Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Some Mighty Fancy Carbon Finance (PLKT.PK)

The way these deals usually work is: a run-up in the stock price, a plateau which allows insiders, friends and family to complete their selling, followed by a collapse of the stock price.

As the cockroaches scurry, the now (literally) penny stock is accumulated from the public chumps and the corporation, now viewed as a publicly traded shell, morphs into its next incarnation.

A classic history would be a Vancouver "junior resource" company in 1979, after the collapse of the oil and gold markets became a solar deal in '81 , an Aloe Vera deal to the yuppies mid '80's, a biotech in '86 ("we're the next Amgen"or "A cure for AIDS"), then on to neutraceuticals or spas, Indian casinos, software, then the great "i", "e-" and ".com" gold rush. Someday I'll get around to checking if some lunatic scammer actually went with "e-iTrade.com".

The next group of parasites were the "homeland security" companies, then land deals. The "resource" scams never went away and became more prominent in 2002 after gold had moved off its $252 bear market low. We're in the Green boom (happy Earth day by the way) now, who knows what's next.

If Planktos plays by the script, Insiders & Assoc. (how's that for a name?) accumulate as much of the 0ne cent stock as they can, find a semi-plausible business name to put on the shell (it doesn't have to be a business, just a name), effect a 1:20 or 1:50 reverse split, do some sort of private placement or offshore financing (or a combo- an offshore private placement!). As the song says "Here comes another Bubble"*.

In the meantime, here's a wrinkle I've never see before, from the 8K**:
...The Offer to Purchase provides that Planktos, Inc. convey its interest in Klimafa to Dr. Gazdag in exchange for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) in the form of a convertible debenture with a repayment term being the earlier of ten years or Klimafa’s generation of cash flow, bearing four percent (4%) per annum, convertible into sequestered ton[n]es of carbon dioxide credits...
*"Ladies and gentlemen-The Richter Scales"
**The SEC is quite specific as to when the 8K must be filed, see:

Did Planktos Commit a Fraud Upon the Market? (PLKT.PK)

Better Get The Leg Irons Boys.
These Ain't Regular Criminals,
These is Stockbrokers.
-One of Climateer's favorite Barron's headlines.