inquiry into issues surrounding the Cyber-Care story.
Stayed tuned for Part 2 of this story, coming up.
thestreet.com
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I checked into Cybercare and thought it was a limited potential idea. Kinda like ADT for the home but watching homeowners for medical issues.
Jack |
