Ok, people...SLMS should not be a surprise to CapEx nor even AVIX and let me tell you why.
About a month before JTF bought AVIX, I noticed a tremendous flux in SLMS and I believe that was the day AVIX halted them but I noticed this standing trend of high dollar activity but never saw the company do much. I IMed Maelstrom and expressed my concern and of course was brushed off as coincedence. I knew then...which I believe that was in July, that this was going to be an issue.
Soooo further more, as my FIRST order of business as President of CapEx, I scanned the transaction history of Fresh and noticed something that isn't illegal but ethically wrong, CEO daytrading of personal holdings. Buys and Sells all over the place. And of course I went to the management team and was again brushed off.
Now, here we are a month later, no Fresh....Hate to say I told you so but I did.
Every fraud from WSE, to AVIX, to ISE, Vstex, to CapEx that I have called has been true. I called XAN, WED, SEX, TSF, CGI, IBM, and a few others MONTHS ago. And beyond my "sight" (I will tell you guys about that another day), I notice and watch everything and the slightest change could mean the biggest scam.
Here are a few things to look for to spot these scam IPOs and when a company is going awry.
1. Company name - Is it too catchy? I mean for instance...SEX. Too eye catching. Most would think this is a dumb assumption but the average con artist is looking to grab your attention the fastest way possible.
2. Price flux - Did a large investor dump and why? Who is the investor? Do they have insider information that the rest of the market does not know about?
3. Communication - Well this is a gimme. Are they always free to answer questions or do you have to offline them a lot? Do they talk a lot in IMs but rarely post openly? Failure to communicate openly but with tremendous IM activity says fear.
4. Other SL activity - This one has a huge grey area but still has a lot of validity. What else does this person do in SL besides business? Their sim holdings are nothing but what about friends, family, personal interests? Believe it or not, personal interests in SL show a more valid CEO than one that is strictly business. Why? If the business fails, they can easily leave. It's just a game to them....
5. Tenure - So...you have been in SL for how long and you already know this? Smells like an alt to me. Nuff said there.
This is just some regular people stuff to look at for the moment.....this is above and beyond simple due diligence. This is recognizing the patterns. Classic psychology with an emphasis on con artists.
P.S. As far as SLMS, this one was not CapEx's fault. There is no way management could have known this was the issue as this started long before JTF was even slated to buy AVIX. Yet another failure of Investor Allen that someone else takes the fall for....
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18 comments:
Good calls I guess. Who do you see being the next batch of fraudulent CEO's to run off? I need to know before investing next. :)
I can't say that I have been actively watching the market as we remember I went through a burn out period and still am working through illness and such. Also, I don't want to call anyone out and be wrong. I should be getting back into company analysis when I get LLCA pushed out and such.
Did you see similar suspicious transactions on DGD? CB
I cannot honestly say that I looked at much of anything other than SLMS. I only looked when I suspected things. I don't see any issues with DGD from the outsider point of view. Maelstrom seems like a straight forward guy to me. No red flags that I have seen there.
Though its not illegal, I have NEVER agreed with CEOs daytrading their own stocks. Especially at the prices being manipulated on SLMS.
Someone named "Quinton Razor" has started a bank offering a .4% daily interest rate (lol). He was born less than a week ago and is part of some closed groups including BNT. So whose alt is this?
Now that right there is classic Ponzi and that is someone who is probably already doing business in SL or is a serial scammer. Relation to BNT is probably a coincidence. I would charge the Rock to investigate. We gotta stop this kind of stuff some way.
I am amazed that you didn't look at Maelstrom / DGD due to the irregularities surrounding CYB. I am disappointed.
Well the question was did I see transaction irregularities in DGD and I didn't. As far as CYB, and Maelstrom period, I think Mael talks big but doesn't deliver near as much. The CYB deal had more links than Mael but a lot of information was lost or either not surrendered upon inception. I honestly think 1 of 2 things regarding CYB.
1. CYB was a front to put a company on the exchange for numbers and nothing more and the AVIX management knew about that and probably profited from it.
2. CYB was a front to put a company on the exchange for numbers and nothing more and the AVIX management knew about that but did not profit from it.
Please note that there is NO evidence to this present. This is my opinion and opinion alone. CYB seemed to appear overnight, IPO, and disappear just as fast. Too coincidental to me....
Straight talking I like it!
Razor also has "Razor and Razor Holdings" with a nice looking logo. It's funny you should mention The Rock. RNR's "commerce center" (lame overpriced mall rentals with a circa 2005 design) is RIGHT across the street from "The Rock" building in Hayek.
I haven't even seen this Razor thing and it smells of ponzi...this is obviously an alt that has probably pulled a scam on another avatar and got banned or the heat in the kitchen burned. I will do a bit more research but I don't know too many new residents that will have a mall up within weeks of starting.
And another thing about the CYB issue, considering AVIX itself was a front to pay off shareholders from VCE and TSF and the repeat fraud has the stench of supposed protection via the lax LL TOS, it is pretty obvious that this was just a front company to make the exchange look reputable. Thanks, Investor Allen for your insight on the market.
Sorry Lindsay, I don't buy the AVIX was to pay off TSF and VCE story.
I'm trying to figure out why Investor Allen is still around. I have two solutions, there will be a knight in white armour. I'd watch this knight/company very closely.
or, he's setting out his defence for future litigation. I suspect the former.
CB
I was just considering his statement. Didn't say I believed it. When I did assist, I just wanted the AIG companies taken cared of an the rest he would have to figure out. At this point, I don't think this deal is going to come out clean. Ok, we outted his alts. He has others and can create another just like the ones he has.
It's all whooey for him to out JTF into paying for the exchange. JTF and Allen are in the middle of a pissing match it seems. Both with very valid claims but both going about it the wrong way in my opinion. Let's just wait and see...
Not illegal to daytrade one's own stocks? Ehhhn... Hmmm... Nnnh.
It's a gray area... I'm willing to bet the general population would say 'Wait, they can do that?!' and be somewhere between insulted and appalled.
DGD has always had a bit of a higher share value than normal. Mael is a good marketer; although he's gottan lax lately, he was always talking about his stock more, and in more depth than any other CEO at AVIX, period. I doubt I'm the only person who bought into them because they think the CEO is going to try, slow as it might be, to keep his stocks growing...
I don't know about CYB. I never bought into it... Because it looked too much like they were charging, at quite a sharp cost, to basically affiliate themselves with their webhost... The only genuine part of the company I saw was that they make the website stuff, apparently.
I expected failure, not fraud in the near future based on apparent huge price for services.. Which weren't too well detailed in the prospectus, if I remember correctly.
A beginner flaw that made me weary, though I don't know if I had the balls or suspicion enough to mention it earlier... Was that I found a link on the bottom of their site to their host, offering the same plans... Guess I should apologize for that. Didn't think enough about it at the time, especially since they claimed to have a crazy big deal done.
Uhm... One note related to the blog rather than the comments; The only little nit pick I have is with the eye-catching thing. Most people want to make their stuff eye-catching... Because everyone knows, it just won't pick up if it doesn't attract someone's attention. They say not to judge a book by it's cover, but we all do it.
Though, if something looks too good to be true, usually it is... So cliche; yet so true.
That is the point I was making about the being catchy. There is catchy and then there is just overly flashy leading to the too good to be true.
For instance, if you look at all the movies that come out, the one with the BIGGEST hype is always substandard especially in a trilogy. Austin Powers:Goldmember was okay compared to the others. Star Wars:Episode 3...complete garbage.
I learned a few things about advertising in critical thinking so I do all the checks and balances to see if there is a line that company is crossing to just get people to buy rather than gain a customer base.
Hmm... It's taken a bit of angling my perspective, but I think what you mean.
It's like what they do with infomercials, right? Repeatedly tell you about all the great things of the product and such - But it's all fluff and skirting around certain information you actually want, either the whole time, or until the very end.
You got it. It's just like infomercials. Some of the stuff in them is true, me being an avid user of the Ronco Rotisserie Grill but others are just fluff, i.e. the Space Saver Bags. That was the biggest scam I have fallen for in a long time. The bags last all of 10 minutes but the marketing for them was AWESOME.
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