“If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we
have at least to consider the possibility that we have a
small aquatic
bird of the family anatidae on our hands.”
bird of the family anatidae on our hands.”
Douglas Adams
The IKN post on the revival of the East Asia Minerals (EAS.v) scam under Mike Hawkins brought several pieces of interesting feedback, not least from reader ‘C’ who reminded your humble scribe how Louis Lobito Little Wolf James of Casey Research lost him a truckload of cash by reco’ing EAS.v just a few days before the story started to unravel (and long after the smarter end of the anal yst world had worked it out and got their clients out). As it happens IKN documented the Casey Research pumpjob at the time and the way it didn’t let off as the stock collapsed, au contraire Louis James just doubled and tripled down.
It all started in May 2011 when Lobito pumped EAS.v to his hapless flock in breathless terms, such as:
“…
its flagship Miwah project in Indonesia… could well be on its way to a
monster gold discovery in the tens of millions of ounces.”
And:
“….it’s the first 43-101-compliant resource estimate that we expect to really drive the market to have another look at Miwah.”
At that time EAS.v was a $5.50 stock, but days later the pump began its dump phase. That didn’t put Lobito off though, in July 2017 he told his subbers to buy more, script including…
“We believe the first pass resource will grow rapidly and continue to see the recent sell-off as an opportunity.”
..as well as other chunks of wonderful. Not long after scamrunner in chief Mike Hawkins resigned “for health reasons” (!!!). By then it was already cut in half down to $2.30 and dropping like a stone. But Lobito didn’t stop, he pumped it again in August 2011 at $1.70 and then as it just continued to drop and drop tried to sweep the whole mess under the carpet, all while keeping it as a official reco and buy in his rag. But IKN watched and noted his position in August, in October, and even in a reminder post about his call on EAS in this 2012 post.
Looking back on it all from this distance, six years on, it’s pretty clear to this humble scribe that there are only two possible explanations for Lobito’s pumping of this obvious scam:
a) He was a useful idiot, with a large but stupid audience and oblivious to how the world works, wheeled in to a create liquidity into which the scam runners could sell their stock.b) He was an active member of the East Asia Minerals (EAS.v) scam, in cahoots with the white collar criminals running the show and making craploads of cash off the backs of the people who paid him for investment advice.
And considering how many other stocks he reco’d at the time had the same type of hellishly poor performance, chances are he was being a) or b) many times over. Either way, hardly the type of person you’d want to trust for your next investment.