Thom Calandra and Ecometals (EC.v): Birds of a feather

The Ecometals/Goldmarca 10 year chart: Notice anything slightly suspicious about
its share price movements? If you don't, I have this great bridge
for sale so drop me a line and we can discuss details.

La plus ça change.........

After yesterday's post on the subject, this humble scribe actually got round to reading the 2005 SEC complaint against Thom Cassandra last night (instead of just the litigation letter). And hoodathunkit!! Would you believe that he was in cahoots with Goldmarca, the company that later decided to completely change its way of doing things (oh yes oh yes whatever makes you doubt that?) just by changing its name to Ecometals (EC.v) and pretending the past never happened? Cut to 2010, Cassandra is running the same kind of newsletter as he was when shopped and Ecometals/Goldmarca continues to scam the market with its bullshit about being the next Aurelian here, and sales of properties that never happen there, and sales of manganese that never happen over there.

Strange how these crooks seem to attract each other, innit? Here's the relevant extract from the SEC complaint. In point of fact, the Goldmarca deal was a minor act compared to the rest of the illegal trades Cassandra was pulling (known as scalping), but the fact he was mixed up with these Ecometals scamsters and that company is still getting away with its bullshit is almost too funny so let's just run with this example:

"In addition to his scalping transactions, Calandra received undisclosed consideration in the form of substantially-discounted stock from two companies that he profiled in TCR (The Calandra Report), Goldmarca and IMC Ventures. Calandra purchased discounted shares in Goldmarca and IMC Ventures from a Canadian stock promoter that Calandra knew was associated with both companies. On October 28, 2003, Calandra purchased 155,000 shares of Goldmarca at $0.23 per share, a 39% discount from the market price of $0.38 per share. Similarly, he purchased 70,000 shares of IMC Ventures on the same day, at the discounted price of $0.37 per share, a 59% discount off of the company's market price of $0.91 per share.

Calandra then provided the companies with positive publicity in TCR. He wrote on multiple occasions about both Goldmarca and IMC Ventures, but never disclosed his receipt of discounted shares to his readers.

As in his other scalping transactions, Calandra sold the majority of his shares of Goldmarca and IMC Ventures immediately after touting the companies in TCR, making total profits of $52,022.75 and $61,496, respectively.