To: Ronald P. Margraf Sr. who wrote (6734 ) 3/13/2000 2:02:00 PM From: Rajiv Respond to of 18222
From bloomberg - Econnect Halted by SEC, Citing Questions About Claims (Update1) By David Evans Econnect Halted by SEC, Citing Questions About Claims (Update1) (Adds details about stock trading, company's operations.) Los Angeles, California, March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Trading in eConnect Inc. was halted for two weeks by the Securities and Exchange Commission, citing questions about the accuracy of the company's press releases. The Los Angeles company, which owns Internet auction sites, soared from 45 cents this year to last week's high of 21 7/8. It fell 4 1/2 Friday to 10, on trading of 18.9 million shares. The SEC is looking into eConnect's claims to have a license with hand-held computer maker Palm Inc. and an alliance with Empire Financial Group Inc., a Florida brokerage, for electronic transfers of cash into trading accounts. The SEC also is examining the amount of revenue the company claims one of its Web sites generated. The halt took effect at 9:30 a.m. and will continue until 11:59 p.m. on March 24. As of Sept. 30, the date of its most recent financial statement, eConnect had current assets of $44,646, compared to current liabilities of $734,949. EConnect last year said it operated 'the world's largest on- line or off-line exclusive sports memorabilia auction' at www.econnectauction.com. The site, which it said had 15,000 pre- registered users, now has zero items listed for sale. Though eConnect has been popular with small investors, the rise in its share price has fueled more than $1 billion worth of stock transactions in the first eight days this month. The average trade was about 1,000 shares, according to Bloomberg analytics. EConnect's corporate publicist, Elias Argyropoulos, is a former stockbroker who was banned from the brokerage industry in 1995 by the National Association of Securities Dealers for stock ``manipulation' and unauthorized trading in customer accounts.