Buckey
3 weeks ago
I think our friend has a very famous saying for that by James Randi
There exists in society a very special class of persons that I have always referred to as the Believers. These are folks who have chosen to accept a certain religion, philosophy, theory, idea or notion and cling to that belief regardless of any evidence that might, for anyone else, bring it into doubt. They are the ones who encourage and support the fanatics and the frauds of any given age. No amount of evidence, no matter how strong, will bring them any enlightenment. They are the sheep who beg to be fleeced and butchered, and who will battle fiercely to preserve their right to be victimized.
trader59
1 month ago
Saw you guys posting over here as well, so I copied my information from the DD board:
Don't confuse the SEC action with the fake short squeeze pump that was ended with the FINRA halt. There were two events, the merger of Torchlight and Meta Materials that is the subject of the enforcement action. When those two were merging, those 2 guys issued the preferred shares (non-trading) to the Torchlight shareholders so that they'd hold the equity in the fake oil drilling business. The story was they'd sell all those assets, and those preferred shareholders would get a dividend from it. The common stock got re-tickered, and holds equity in whatever the heck the Meta Materials business is. All that crap about the dividend forcing the shorts to cover, making a squeeze, etc., happened then.
Now, fast forward a bit, and those preferred shares suddenly start trading, FINRA assigns a ticker to it, nobody has admitted to filing whatever forms were required to get it. I personally think one or both of those guys got that done, since they had a significant holding of the preferred shares and wanted the dump them. Anyhow, those shares trade for awhile, and Meta Materials announces that they're spinning off the old Torchlight, lock, stock, and barrel, filing an S-1 to register stock for it non-publicly trading, with an intent to exchange the public MMTLP shares 1 for 1. When that's getting towards the end is when the 2nd fake short squeeze happened, heavy pumping across all social media about it, same lack of short interest, FTD's, etc. Leads up to the approval of the S-1, the FINRA halt, the pumpers crying foul (especial the social media video bloggers who were making a mint off their followers and still are today with their breaking news and other revelations), and the rest is history. Well, it should be history, maybe soon the SEC will indict the culprits of that one.
Anyhow, it was two events, and the SEC action is about the first one.
janice shell
1 month ago
Yes. His conclusion is exactly right:
Because if you run an unprofitable publicly traded oil company with lots of cash needs and no proven oil reserves, a short-selling conspiracy theory is very valuable to you! If you can get shareholders to believe that (1) all your problems are caused by short sellers, (2) you have found a way to punish the short sellers and (3) your scheme will also push the stock price up, then those shareholders will buy a lot of stock and you can make a lot of money.5 This is all just as cynical as can be, tricking people into believing that the public markets are rigged against them by shadowy short sellers, in order to take their money yourself.
But as you say, the ones who need to listen, won't. I wonder, though, if the creeps making death threats are on the FBI's radar. That would be good.
1manband
1 month ago
SEC Charges Meta Materials and Former CEOs with Market Manipulation, Fraud and Other Violations
https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2024-77
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2024-77
Washington D.C., June 25, 2024 —
The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed charges against Meta Materials Inc. and its former CEOs, John Brda and George Palikaras. The company has agreed to settle the SEC’s charges in an administrative proceeding, while the SEC’s litigation against Brda and Palikaras will proceed in federal district court.
The SEC’s complaint against Brda and Palikaras alleges that, as a result of a concerted market manipulation scheme, Meta Materials, a Nevada corporation headquartered in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, raised $137.5 million from investors in an at-the-market (ATM) offering in June 2021 immediately prior to the merger of Brda’s Torchlight Energy Resources Inc. and Palikaras’ Metamaterial Inc. that formed Meta Materials.
The SEC’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that Brda and Palikaras planned and conducted the manipulative scheme that included, among other things, issuing a preferred stock dividend immediately before the merger. The complaint alleges that Brda and Palikaras told certain investors and consultants—and hinted via social media—that the dividend would force short sellers to exit their positions and trigger a “short squeeze” that would artificially raise the price of the company’s common stock. The SEC further alleges that Brda and Palikaras also misrepresented the company’s efforts to sell its oil and gas assets and distribute proceeds to preferred stockholders, giving investors a false impression of the value of the dividend. While investors held or bought the company’s common stock to receive the dividend, the complaint alleges, the company was cashing in by selling $137.5 million in an ATM offering at prices that the company, Brda, and Palikaras knew were temporarily inflated by their manipulative scheme. “We have two days,” the complaint alleges Brda told Palikaras after the first day of the ATM offering, “to take advantage of the squeeze...”
“The conduct we allege was a sophisticated, yet brazen plan by a public company and its former CEOs to purposely mislead investors in the company’s stock,” said Eric Werner, Director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office. “This conduct is particularly alarming because it involves public company CEOs who were more concerned with ‘burning the shorts’ than creating long-term value for shareholders.”
The SEC’s complaint charges Brda and Palikaras with violating the antifraud and proxy disclosure provisions of the federal securities laws, and charges Brda with aiding and abetting Meta Materials’s violations of the reporting, internal accounting controls, and books and records provisions. The complaint seeks permanent injunctions, officer-and-director bars, and civil penalties from both defendants. The complaint also seeks disgorgement with pre-judgment interest from Brda.
The SEC also instituted a separate administrative proceeding against Meta Materials, entering a settled order finding that Meta Materials violated the antifraud, reporting, internal accounting controls, and books and records provisions of the federal securities laws. Without admitting or denying the findings, Meta Materials was ordered to cease and desist from violations of the relevant provisions of the federal securities laws and to pay a $1,000,000 penalty.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Christopher Rogers and Ty Martinez of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office under the supervision of Samantha Martin, B. David Fraser, and Mr. Werner. The SEC’s litigation against Brda and Palikaras will be conducted by Patrick Disbennett and supervised by Keefe Bernstein.
A separate Commission investigation regarding subsequent events related to Meta Materials (MMTLP) remains ongoing. If you are an individual with information related to this investigation or any other related suspected fraud and you wish to contact the SEC staff, please submit a tip at SEC.gov.