The crooks have targeted climate change and they are making millions swindling investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched into action.
The SEC has announced it's uncovered a green con, charging seven who perpetrated a "pump and dump" scheme that used social responsibility as a means to attract and dupe investors.
The company in question is UK based CO2 Tech which, in one of its press releases, referred to itself as a "provider of cutting-edge, anti-global warming technology solutions, will join Boeing's global commitment to support anti-global warming activities and other environment efforts."
CO2 Tech began trading on January 25th, 2007 at $2 per share, with light volume. Only 1200 shares traded hands. But the volume on the subsequent days spiked enormously. This was extraordinary for a small, relatively unknown company. It went from 1200 shares to peak at 12,204,795 shares on January 30th. Curiously, despite this huge uptick in volume, the stock price quickly took a nose dive. After peaking at $7 on the second day of trading, by February 2th 2007, CO2 Tech was trading at $1.17 per share. By February 9th, 2007 it was down to $.40 per share. By May 2007 the share price had fallen below $.10 per share, never again to recover. It now trades at less than 1 penny per share.
This is classic pump and dump where the price is artificially inflated by the hype and the insiders make a killing by selling out.
According to the SEC, the scheme resulted in more than $7 million in illicit profits from sales of stock in CO2 Tech Ltd. at artificially inflated prices. The SEC release says: "Despite touting impressive business relationships and anti-global warming technology innovations, CO2 Tech did not have any significant assets or operations. The company was purportedly based in London, and its stock prices were quoted in the Pink Sheets. According to the SEC's complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the scheme was perpetrated through Red Sea Management Ltd., a Costa Rican asset protection company that laundered millions of dollars in illicit trading proceeds out of the United States on behalf of its clients"
With more focus on the business side of global warming, we can expect to see more of these fraudsters. The question is whether regulators will have enough funding to keep up.
no comment untill now