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On
March 24, 2003, StockLemon.com posted an "investigative
report" on its Web site and released a statement
to the financial media criticizing Storage Alliance,
Inc. (SGAL). In this so-called "investigative report," StockLemon.com
also criticizes Donald Rowe for recommending the
company's stock to subscribers of The Wall Street
Digest.
On
March 26, 2003, StockLemon.com released Part Two
of its "investigative report" to the investment community.
Once again, Donald Rowe was highly criticized by
the unidentified writer, who stated that he had called
Mr. Rowe with questions regarding Storage Alliance,
but had been "rushed off the phone" due to the imminent
move of The Wall Street Digest's offices. (NOTE: After 14 years of publishing The
Wall Street Digest from
2 North Tamiami Trail, Ste. 602, Sarasota, Florida,
the publication's headquarters moved to 8830 South
Tamiami Trail, Ste. 110, Sarasota, Florida. This
move was pre-announced to subscribers of The Wall
Street Digest for almost an entire month prior
to the physical move on March 28-31, 2003.)
The "journalist," who
called Donald Rowe during the move gave his name
as "Mr. Rosen," but did not leave a phone number
where he could be reached at a more convenient time.
Nor did he identify himself or his "publication" when
he called The Wall Street Digest's offices. He simply stated that he was a journalist who was "returning
Don's call." Clearly, this was a deceptive, untrue
statement.
Since
posting his vitriolic commentary on his Web site
and releasing his "press releases" to the investment
community, this is what we have learned about Mr.
Rosen, a.k.a. William Harris, a.k.a. William Smith.
#1: In a press release dated March 26,
2003, Stocklemon.com is identified as "an independent
website that has been serving the microcap community
since 1991." This is a highly suspect statement,
since the vast majority of investors and the investment
community at-large did not discover the Internet
prior to 1994-1995. However, a Bill Harris did create
the domain name, "Stocklemon.com" on August 1, 2001,
ten years later than the year claimed in Stocklemon.com's
press releases. After registering Stocklemon.com,
Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith then released his first "investigative
report" on August 6, 2001, and posted it to his newly
created Web site.
#2: The contact information that Bill
Harris provided when he created Stocklemon.com on
August 1, 2001, consists of two non-published phone
numbers, a Hotmail e-mail address, and two conflicting
street addresses in California-one of which does
not appear to exist on any published map.
#3: In his inflammatory allegations concerning
Donald Rowe's qualifications to analyze and recommend
stocks, Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith directs his readers
to a 1999 "Bull and Bear" archival page where, in
a reprint of a July 1999 report on Internet stocks
and The Wall Street Digest's November
1999 issue featuring those same stocks, Mr. Rowe
recommended several securities that were also recommended
by the vast majority of momentum investment advisors
in 1999. Those stock recommendations were: Qualcomm,
MCI WorldCom, Excite At Home,
Broadcom, Lucent Technologies, CMGI, Global Crossing,
JDS Uniphase, Softbank, and Texas Instruments-all
rising, profitable Nasdaq securities at the time.
Since
Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith claims to be an "investigative
journalist," why did he find it necessary to direct
his readers to a four-year-old article by Donald
Rowe and his then-stock recommendations that were
widely recommended by investment advisors in the
years leading up to the Tech Wreck? Did Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith
even bother to find out that Donald Rowe released
Sell recommendations on ALL of those stocks in accordance
with his published Stop-Loss Rules? Quite frankly,
we doubt it, since we suspect Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith's
reason for his "investigative report's" existence
has nothing to do with honest journalism and everything
to do with creating a highly profitable short-selling
environment for his latest OTC victim, Storage Alliance,
Inc.
#4: On his content-challenged Web site,
Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith has posted a legal disclaimer
that all-but states the objective for writing scathing
reports about OTC companies is to take short positions
in those companies' stocks. The following excerpts
are taken directly from Stocklemon.com's disclaimer
page:
"By using this website you agree to the terms of this disclaimer.
You agree that the use of stocklemon.com is at
your own risk. In no event should stocklemon.com
be liable for any direct or indirect trading losses
caused by any information available on this site. ...Stocklemon.com
makes no representations, and specifically disclaims
all warranties, express, implied, or statutory,
regarding the accuracy, timeliness, or completeness
of any material contained in this site. ...Stocklemon.com
does not guarantee in any way that it is providing
all of the information that may be available. ..."
We
find this final paragraph of Stocklemon.com's disclaimer
most revealing (bold-face type is Stocklemon.com's):
"At
any times [sic] the principles [sic] of Stocklemon.com
might hold a position in any of the securities
profiled on the site. Stocklemon.com will not report
when a position is initiated or [sic] covered.
Each investor must make that decision based on
his/her judgment of the market."
Indeed,
we believe this last paragraph reveals far more about
the reason for Stocklemon.com's existence than the
mere fact that it is a "free site" for disgruntled
OTC investors. We believe the principal(s) of Stocklemon.com
created the site for the sole purpose of finding
OTC stocks that could be manipulated into short-position
bonanzas for Stocklemon.com's owner(s). In fact,
the site's "Your Lemon" page includes this suspected
short-seller's invitation to "join our investigative
team" and provide Stocklemon.com with additional
stock manipulation leads.
#5: In a press release dated
November 15, 2001, Stocklemon.com describes itself
as "a free site that profiles companies on the OTC
BB marketplace. The principles [sic] of Stocklemon.com
often do have positions that are consistent with
the report that is being presented. No employee of
Stocklemon.com is a chartered financial analyst or
[sic] a licensed investment advisor."
Even more so than in Stocklemon.com's posted legal disclaimer,
we believe the above statement is an admission that
the owner(s) of Stocklemon.com are shorting the stocks
they are blasting in their so-called "investigative
reports" on Stocklemon.com.
Most
importantly, the owner(s) of Stocklemon.com (Mr.
Harris/Rosen/Smith, et. al.) freely admit that they
are neither chartered financial analysts nor licensed
investment advisors. So who are they? They offer
no clue on their Web site other than the most obvious:
professional short-sellers who are looking for OTC
companies to manipulate for their own profit.
#6: A careful review of the
trading history of Stocklemon.com's targeted stocks
between August 6, 2001, and March 28, 2003, indicates
that in every situation except one, a short-position
taken just prior to the release of a Stocklemon.com "investigative
report," would have produced good-to-phenomenal profits
for short-sellers of those OTC stocks. Coincidence?
Perhaps, but why hasn't Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith posted
his true identity and/or qualifications for investment
commentary on Stocklemon.com? Does he fear exposure
as an active short-seller of OTC securities?
As
revealed in #5 above, Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith has
freely admitted the following:
"The
principles [sic] of Stocklemon.com often do have positions
that are consistent with the report that is being
presented."
We continue to believe that
the principal(s) of Stocklemon.com, whoever they are,
deliberately trash good companies for the purpose of
generating short-term, short-selling trading profits.
The following are possible short-selling profits,
based upon the timing of Stocklemon.com's articles targeted against OTC
stocks:
TARGET STOCK |
ARTICLE DATE |
BEST DATES FOR SHORTING |
SHORT PROFIT |
HIGH TO LOW PRICE |
| IJON |
08/06/01 |
08/02/01 - 08/09/01 |
65% |
$9.20 - 3.21 |
| XAIB |
08/30/01 |
08/28/01 - 10/22/01 |
83% |
$5.90 - 1.00 |
| MAAX |
09/17/01 |
09/06/01 - 11/30/01 |
48% |
$3.55 - 1.83 |
| ECTY |
12/5&12/01 |
12/13/01 - 02/05/02 |
95% |
$5.80 - 0.31 |
| HUMT |
12/28/01 |
12/28/01 - 01/25/02 |
37% |
$1.33 - 0.84 |
| TLON |
01/17/02 |
01/11/02 - 02/06/02 |
93% |
$3.39 - 0.25 |
| EUNI |
03/26/02 |
03/19/02 - 04/04/02 |
38% |
$6.45 - 4.02 |
| DUVT |
04/24/02 |
04/23/02 - 06/04/02 |
75% |
$3.40 - 0.86 |
| AVDI |
05/02/02 |
04/30/02 - 06/27/02 |
73% |
$2.12 - 0.58 |
| CTRX (#1) |
07/29/02 |
07/23/02 - 07/30/02 |
50% |
$1.75 - 0.87 |
| SBSF |
08/02/02 |
07/30/02 - 08/22/02 |
31% |
$2.15 - 1.48 |
| GMXX |
08/23/02 |
08/23/02 - 08/26/02 |
21% |
$6.00 - 4.75 |
| MXES |
09/13/02 |
09/11/02 - 10/28/02 |
91% |
$2.80 - 0.25 |
| LFSI |
09/23/02 |
09/20/02 - 10/09/02 |
23% |
$4.03 - 3.10 |
| HEB** |
10/23/02 |
10/22/02 - 11/27/02 |
30% |
$2.86 - 1.99 |
| CTRX (#2) |
11/14/02 |
11/13/02 - 12/09/02 |
82% |
$2.28 - 0.40 |
| RTNH |
02/11/03 |
02/07/03 - 02/25/03 |
38% |
$2.87 - 1.78 |
| ISTO |
02/14/03 |
02/12/03 - 02/14/03 |
40% |
$1.81 - 1.08 |
| EPXR |
03/14/03 |
03/11/03 - 03/14/03 |
51% |
$3.50 - 1.70 |
| MRPT |
02/25/03 |
02/18/03 - 03/31/03 |
30% |
$4.00 - 2.80 |
| SGAL |
3/24&26/03 |
03/21/03 - 04/21/03 |
53% |
$1.91 - 0.90 |
| AOGI |
04/28/03 |
04/16/03 - 05/06/03 |
44% |
$1.58 - 0.88 |
- Some
short sales could have resulted in more profit if the shorted stock were
held longer, e.g., AVDI's low in Sept. '02 was $0.17; ECTY's low in April
'02 was $0.10; IJON's low in Oct. '02 was $0.51.
- Unlike
the majority of Stocklemon.com's targeted microcap stocks, which are listed on the
Nasdaq's Bulletin Board, HEB is listed on the American Stock Exchange.
NOTE: Between August 6, 2001, and April 28,
2003, Stocklemon.com released 31 articles on 25 stocks. Of those 25 stocks,
only one stock short would not have produced a profit: WRPT (10/14/02 article).
Three stocks, JUNM (10/01/01 article), EYPSF (11/13/01, 11/15/01, 01/30/02 and
03/09/02 articles) and BTGS (11/19/01 article) are no longer listed, so results
could not be confirmed.
#7: Stocklemon.com has no
visible means of income. Many of the site's co-branded
links are dead and the working links are, most likely,
posted on the site to lend it a certain amount of
credibility. However, those links are available for
free to almost any investment, financial, or consumer-targeted
site that is willing to post them. So, how does Stocklemon.com
make money for its principal(s)? We suspect that we have already
answered that question in #3, #4, #5 and, most certainly, in #6
above.
Allowing
Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith the benefit of doubt, perhaps
Stocklemon.com makes a small profit by selling and/or
renting its database of contacts. There is no "Privacy
Statement" posted on the site and complete name,
street address, and e-mail address is required when
registering at Stocklemon.com. Apparently, Stocklemon.com
conceals the identity of its owner(s), yet guarantees
its registered visitors no privacy whatsoever. And,
as most members of the online community are aware,
a corporate privacy policy has been standard procedure
on legitimate Web sites since well before August
1, 2001.
As
for The Wall Street Digest's current position on Storage Alliance, Inc. (SGAL),
we issued the following Special Investment Alert
to our subscribers on Friday, March 28, 2003 (in
its entirety):
"This is a Wall Street Digest Special Investment
Alert for Friday, March 28, 2003, at 6:00 p.m.
EST.
War worries continue to plague the market.
At the close of today's session, the Dow was down
55 points and the Nasdaq was down 14 points.
One hour into Monday's session, SELL the following
two stocks:
OmniVision Technologies (OVTI). The stock tripped
our stop-loss today, dropping 8.9% on approximately
2.65 times its average daily volume. Subscribers
who purchased the stock when we first recommended
it will realize an approximate 23% gain.
Storage Alliance (SGAL). The stock is now 35.9%
below its $1.95 high on March 24, 2003. We believe
that Storage Alliance has been victimized by irresponsible
statements from a professional short-seller who
uses his Web site to create a highly profitable
short-selling environment. Protect your profits
for now and we will advise you when to repurchase
the stock.
The offices of The Wall Street Digest are relocating
from One Sarasota Tower, Suite 602, Sarasota, FL
34236 to 8830 South Tamiami Trail, Suite 110, Sarasota,
FL 34238-3130. Our telephone numbers will remain
the same: 941-954-5500 and 800-785-5050. Our offices
will be closed on Monday, March 31 and we will
reopen for business on Tuesday, April 1, 2003.
The next Hotline Update will be on Tuesday,
April 1, 2003, at 6:00 p.m. EST."
In the past, we also have issued the following
statement in regards to any alleged association with
Storage Alliance:
"...Mr. and Mrs. Rowe do not own shares of Storage Alliance
(SGAL) -- nor will they -- until all of The Wall Street
Digest's subscribers have had an opportunity to purchase
the stock. Further, employees of The Wall Street
Digest and/or its affiliated companies are not permitted
to 'front run' any stocks recommended in The Wall
Street Digest. Employees of our third-party vendors
and associates, such as printers, mailing firms,
Internet vendors, marketing associates, etc., are
also prohibited from purchasing stocks before our
own Wall Street Digest subscribers have been made
aware of Mr. Rowe's recommendations. Mr. Rowe has
enforced these ethical principles since he founded
The Wall Street Digest 26 years ago in 1977."
Furthermore,
Storage Alliance has not issued shares of stock,
warrants, nor options for shares to Donald H. Rowe.
In accordance with SEC regulations, Mr. and/or Mrs.
Rowe, The Wall Street Digest, and/or its associates have not received any compensation
whatsoever from Storage Alliance, Inc.
For
further investment research and/or investor education
information, The Wall Street Digest maintains
an Investment Research page on its Web site at http://www.wallstreetdigest.com/links.php We
encourage all investors to obtain current SEC Filings
from the EDGAR database that is available from our
site.
For
additional information regarding Storage Alliance,
Inc., please contact the company directly at its
corporate headquarters: 725, 435 – 4th Avenue,
S.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2P3A8; (403) 264-2500;
www.storagealliance.com
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