Broker/Dealer and OTC Market Maker Delaney Equity Group sued by SEC

Four days ago the SEC announced its suit against Delaney Equity Group LLC, a Florida-based stock broker and OTC market maker (market maker ID: DLNY), for allegedly refusing to hand over documents related to an investigation by the SEC’s microcap fraud task force.

See the SEC litigation release. Excerpt:

 The SEC’s complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, alleges that in April 2015, the SEC Enforcement Division required Delaney to produce to it various categories of documents it was legally required to preserve and produce, upon demand, to the SEC. The complaint further alleges that Delaney, despite being granted several extensions and having made repeated representations through its counsel that the firm would produce documents, has failed to provide any responsive documents to date.1-1 1-2 1-main

The case is 9:15-cv-81384-DMM Securities and Exchange Commission v. Delaney Equity Group LLC. The case is in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida with Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks presiding.

SEC complaint (PDF)

Docket listing:

Doc.
No.
Dates Description
10
Filed: 10/09/2015
Entered: 10/13/2015
Docket Text Set/Reset Motion/R&R Deadlines and Hearings
8
Filed & Entered:   10/08/2015
Docket Text Acknowledgment of Service
9
Filed & Entered:   10/08/2015
Docket Text Motion for Preliminary Injunction
7
Filed & Entered:   10/07/2015
Docket Text Order on Motion for Temporary Restraining Order
1
Filed & Entered:   10/06/2015
Docket Text Complaint
2
Filed & Entered:   10/06/2015
Docket Text Judge Assignment
3
Filed & Entered:   10/06/2015
Docket Text Clerk’s Notice of Consent to Proceed Before Magistrate Judge
4
Filed & Entered:   10/06/2015
Docket Text Summons Issued
5
Filed & Entered:   10/06/2015
Terminated: 10/07/2015
Docket Text Motion for Temporary Restraining Order
6
Filed & Entered:   10/06/2015
Docket Text Notice (Other)

 

This is not the first time that Delaney Equity Group LLC has run afoul of regulators. The company and its founder David C. Delaney were censured by and fined a combined $255,000 by FINRA in 2012 for abetting the sale of unregistered shares in microcap stocks.

From the FINRA offer of settlement:

During the period from December 2008 through July 2010, DEG, acting through
Delaney, its President, Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) and Anti-Money Laundering
Compliance Officer (AMLCO), allowed customer B.A. and its numerous affiliated
accounts to sell almost a billion newly issued, unregistered equity shares offive issuers:
Connectyx (CTYX), ProPalms USA, Inc. (PRPM), Shot Spirits (SSPr), Solos Endoscopy
(SNDY) and Green Bridge (GRBG). As a result, DEG and Delaney participated in the
distribution ofalmost a billion shares ofunregistered and non-exempt securities, in
contravention ofSection 5 ofthe Securities Act of 1933 (Securities Act). and in violation
ofFINRA Rule 2010.

Customer “B.A.” is Big Apple Consulting.

Disclaimer: I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

Portlogic Systems $PGSY promoted via online landing page

This morning I received emails promoting Portlogic Systems (PGSY) for the first time. The emails link to this website: http://breakawaystocks.com/pgsy/

Considering the low budget for this promotion and the poor stock promotion environment currently I doubt it goes up very much and it should make for a good short soon.

 

Disclosed budget: $200,000
Promoter:  Eric Dickson / Breakaway Stocks
Paying party: Aspen Agency Ltd
Shares outstanding: 33,525,784
Previous closing price: $0.87
Market capitalization: $29 million

PGSY_image

pgsy

Excerpt from disclaimer:

Portlogic Systems, (PGSY), the company featured in this issue, appears as paid advertising, paid by Aspen Agency LTD to provide public awareness for PGSY.

KP has received and managed a total production budget of up to $200,000 per week for this advertising effort and will retain any amounts over and above the cost of production, copywriting services, mailing and other distribution expenses, as a fee for its services. Breakaway Stocks is paid $5,000 as an editorial fee from KP and also expects to receive new subscriber revenue as a result of this advertising effort.

Full disclaimer (from landing page):

IMPORTANT NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER: This featured company sponsored advertising issue of Breakaway Stocks does not purport to provide an analysis of any company’s financial position,
operations or prospects and this is not to beconstrued as a recommendation by Breakaway Stocks or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security. Portlogic Systems, (PGSY), the company featured in this issue, appears as paid advertising, paid by Aspen Agency LTD to provide public awareness for PGSY. Aspen Agency LTD has approved and signed off as “approved for public dissemination” all statements made herein regarding PGSY’s history, assets, technologies, current as well as prospective business operations and industry information. Breakaway Stocks and Kingsborough Publishing (KP) have used outside research and writers using public information to create the advertisement coming from Breakaway Stocks about PGSY. Although the information contained in this advertisement is believed to be reliable, Breakaway Stocks and KP makes no warranties as to the accuracy of any of the content herein and accepts no liability for how readers may choose to utilize the content. Readers should perform their own due-diligence, including consulting with a licensed, qualified investment professional or analyst. Further, readers are strongly urged to independently verify all statements made in this advertisement and perform extensive due diligence on this or any other advertised company. Breakaway Stocks is not offering securities for sale. An offer to buy or sell can be made only with accompanying disclosure documents and only in the states and provinces for which they are approved. Many states have established rules requiring the approval of a security by a state security administrator. Check with http://www.nasaa.org or call your state security administrator to determine whether a particular security is licensed for sale in your state. Many companies have information filed with state securities regulators and many will supply investors with additional information on request. KP has received and managed a total production budget of up to $200,000 per week for this advertising effort and will retain any amounts over and above the cost of production, copywriting services, mailing and other distribution expenses, as a fee for its services. Breakaway Stocks is paid $5,000 as an editorial fee from KP and also expects to receive new subscriber revenue as a result of this advertising effort. *More information can be received from PGSY’s investor relations firm.Further, specific financial information, filings and disclosures as well as general investor information about publicly traded companies like PGSY, advice to investors and other investor resources are available at the Securities and Exchange Commission website www.sec.gov and www.nasd.com. Any investment should be made only after consulting with a qualified investment advisor and after reviewing the publicly available financial statements of and other information about the company and verifying that the investment is appropriate and suitable. Investing in securities is highly speculative and carries a great deal of risk especially as to new companies with limited operations and no history of earnings. The information contained herein contains forward-looking information within the meaning of section 27a of the Securities Act of 1993, as amended, and section 21e of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements regarding expected growth of the featured company. In accordance with the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, PGSY notes that statements contained herein that look forward in time, which include everything other than historical information, involve risks and uncertainties that may affect the Company’s actual results of operations. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include the size and growth of the market, the Company’s ability to fund its capital requirements in the near term and in the long term; pricing pressures, technology issues etc.

 

PDF copy of landing page

Disclaimer: I have no position in PGSY. I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

(Late post) Arrests of several people involved with spam promoter StockCastle

This post is late — the arrests came almost two months ago. This is a very complicated case with many people in many countries.

I have written previously about the spam promoter ‘StockCastle’ (one of their first domains was StockCastle.com but they used dozens of other names). During their prime, StockCastle moved stocks and brought good volume. I have not received any promotional emails from any of their websites since early 2014. In fact, their two most recent stock promotions ended with the SEC suspending trading in the stocks. Nevada Gold Corp (NVGC) was suspended on November 27, 2013. StockCastle’s next pump was Imogo Mobile Technologies (IMTC) in February 2014. On February 19th, 2014 the SEC suspended trading in IMTC.

Below are links to a bunch of stories about the arrests and the SEC case:

SEC press release about civil charges against Gery Shalon, Joshua Aaron, and Ziv Orenstein
SEC complaint (PDF)
Criminal complaint (PDF) against Gery Shalon, Joshua Aaron, and Ziv Orenstein

Interestingly, neither NVGC nor IMTC was mentioned in the SEC’s complaint, despite both having been suspended by the SEC.

New York Times Dealbook: 4 Arrested in schemes said to be tied to JP Morgan breach
Reuters: Israelis sought in U.S. securities fraud remanded until Aug. 10
Jerusalem Post: Two Israelis facing extradition to US for ‘pump and dump’ scam ordered kept in custody
Bloomberg: Digital Misfits Link JPMorgan Hack to Pump-and-Dump Fraud
Nodummy review of StockCastle pumps mentioned in litigation (and follow-up post)

 

Disclaimer: I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

 

Excel Macro to run trade report on DAS Trader Pro trade log

I have been mucking about with some programming lately and I only just realized that the work I had been doing to get my average price on trades so I can enter it into my trade log was easily automated. The below Excel (2010 is the version I use) macro has made my life a little easier so I am sharing it here. This can be used with the ‘trade’ output of DAS Trader Pro (which I am currently using with Centerpoint Securities) but with slight changes could be used on the output from Sterling Trader Pro or other trading platforms. There are easier ways to get the summaries, but I make sure to record trades I make in my trade log with details including my trade plan and post-trade evaluation — most of the time I’ll put together all the trades in each ticker to save time and because I’m trading the stock with one strategy. So for my purposes I like having the average price (including fees) shown neatly.

First, start with how the data should be formatted prior to the macro working. Go to “Trade” in DAS Trader Pro and then click “Trades”. Select the columns and copy and paste into an Excel worksheet named “scratchpad” (and make sure to paste into column B). Then hit Control + A to select the entire range of data and run the macro (I have it hotkeyed on my computer to Control+P). This will create a new worksheet, run a pivot table, copy the pivot table data, delete the pivot table worksheet, and paste the pivot table data and price per share in an easy to read format in another new worksheet.

Here is how the data should be formatted in your trade report that you paste into Excel (you do not need a header row):

inputdata

And below is how the data will be output:

macro_output

Obviously, you can use this same basic code framework to get lots of other data easily (such as ECN fees, etc). The one thing this code will not do is account for per-trade fees. I don’t have them at Centerpoint (clearing through ETC) so I didn’t program them. Also, make sure you enter your per-share commission into the code. Use this code at your own risk — I provide it without warranty or support.

Warning: if you are a programmer you will find my code ugly. You have been warned.

Below is the code:

Sub DAStraderAvgPrices()

‘ DAStraderAvgPrices Macro
‘ For this to work you need to copy pasta the following columns from DAS into the ‘sheet ‘scratchpad’
‘Time | Ticker | Buy/Sell | Price | Shares | Route | ECN Fees | Amount of trade
‘Those columns all must be there in that order or it will mess lots of things up.
‘The trades must be pasted into column B and then select all the trade info ‘(control+A)

Dim myRange As Range
Dim i As Long
Dim HeaderRange As Range
Dim HeaderPasteRange As Range
Dim TopLeft As Range
Dim objTable As PivotTable
Dim objField As PivotField
Dim rng As Range
Dim ws1 As Worksheet
Dim pt As PivotTable
Dim rngPT As Range
Dim rngPTa As Range
Dim rngCopy As Range
Dim rngCopy2 As Range
Dim lRowTop As Long
Dim lRowsPT As Long
Dim lRowPage As Long
Dim PivotTableSheet As String
Dim celltxt As String

‘this is my commission rate
commission = 0.0035

Set myRange = Selection

‘sort by column C then D (ticker then buy/sell)
myRange.Sort Key1:=Columns(3), Order1:=xlAscending, Key2:=Columns(4) _
, Order2:=xlAscending, Header:=xlGuess, OrderCustom:=1, MatchCase:= _
False, Orientation:=xlTopToBottom
‘the above works! Yay!

‘this section calculates the cost basis (including ECN fees and commissions) of each fill
For i = myRange.Rows.Count To 1 Step -1
Set BuySell = myRange.Cells(i, 3)
If BuySell.Value = “B” Then
myRange.Cells(i, 8) = (myRange.Cells(i, 4) + commission) * myRange.Cells(i, 5) + myRange.Cells(i, 7)
ElseIf BuySell.Value = “S” Then
myRange.Cells(i, 8) = (myRange.Cells(i, 4) – commission) * myRange.Cells(i, 5) – myRange.Cells(i, 7)
ElseIf BuySell.Value = “SS” Then
myRange.Cells(i, 8) = (myRange.Cells(i, 4) – commission) * myRange.Cells(i, 5) – myRange.Cells(i, 7)
End If
Next i

‘Here we append the header row to the data
myRange.Cells(0, 1) = “Time”
myRange.Cells(0, 2) = “Ticker”
myRange.Cells(0, 3) = “Buy/Sell”
myRange.Cells(0, 4) = “Price”
myRange.Cells(0, 5) = “Shares”
myRange.Cells(0, 6) = “Route”
myRange.Cells(0, 7) = “ECN Fee”
myRange.Cells(0, 8) = “Amount”

‘Pivot table time!

‘only uncomment the following two lines when testing on specific region
‘ActiveWorkbook.Sheets(“scratchpad”).Select
‘Range(“B4”).Select

ActiveWorkbook.Sheets(“scratchpad”).Select
myRange.Cells(0, 1).Select

Set objTable = ActiveSheet.PivotTableWizard

Set objField = objTable.PivotFields(“Ticker”)
objField.Orientation = xlRowField
objField.Position = 1

Set objField = objTable.PivotFields(“Buy/Sell”)
objField.Orientation = xlRowField
objField.Position = 2

Set objField = objTable.PivotFields(“Shares”)
objField.Orientation = xlDataField
objField.Position = 1
objField.Function = xlSum
objField.NumberFormat = “##,###”

Set objField = objTable.PivotFields(“Amount”)
objField.Orientation = xlDataField
objField.Position = 2
objField.Function = xlSum
objField.NumberFormat = “##,###.##”

‘Pivot tables with multiple data fields have hidden field “data” —
‘adding the below line makes it display correctly
objTable.AddFields Array(“Ticker”, “Buy/Sell”), “Data”

‘Copy the Pivot table and paste it into a new worksheet as values
On Error Resume Next
Set pt = ActiveCell.PivotTable
Set rngPTa = pt.PageRange
‘On Error GoTo errHandler

PivotTableSheet = ActiveSheet.Name

‘If pt Is Nothing Then
‘ MsgBox “Could not copy pivot table for active cell”
‘ GoTo exitHandler
‘Else
Set rngPT = pt.TableRange1
lRowTop = rngPT.Rows(1).row
lRowsPT = rngPT.Rows.Count
Set ws1 = Worksheets.Add
Set rngCopy = rngPT.Resize(lRowsPT – 1)
Set rngCopy2 = rngPT.Rows(lRowsPT)

rngCopy.Copy Destination:=ws1.Cells(lRowTop, 1)
rngCopy2.Copy Destination:=ws1.Cells(lRowTop + lRowsPT – 1, 1)
‘End If

If Not rngPTa Is Nothing Then
lRowPage = rngPTa.Rows(1).row
rngPTa.Copy Destination:=ws1.Cells(lRowPage, 1)
End If

ws.Columns.AutoFit

‘Stopping Application Alerts
Application.DisplayAlerts = False

‘delete pivot table sheet
Sheets(PivotTableSheet).Delete

‘Add in some formatting and get price per share for buys/sells

Columns(“C:C”).ColumnWidth = 13.71
Columns(“D:D”).ColumnWidth = 14.86
Range(“G2”).Select
ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = “Price”
Columns(“G:G”).Select
Selection.NumberFormat = “0.0000”
Selection.ColumnWidth = 11.43
Range(“F3”).Select
ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = “=IF(ISBLANK(RC[-4]),””””,RC[-4])”
Range(“F3”).Select
Selection.AutoFill Destination:=Range(“F3:F197”), Type:=xlFillDefault
Range(“F3:F197”).Select
Range(“G3”).Select
ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = _
“=IF(ISBLANK(RC[-3]),””””,IF(ISBLANK(RC[-5]),””””,RC[-3]/RC[-4]))”
Range(“G3”).Select
Selection.AutoFill Destination:=Range(“G3:G202”), Type:=xlFillDefault

‘Loop through table to clear all rows that contain “Total”
Last = Cells(Rows.Count, “D”).End(xlUp).row
For i = Last To 1 Step -1
celltxt = Cells(i, “A”).Text
If InStr(1, celltxt, “Total”) Then
Cells(i, “A”).EntireRow.ClearContents ‘ USE THIS TO CLEAR CONTENTS BUT NOT DELETE ROW
End If
Next i

ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Select

exitHandler:
Exit Sub
errHandler:
MsgBox “Could not copy pivot table for active cell”
Resume exitHandler
End Sub

 

Disclaimer: I have no position in any stocks mentioned as of this post being published but I may trade them in the future. I am a client of Centerpoint Securities (clearing through ETC). I have no relationship with any other parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

Calissio Resources $CRGP Sued by clearing firm Cor for running dividend scam

The type of microcap manipulation / fraud I most commonly blog about is the stock promotion, where someone is paid by insiders to promote an essentially worthless stock to naive investors. This is the most obvious kind of scam and perhaps the most prevalent but it is far from the only scam being run on OTC stock investors and traders. There is of course the debt-dilution scam, where insiders in the company conspire with death-spiral financiers that get the stock at a discount and then sell, driving the price inevitably downward. A recent SeekingAlpha article highlighted ten companies with linked insiders and lenders allegedly running this kind of scam. Of course, even if the insiders aren’t conspiring with death spiral lenders, such financing always drives the stock downward. A few months ago Zeke Faux of Bloomberg had a good article on Josh Saison, a major death spiral financier.

A much less common OTC scam is the fake dividend scam, where a penny stock company without significant assets or with assets of questionable value announces a large cash dividend. Normally, the dividend is just a way to pump the stock up so insiders can dump shares. But it appears that Calissio Resources (CRGP) has improved on that scam by finding away to pay itself real money by manipulating the dividend clearing/payment system, or at least that is what is alleged by COR clearing in a lawsuit against the company. Omaha.com has a good synopsis of the lawsuit and what has happened. FINRA ended up halting trading in CRGP on August 27th (without every explaining why) and the stock only just resumed trading today (on the grey market), down 86%.

One well-respected microcap fraud researcher noticed many similarities among CRGP and past dividend scams SRGE and SAEI and he speculated on who was ultimately behind them. The only thing that is completely certain about CRGP is that anyone who bought the stock because of the dividend news lost a lot of money if they didn’t sell prior to the halt. That is the usual outcome in penny stocks. For an in-depth look at the CRGP dividend, see Brenda Hamilton’s blog.

crgp

 

Disclaimer: I have no position in CRGP. I am currently a client of COR Clearing (through Speedtrader) although I am likely to soon close my account there.  I subscribe to PromotionStockSecrets.com, of which nodummy is a part-owner/manager. I have no relationship with any other parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

 

Avra Inc. $AVRN Pumped by WhatsApp spam

The SEC has been cracking down on email stock promoters over the last few years and there are only a couple effective email stock promoters left. Part of the problem is that using email to pump leaves lots of traces — to avoid spam filters the promoters need to use email services (like iContact) that will keep records of their names and payment information. If the SEC or DoJ investigates manipulation in a stock or illegal selling of unregistered shares it is relatively easy to locate the promoters. Spam promotions have worked in the past but it is very hard to beat modern spam filters (and of course spamming is treated as a more serious crime than stock manipulation).

Some intrepid promoters figured that the best way to avoid those problems of email is to just avoid it and instead use a messenger program, in this case WhatsApp. Many people were spammed with messages promoting Avra Inc (AVRA) this morning. What followed was a quick spike and massive dump. Expect more such WhatsApp spam promotions in the future.

Below are some screenshots of the WhatsApp spam messages shared on Twitter:

 

 

 

avrn
Below is the intraday 1-minute chart of AVRN

avrn_chart

Disclaimer: I have no position in AVRN although if it spikes again I will likely short it.  I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

ElitePennyStock Paints target on its back: Best stock promoter out there

Disclosure: I’m short ElitePennyStock’s current promotion, AREN. See details at bottom.

In a world in which ever more promoters and manipulators have not just been sued by the SEC but sent to prison by US Department of Justice it is a dangerous thing to be known as the best stock promoter. But with Stocktips.com having spectacularly failed in their most recent pump (of Coastal Integrated Services, COLV), ElitePennyStock is now in my opinion the best promoter out there. As detailed in a blog post by Tim Grittani (use code NEXT100 to save on his DVD), ElitePennyStock (and I use this name to refer to the people that run all the related websites) has ties to AwesomePennyStocks. See also the Promotion Stock Secrets research report on ElitePennyStock.

The two most recent ElitePennyStock pumps were American Leisure Holdings (AMLH) in January and February, and Media Analytics (MEDA) in December 2014 and January 2015. The AMLH pump lasted for 19 days prior to the big drop in price (note that the promotion continued through February 17. The MEDA pump lasted for 10 days prior to the precipitous drop (the last pump emails I received for MEDA came on December 19th).

amlh

meda

So far the AREN (America Resources Exploration Inc) promotion is on day 17. I believe it very likely that the end of this pump is quite near. See the Promotion Stock Secrets report on AREN if you care to learn the details on the insiders in the company and how it was set up to be a promotion.

aren

Interestingly, AREN filed a form 12b-25 with the SEC just before the market close today, indicating that they will not be able to file their quarterly report on time. I wonder if that may be another indication that the pump will soon be over.

 

Compensation: [different in emails from the different websites]
Promoter:  ElitePennyStock
Paying party: Intraday Holdings Ltd
Shares outstanding: 129,400,000
Previous closing price: $0.861
Market capitalization: $111 million

 

A Few miscellaneous notes

Penny stock gadfly and one-time stock promoter George Sharp threatened AREN with a lawsuit but never followed through.

goniffs

I cannot vouch for their reporting skill / reliability, but The OTC Today reported that FINRA had asked clearing firms Alpine and ETC to voluntarily restrict the sales of large blocks of AREN stock.

One of the ElitePennyStock websites has a nice little video promoting AREN here. ElitePennyStock is following the lead of StockTips by inventing a fake person to be the promoter, in this case, Keith Richie.

 

Disclaimer: I am currently short 5200 shares of AREN. I may cover those shares or short more in the days following the publication of this post. I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

Black Stallion Oil & Gas $BLKG Promoted via online landing page

Over the last week Black Stallion Oil & Gas (BLKG) stock has gone from $1.70 to a high of $2.39 on modest (but increasing) volume. It has been promoted by emails from WallStreetReport.org, which also has a promotional video on their website and a positive report (PDF) on the stock. (I should add that they fail to disclose their compensation in that PDF report). See also the page you go to after leaving the video. Considering the relatively low-budget promotion and the large market cap I think it highly likely that BLKG will drop a lot in the next few days or weeks.

blkg

Disclosed budget: $50,000
Promoter:  WallStreetReport.org / Herwick Ltd
Paying party: Pansino Investments Ltd
Shares outstanding: 43,872,000
Previous closing price: $2.17
Market capitalization: $95 million

blkg

Excerpt from disclaimer:

WallStreetReport.org is operated by Herwick Ltd. (HL). … . HL expects to receive $50,000 (FIFITY THOUSAND DOLLARS) as a marketing budget for production and distribution of BLKG marketing material from an unaffiliated 3rd party, Pansino Investment Ltd. HL will manage this budget for production and distribution of any marketing materials for BLKG and intends to keep the difference between the budget received and production costs as compensation.

Full disclaimer (from landing page):

DISCLAIMER: This report is for informational purposes only, and does not represent a solicitation to buy or sell the profiled company’s securities, which trade under the symbol BLKG, nor any other securities. WallStreetReport.org is operated by Herwick Ltd. (HL). Neither HL nor its employees are certified financial analysts or licensed in the securities industry in any manner. The information in this marketing piece and any accompanying information is subjective opinion and may not be complete, accurate or current and was paid for directly or indirectly by shareholders of the profiled company who may or will profit as a result of the preparation, publication and distribution of this marketing piece and accompanying information. HL expects to receive $50,000 (FIFITY THOUSAND DOLLARS) as a marketing budget for production and distribution of BLKG marketing material from an unaffiliated 3rd party, Pansino Investment Ltd. HL will manage this budget for production and distribution of any marketing materials for BLKG and intends to keep the difference between the budget received and production costs as compensation. HL also expects to garner new subscribers as part of its efforts. This marketing piece contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. This marketing piece contains or incorporates by reference forward-looking statements, including certain information with respect to plans and strategies of the featured Company. As such, any statements contained herein or incorporated herein by reference that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, the words “believe(s)” “anticipate(s)”, “plan(s)” “expect(s)” “project(s)” “will” “make” “told” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause actual events or actual results of the Company to differ materially from these indicated by such forward-looking statements. Certain statements contained herein constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and 21E of the Exchange Act of 1934. Such statements include, without limitation, statements regarding business, financing, business trends, future operating revenues and expenses. There can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Investors are cautioned that any forward-looking statements ma de by the Company, or contained in this Report are not guarantees of future performance, and that the Issuer’s actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Difference in results can be caused by various factors including, but not limited to, the Company’s ability to be able to successfully complete planned funding agreements, to successfully market its products in competitive industries or to effectively implement its business plan or strategies. To reiterate, information presented in this Report contains “forward-looking statements”. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, goals, assumptions, or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be “forward-looking statements.” Forward-looking statements are based on expectations, estimates, and projections at the time the statements are made that involve a number of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those presently anticipated. Forward-looking statements in this Report may be identified through the use of words such as “expects,” “will,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “believes,” “may,” or by statements indicating certain actions “may,” “could,” or “might” occur. More information on the Company may be found at http://www.sec.gov; readers can review all public filings by the Company at the SEC’s EDGAR page. Chris Porter is a fictional name. The actor writing and performing under this name was compensated solely on a contract basis for participating in this campaign, therefore is not an employee of either Herwick Ltd, Pansino Investment Ltd. or a shareholder in any of the securities mentioned in this video.

 

PDF copy of landing page

Disclaimer: I have no position in BLKG although I am looking to short it. I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

Ecosciences Inc $ECEZ Online landing page pump

Ecociences (ECEZ) has received another round of promotion since the beginning of this week with an online landing page pump. You can see the promotion page at http://ecezreport.com/index.html. Those with good memories will remember that I blogged about this pump back at the beginning of June and since that time the compensation disclosed has not increased.

ecez_screenshot

Disclosed budget:
Promoter:  Wall Street Revelator / Andy Carpenter
Paying party:  ???
Shares outstanding: 101,751,500
Previous closing price: $0.482
Market capitalization: $49 million

 

Excerpt from disclaimer:

The advertiser anticipates managing a total production budget of $350,000 for this online advertising effort and will retain any amounts over and above the cost of production, copywriting services, mailing and other distribution expenses, as a fee for its services. The Wall Street Revelator and/or its publisher, Andrew Carpenter has received a total amount of eleven thousand six hundred and twenty five dollars in cash compensation to assist in the writing of this Advertisement, as well as potential future subscription and advertising revenues, the amount of which is not known at this time with respect to the publication of this Advertisement and future publications.

Full disclaimer:

MPORTANT NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER: This sponsored advertising of Eco Sciences Inc. does not purport to provide an analysis of any company’s financial position, operations or prospects and this is not to be construed as a recommendation, or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security. The “Company” featured in this issue, appears as paid advertising, paid by a third party to provide public awareness for ECEZ. This Report has used outside research and writers using public information to create this advertisement. The third party owns no shares of ECEZ. Although the information contained in this advertisement is believed to be reliable, there can be no warranties as to the accuracy of any of the content herein and the publishers accept no liability for how readers may choose to utilize the content. Readers should perform their own due-diligence, including consulting with a licensed, qualified investment professional or analyst. Further, readers are strongly urged to independently verify all statements made in this advertisement and perform extensive due diligence on this or any other advertised company. The publishers are not offering securities for sale. An offer to buy or sell can be made only with accompanying disclosure documents and only in the states and provinces for which they are approved. Many states have established rules requiring the approval of a security by a state security administrator. Check with http://www.nasaa.org or call your state security administrator to determine whether a particular security is licensed for sale in your state. Many companies have information filed with state securities regulators and many will supply investors with additional information on request. The advertiser anticipates managing a total production budget of $350,000 for this online advertising effort and will retain any amounts over and above the cost of production, copywriting services, mailing and other distribution expenses, as a fee for its services. The Wall Street Revelator and/or its publisher, Andrew Carpenter has received a total amount of eleven thousand six hundred and twenty five dollars in cash compensation to assist in the writing of this Advertisement, as well as potential future subscription and advertising revenues, the amount of which is not known at this time with respect to the publication of this Advertisement and future publications. Andrew Carpenter has never owned, and never will own, shares, options or warrants in ECEZ. Further, specific financial information, filings, and disclosures as well as general investor information about publicly traded companies like ECEZ, advice to investors and other investor resources are available at the Securities and Exchanges Commission website www.sec.gov and www.nasd.com. Any investment should be made only after consulting with a qualified investment advisor and after reviewing the publicly available financial statements of and any other information about the company and verifying that the investment is appropriate and suitable. Investing in securities is highly speculative and carries a great deal of risk especially as to new companies with limited operations and no history of earnings. The information contained herein contains forward-looking information within the meaning of section 27a of the Securities Act of 1993, as amended, and section 21e of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements regarding expected growth of the featured company. In accordance with the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, statements contained herein that look forward in time, which include everything other than historical information, involve risks and uncertainties that may affect the Company’s actual results of operations. Forward-looking statements are based upon expectations, estimates and projections at the time the statements are made and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events to differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements may be identified through the use of words such as expects, will, anticipates, estimates, believes, or by statements indicating certain actions may, could, should, or might occur. Any statements that express or involve predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, goals or future events or performance may be forward-looking statements. In accordance with the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the publisher notes that statements contained herein that look forward in time, which include other than historical information, involve risks and uncertainties that may affect the company’s actual results of operations. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to, the size and growth of the market for the company’s products and services, regulatory approvals, the company’s ability to fund its capital requirements in the near term and the long term, pricing pressures and other risks detailed in the company’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

 

ecez

 

PDF copy of landing page

 

Disclaimer: I am short ECEZ and intend to hold my short although it is likely I will be forced to cover some of my short in the next few days. I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

Kourtland Wissler / Centerline Trades: Avoid at all costs

There is a lot that is very sketchy about Kourtland Kardashian (as he calls himself; his real name appears to be Kourtland Wissler). He has over 5 times the followers of Tim Sykes on Twitter (438,000 versus 84,000) despite his website CenterlineTrades.com being registered only in 2015 while Tim has been blogging / selling his services for 7 years and has been on TV numerous times. This makes me think that Kourtland bought followers in order to appear more popular than he is. Kourtland has also been accused of plagiarizing someone else’s work and then selling that material on Udemy.

 

Kourtland also makes some pretty implausible claims, such as turning $4000 into $25 million:

zzkourtland1

 

or being called “the best technical analyst in wall street [sic] history” by Forbes (this is from his Udemy page):

zzkourtland2

(Update 2016-6-16: I blocked the profile images in the two screenshots above (from Twitter and Udemy) — even though I believe they were clearly fair use — because I received a DMCA takedown request from Kourtland Wissler. So if you want to know what he looks like, you’ll have to see Kourtland Wissler’s mugshot.)

 

Kourtland has two other courses on Udemy besides the allegedly plagiarized course. His courses are generally positively reviewed but the tone of the positive reviews and the distribution of scores of the reviews (all the positive reviews are 5 stars and mention no negatives) makes me think that most if not all of the positive reviews are fake. Here are all the reviews of one course:

udemy_reviews1

And here are the most recent reviews and the distribution of reviews on his other trading course (which appears to be identical to the first one):

udemy_reviews2

While the large number of glowing 5-star reviews on his Udemy courses makes me think that they are fake, he also has some testimonials on his website. I have no proof that those testimonials are fake but the images for most of them are taken from random places on the internet — only one of the testimonial photos appears to come from an actual person that is said to have written the testimonial.

The first testimonial is from “Doug Smith” aka smiling black guy with nice teeth:

centerline_testimonials1

Take a look at the reverse image search results on Google below: it appears Doug Smith also goes by the name of Brian Smith and is a satisfied patient of many dentists.google_image_search

In fact, Doug Smith is a stock photo:getty_images

Is there a real Doug Smith who wrote that testimonial? Maybe. But if he is real, why post a stock photo?

The second testimonial is from Rafe Jamison, aka hot guy with dog:

centerline_boy_dog

As with Doug Smith, it turns out that the photo is not of the testimonial writer but rather a photo of a model taken from The Daily Telegraph:centerline_testimonial_boy_dog_real_iamgeAgain, this is not proof that the testimonial is fake but it doesn’t inspire confidence.

The third testimonial, from Perry R, actually appears to have a photo of Perry R, who exists on LinkedIn at least:

centerline_3rd_testimonial_linkedin

 

The fourth testimonial, from Sarah Kemp, appears to be another stock photo:

sarah

cute_girl_smile

The fifth testimonial, from Scotty Arlie, SEO Guru at Bright Street, not only appears to show a photo that appears many other places on the internet but also purports to be written by an SEO (search engine optimization) expert that cannot be found via Google search. So if he is an actual SEO Guru he must be the most incompetent one in the world.

scotty guy_car_searchBelow are the results of my Google searches for “Scotty Arlie” and ‘”Bright Street” SEO’:

brightstreet scotty_arlieFrom these searches, I conclude with high confidence that Scotty Arlie is not an SEO guru. And if the description of his job and company are false then I can conclude with moderately high confidence that he doesn’t exist and that the testimonial is therefore fake.

Disclaimer: I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above. Some of the information in this post was first mentioned online by a now-suspended Twitter user known as @IRSReporter; I will not link to his account because he posts lots of misleading things as well as occasionally interesting information. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.