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The question of how shares of an unknown social media company named Cynk CYNK —with few assets, no revenue, and no profit—could skyrocket to a $6 billion market cap (roughly the size of Fortune 500 drug store chain Rite Aid RAD ) had Wall Street watchers scratching their heads last week.
上周，一樁業內奇聞令華爾街的觀察家們百思不得其解：一家名叫Cynk的默默無聞的社交媒體公司，既沒什么資產，又沒有營收和利潤，市值何以陡增至60億美元【大約相當于財富500強公司，藥品連鎖巨頭美國來愛德公司（Rite Aid ）的市值】？
Shares of the company, which traded for pennies as recently as mid-June, reached as high as $21 on Thursday, before dropping to $14.
就在六月中旬的時候，該公司股價還不到1塊錢，但上周四漲到21美元，之后回落到14美元。
The stock market success doesn’t seem to have much to do with the company’s leadership. Cynk has had four CEOs since 2008. None are big names on Wall Street or Silicon Valley. The company’s current CEO, Javier Romero, lives in Belize City, Belize. According to a corporate document, since 2009 Romero has been a “fisheries officer” for the Belize government. According to filings, Romero bought 210 million shares of the company in February. That stake would now be worth $3.5 billion.
股市上的成功似乎和這家公司的領導層沒什么關系。自2008年以來，Cynk已經換過四任CEO，其中沒有任何一位是華爾街或硅谷名人。現任CEO哈維爾o羅梅羅住在拉美小國伯利茲首都伯利茲城。據該公司的一份文件稱，自從2009年以來，羅梅羅一直是伯利茲政府的一名“漁業官員”。據文件稱，羅梅羅于今年二月斥資2.1億美元購買了該公司大量股票，現在這批股票已然價值35億美元。
Before Romero, the company—which has a social media website where users can, in theory, buy social friendships with celebrities—was run by Marlon Luis Sanchez, a former spokesperson for the Tijuana medical tourism industry and a San Diego-area medical clinic.
Cynk公司擁有一家社交媒體網站，從理論上講，用戶可以在這家網站上花錢買到與名人做朋友的權利。在羅梅羅之前，Cynk的上一個CEO馬龍o路易斯o桑切斯曾經擔任墨西哥提華納市醫療旅游行業的發言人，也是一位在圣地亞哥地區執業的醫生。
But at least one person has a long history with the company: Harold Gewerter, a Las Vegas lawyer who has spent the past few years birthing tiny companies with little or no income and questionable business prospects. Gewerter has also defended stock market promoters and in 1995, he was indicted as part of an FBI investigation. Those charges were ultimately dropped.
不過至少還有一個人曾經與這家公司有很久的淵源。這人便是拉斯維加斯的律師哈羅德o吉沃特，他在過去幾年創立過幾家收入少得可憐，業務目標也有問題的小公司。另外他也曾替股票推銷員打過官司，另外在1995年他還卷入了FBI（聯邦調查局）的一宗調查，只是這些指控最終都被撤銷。
On Friday, regulators halted trading of Cynk shares, citing “potentially manipulative transactions” in the stock. There is no evidence that Gewerter has had anything to do with Cynk’s shares recent rise.
上周五，美國監管機構以“可能存在操縱交易”為由，下令停止Cynk股票的交易。目前還沒有證據顯示吉沃特與近來Cynk股票的異常飆升有關系。
Penny stocks have long been a haven for fraudsters. And as the market has improved over the past year or so, there has been a resurgence of questionable activity. Earlier this year, Fortune reported that Forbes.com, Seeking Alpha, Wall Street Cheat Sheet, and other websites had been duped into publishing articles by authors paid to promote the companies they were writing about. The articles in question did not include disclosure that these authors were paid promoters. On Friday, the SEC charged five individuals for attempting to manipulated the shares of a Boston-based microcap company Amogear AMOG , which makes clothing aimed at mixed martial arts fighters.
低價股一直是詐騙犯們行騙的好去處。隨著去年以來市場有所好轉，股市的可疑行為也再次抬頭。《財富》（Fortune）今年年初就曾報道過，像福布斯網站（Forbes.com）、Seeking Alpha、Wall Street Cheat Sheet等知名財經網站都曾受騙刊登過一些收錢為企業宣傳造勢的寫手的文章。這些文章也沒有標明作者是收了錢的“美分黨”。上周五，美國證監會（SEC）指控五人涉嫌操縱波士頓一家名叫Amogear的公司的股價，這家公司主要生產混合格斗術運動員的運動服，市值極低。
Gewerter declined to comment on Cynk’s shares’ rapid ascent or why trading was put to a halt. In an e-mail Gewerter told Fortune that Cynk is no longer a client of his.
吉沃特拒紙評論Cynk的股價最近為何快速飆升或股票交易為何被叫停等問題。他在一封電子郵件中向《財富》表示，Cynk已經不再是他的客戶了。
But as recently as June 11, six days before Cynk’s stock began to take off, Gewerter wrote a letter to the OTC Markets Group, an exchange for small companies, saying that he had been hired by Cynk to do a review of its documents. Gewerter wrote that nothing appeared to be out of order. He said he had personally met with Romero and verified that the company’s listed address in a business center in Belize was correct. There is no company named Cynk located at that address, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
但就在6月11日，也就是Cynk股票開始暴漲的6天前，吉沃特曾致信美國場外交易集團（OTC Markets Group），稱他已經被Cynk公司聘請審查其文件。吉沃特在那封信中稱，Cynk公司的文件并沒有什么異常之處。他還表示他本人已經和羅梅羅見了面，并且確認了該公司在伯利茲城一幢商業中心里的注冊地址是正確的。但是據《華爾街日報》（Wall Street Journal）的一篇報道稱，在那個地址上并沒有一家叫做Cynk的公司。
Gewerter knows Cynk well. In 2012, Gewerter was listed as the lawyer and placement agent for the company’s initial public offering, back when Cynk was called Introbuzz. Unlike most IPOs, it had no underwriter or brokerage tied to the offering. Gewerter appears to have handled it all on his own.
吉沃特對Cynk公司非常熟悉。2012年，吉沃特曾經擔任Cynk公司的律師和首次公開募股（IPO）的銷售代理，而當年的Cynk還叫做Introbuzz。和大多數IPO不同，Cynk的IPO沒有一個固定的承銷商或代理商。整個募股流程似乎是由吉沃特一手包辦的。
Cynk’s website, Introbiz.com, advertises its ability connect users with “socialites,” but it doesn’t seem to have attracted many high-fliers. Instead, the website seems to be selling contact information for celebrities from a directory. As of July 11, according to the site, 78 people had paid $50 each to get contact info for Leonardo DiCaprio. The info for Parks and Recreationtelevision star Chris Pratt had been purchased by eight users. Those sales could not be verified. As of September 30, 2013, the last time the company reported financial information, Cynk said in its more than five years of existence it had not generated even a dollar in sales.
Cynk公司的網站Introbiz.com宣稱，這個網站有能力讓用戶認識“上流社會人士”，但它似乎并沒有吸引多少牛人。相反這個網站倒像是在販賣名人的聯系方式。據該網站稱，從去年7月11日起來，已經有78人各花50美元購買了萊昂納多的聯系方式。還有8個人購買了電視劇《公園與娛樂》（Parks and Recreation）明星克里斯o帕拉特的聯系方式。這些銷售數據沒有辦法證實。2013年9月30日是該公司最后一次公布財務數據的時間，Cynk表示，公司成立五年以來，還沒有產生哪怕1美元的銷售額。
In 2009, a client of Gewerter’s named John Edwards, a Las Vegas stock market promoter (not the former presidential candidate), was fined $55 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission for his role in fraud involving mining company CMKM Diamonds. CMKM said it had the rights to gold and diamond mines. The SEC determined that the company’s maps and videos of the mines had been faked. According to the SEC, the company’s only actually activities were “illegally issuing and promoting its own stock.”
2009年，吉沃特的一個名叫約翰o愛德華茲的客戶（他是個股票推銷員，與之前的那個總統候選人只是同名同姓）因在CMKM鉆石公司一案中涉嫌詐騙，而被美國證監會罰款5500萬美元。CMKM公司稱它擁有一批金礦和鉆石礦的采礦權，而美國證監會認定該公司提供的相關礦藏的地圖和視頻是偽造的。據美國證監會稱，這家公司唯一真正從事的行為，就是“非法發行和推銷自家股票”。
Edwards fled the country. And the SEC later sued to recover $25,000 that Edwards had transferred to a trust controlled by Gewerter. Edwards is still being pursued by the Justice Department.
愛德華茲匆忙逃離美國，美國證監會隨后發起起訴，意欲追回愛德華茲之前轉給吉沃特控制的一個信托賬戶中的25,000美元。美國司法部至今仍在通緝愛德華茲。
Last month, another Gewerter client, Nevada attorney Marcus Luna, was fined $7 million and banned from working on securities offerings by the SEC for Luna’s role in a reverse merger stock scheme.
上個月，吉沃特的另一個客戶——內華達的律師馬庫斯o盧納，由于在一樁反向收購案中扮演的角色，也被美國證監會罰款700萬美元，并且被禁止從事與證券發行業有關的工作。
According to the Nevada State Bar, Gewerter has been practicing law since 1979. His firm’s website says that he specializes in estate planning and securities law. It says the firm was ranked in 2012 by SEC New Registrations Report, a trade publication, as one of the top 15 law firms in the country that represent companies doing “pre-effective IPOs.”
據內華達律師協會（Nevada State Bar）介紹，吉沃特從1979年開始就從事律師工作。他的事務所官網稱，吉沃特的專長是財產規劃和證券法。該網站還宣稱，吉沃特的事務所曾在2012年被一份股市刊物《SEC新注冊報告》（SEC New Registrations Report）評為代表公司從事“上市前流程（pre-effective IPOs）”的15家頂級律師事務所之一。
In 1990, Gewerter won what was at the time the largest civil judgment in Nevada state history, $35 million for a chemical company heiress who claimed to have been defrauded in the sale of the legendary Las Vegas property The Tropicana.
1990年，吉沃特打贏了內華達州歷史上最大的一場民事官司。他代理的一方是一家化學公司的女繼承人，據稱是在出售拉斯維加斯熱帶花園酒店（The Tropicana）的過程中受到了詐騙。這起案件的價值高達3500萬美元。
That case, though, later landed Gewerter in trouble with the Feds. In 1995, the FBI charged Gewerter with allegedly helping to conceal the fact that the hotel and casino had ties to the mob. The government later dropped the charges against Gewerter after being criticized by a judge for indicting Gewerter after he had worked with the government to gather evidence for its mob investigation.
不過這起案件后來還是讓吉沃特與聯邦官員結下了梁子。1995年，FBI指控吉沃特涉嫌幫助涉案的酒店與賭場洗脫與犯罪團伙的關系。但是后來有一名法官指出吉沃特曾與政府合作收集此案的犯罪證據，因此政府后來撤銷了指控。
Recently, Gewerter seems to have spent much of his time helping small companies with limited sales, and often no profits and limited prospects, sell stock.
最近，吉沃特似乎花了很多時間，幫助銷售額與發展前景有限甚至是根本沒有利潤的小公司賣股票。
In early 2012, Gewerter helped a small company named Tiger Oil and Energy TGRO raise nearly $850,000 by selling more than 28 million shares. Like Cynk, Tiger’s deal appeared to have been solely managed by Gewerter. No investment bank was listed on the offering.
2012年初，吉沃特幫助一家名叫老虎石油能源公司（Tiger Oil and Energy）的公司售出2800萬股，募集到了近85萬美元的資金。像Cynk一樣，老虎公司的交易似乎也是由吉沃特一手包辦的，沒有一家投行被列為承銷人。
Tiger said it was in the business of bringing formerly productive oil wells back to life. But the company had no revenue and its assets had plunged to just under $15,000 from $337,880 in the year before the offering. Tiger’s stock, which hit a high of $1.59 in December, now trades for $0.17.
老虎石油能源公司稱，它從事的是讓荒廢油井再次出油的業務。但是該公司并沒有任何營業收入，而且就在其IPO之前的一年，它的財產一度從337,880美元暴跌至不到15,000美元。該公司股票的歷史最高價是去年12月的1.59美元，現在只有0.17美元。
And then there’s revenue-less, asset-less Stark Naked Bobbers, which sells kits that can transform any motorcycle into a “bobber,” a type of stylized bike not to be confused with a chopper. The documents for the company’s offering, which has yet to be completed, lists Gewerter as the company’s agent for its offering. The company’s only executive, Teresa Stark, who “does not have any public company experience and is involved in other business activities,” according to the company’s prospectus for the offering, runs not only Stark Naked Bobbers but also Stark Cycles of San Diego, Calif.
另外還有營收和資產都少得可憐的Stark Naked Bobbers公司，這家公司主要生產一套能把任何摩托車改裝成一輛“Bobber”范兒摩托車的改裝配件。該公司的上市申請文件（目前尚未完成上市）將吉沃特列為IPO代理人。據該公司的招股計劃書介紹，該公司的唯一一名高管特里薩o斯塔克“沒有任何上市公司經驗，而且還在從事其它商業活動”，她不僅經營著這家公司，同時還在運營加州圣迭哥市的Stark Cycles公司。
When Fortune reached out to Stark, she first hung up during the phone call. When Fortune called back, Stark said, “I went through someone to find [Gewerter]. I have to now do my own investigating. I know nothing.”
當《財富》試圖聯系斯塔克時，她先是掛斷了，等《財富》再打過去時，她說：“我通過某個人找到了（吉沃特），我現在必須要自己做調查了，我什么也不知道。”
