Dear friends (if you are honest you are a friend, otherwise put yourself in another category), I feel compelled to share something with you that I found on the SEC site. I'm sure they wouldn't mind I share this with you. I once traded a Nasdaq company with the symbol SEXI. I made lots of money not knowing what was really going on behind the scenes. Here's the story:
"Charles O. Huttoe and twelve other defendants secretly distributed to friends and family nearly 42 million shares of Systems of Excellence Inc., known by its ticker symbol "SEXI." In this classic "pump and dump" scheme, Huttoe drove up the price of SEXI shares through false press releases claiming non-existent multi-million dollar sales, an acquisition that had not occurred, and revenue projections that had no basis in reality. He also bribed co-defendant SGA Goldstar to tout SEXI to subscribers to SGA Goldstar's online "Whisper Stocks" newsletter. The SEC fined Huttoe $12.5 million. But he spent most of his ill-gotten gains, and investors did not get their money back. Huttoe and Theodore R. Melcher, Jr., the author of the online newsletter, were sentenced to federal prison. In addition, four of Huttoe's cohorts pled guilty to criminal charges. "
I made money because I bought and sold the stock several times. My brothers and my parents are still holding useless paper now because I could not persuade them to sell.
What is the point of posting this?
I just feel compelled to reassure people that although there seems to be lots of funny business going on with stocks these days, the SEC seems right on top of things. The bigger the mess, the longer it takes to clean up. But even as a Canadian citizen watching all this, I feel confident that the SEC is going to really clean things up down there. I hope it is soon.
If you see activity that does not look legal, just report it. It gives the SEC more ammunition. I hope you are all here when the house is clean.
Lola:) |
