After a hiatus that led many to suspect that Mark Cuban's ShareSleuth experiment had gone the way of the hula hoop, Chris Carey is back with a scathing report on China Fire & Security Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CFSG), which bills itself as a "leading total solution provider of industrial fire protection systems in China."
The ShareSleuth report found evidence of the usual suspects in pump and dumps: exaggerated resumes, disclosure issues, associations with characters of ill repute and a lot of hype combined with little evidence of a strong operating business.
Another major red flag: CEO Brian Lin told Mr. Carey in an email "that you should be careful since you don't know how strong our business is and how many big deals we are close to completion. CFSG SHORT SELLERS WILL BE SQUEEZED - SOON!!"
An email from a CEO to a journalist of that nature is highly irregular, securities lawyer Howard Sirota of Sirota & Sirota told me in a phone conversation. He added that it is a violation of Regulation Fair Disclosure, an SEC regulation requiring that material information be disseminated simultaneously to market participants: "It goes back to the concept of full and fair disclosure. That statement wasn't made in a public dissemination to the entire market. This is selective disclosure, an effort to effect the price of the stock by giving information to a selected market participant. The idea of full and fair disclosure is a level playing field. This is like whispering to one analyst 'We're gonna beat expectations."
Be sure to check out this story from ShareSleuth -- the site could develop into a tremendous resource for investors.
The ShareSleuth report found evidence of the usual suspects in pump and dumps: exaggerated resumes, disclosure issues, associations with characters of ill repute and a lot of hype combined with little evidence of a strong operating business.
Another major red flag: CEO Brian Lin told Mr. Carey in an email "that you should be careful since you don't know how strong our business is and how many big deals we are close to completion. CFSG SHORT SELLERS WILL BE SQUEEZED - SOON!!"
An email from a CEO to a journalist of that nature is highly irregular, securities lawyer Howard Sirota of Sirota & Sirota told me in a phone conversation. He added that it is a violation of Regulation Fair Disclosure, an SEC regulation requiring that material information be disseminated simultaneously to market participants: "It goes back to the concept of full and fair disclosure. That statement wasn't made in a public dissemination to the entire market. This is selective disclosure, an effort to effect the price of the stock by giving information to a selected market participant. The idea of full and fair disclosure is a level playing field. This is like whispering to one analyst 'We're gonna beat expectations."
Be sure to check out this story from ShareSleuth -- the site could develop into a tremendous resource for investors.



