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，一桩业内奇闻令华尔街的观察家们百思不得其解：一家名叫Cynk的默默无闻的社交媒体公司，既没什么资产，又没有营收和利润，市值何以陡增至60亿美元【大约相当于财富500强公司，药品连锁巨头美国来爱德公司（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.
就在六月中旬的时候，该公司股价还不到1块钱，但上周四涨到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这家公司的领导层没什么关系。自2008年以来，Cynk已经换过四任CEO，其中没有任何一位是华尔街或硅谷名人。现任CEO哈维尔o罗梅罗住在拉美小国伯利兹首都伯利兹城。据该公司的一份文件称，自从2009年以来，罗梅罗一直是伯利兹政府的一名“渔业官员”。据文件称，罗梅罗于今年二月斥资2.1亿美元购买了该公司大量股票，现在这批股票已然价值35亿美元。
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公司拥有一家社交媒体网站，从理论上讲，用户可以在这家网站上花钱买到与名人做朋友的权利。在罗梅罗之前，Cynk的上一个CEO马龙o路易斯o桑切斯曾经担任墨西哥提华纳市医疗旅游行业的发言人，也是一位在圣地亚哥地区执业的医生。
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.
不过至少还有一个人曾经与这家公司有很久的渊源。这人便是拉斯维加斯的律师哈罗德o吉沃特，他在过去几年创立过几家收入少得可怜，业务目标也有问题的小公司。另外他也曾替股票推销员打过官司，另外在1995年他还卷入了FBI（联邦调查局）的一宗调查，只是这些指控最终都被撤销。
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，美国监管机构以“可能存在操纵交易”为由，下令停止Cynk股票的交易。目前还没有证据显示吉沃特与近来Cynk股票的异常飙升有关系。
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.
低价股一直是诈骗犯们行骗的好去处。随着去年以来市场有所好转，股市的可疑行为也再次抬头。《财富》（Fortune）今年年初就曾报道过，像福布斯网站（Forbes.com）、Seeking Alpha、Wall Street Cheat Sheet等知名财经网站都曾受骗刊登过一些收钱为企业宣传造势的写手的文章。这些文章也没有标明作者是收了钱的“美分党”。上周五，美国证监会（SEC）指控五人涉嫌操纵波士顿一家名叫Amogear的公司的股价，这家公司主要生产混合格斗术运动员的运动服，市值极低。
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.
吉沃特拒纸评论Cynk的股价最近为何快速飙升或股票交易为何被叫停等问题。他在一封电子邮件中向《财富》表示，Cynk已经不再是他的客户了。
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股票开始暴涨的6天前，吉沃特曾致信美国场外交易集团（OTC Markets Group），称他已经被Cynk公司聘请审查其文件。吉沃特在那封信中称，Cynk公司的文件并没有什么异常之处。他还表示他本人已经和罗梅罗见了面，并且确认了该公司在伯利兹城一幢商业中心里的注册地址是正确的。但是据《华尔街日报》（Wall Street Journal）的一篇报道称，在那个地址上并没有一家叫做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.
吉沃特对Cynk公司非常熟悉。2012年，吉沃特曾经担任Cynk公司的律师和首次公开募股（IPO）的销售代理，而当年的Cynk还叫做Introbuzz。和大多数IPO不同，Cynk的IPO没有一个固定的承销商或代理商。整个募股流程似乎是由吉沃特一手包办的。
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公司的网站Introbiz.com宣称，这个网站有能力让用户认识“上流社会人士”，但它似乎并没有吸引多少牛人。相反这个网站倒像是在贩卖名人的联系方式。据该网站称，从去年7月11日起来，已经有78人各花50美元购买了莱昂纳多的联系方式。还有8个人购买了电视剧《公园与娱乐》（Parks and Recreation）明星克里斯o帕拉特的联系方式。这些销售数据没有办法证实。2013年9月30日是该公司最后一次公布财务数据的时间，Cynk表示，公司成立五年以来，还没有产生哪怕1美元的销售额。
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，吉沃特的一个名叫约翰o爱德华兹的客户（他是个股票推销员，与之前的那个总统候选人只是同名同姓）因在CMKM钻石公司一案中涉嫌诈骗，而被美国证监会罚款5500万美元。CMKM公司称它拥有一批金矿和钻石矿的采矿权，而美国证监会认定该公司提供的相关矿藏的地图和视频是伪造的。据美国证监会称，这家公司唯一真正从事的行为，就是“非法发行和推销自家股票”。
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.
爱德华兹匆忙逃离美国，美国证监会随后发起起诉，意欲追回爱德华兹之前转给吉沃特控制的一个信托账户中的25,000美元。美国司法部至今仍在通缉爱德华兹。
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.
上个月，吉沃特的另一个客户——内华达的律师马库斯o卢纳，由于在一桩反向收购案中扮演的角色，也被美国证监会罚款700万美元，并且被禁止从事与证券发行业有关的工作。
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.”
据内华达律师协会（Nevada State Bar）介绍，吉沃特从1979年开始就从事律师工作。他的事务所官网称，吉沃特的专长是财产规划和证券法。该网站还宣称，吉沃特的事务所曾在2012年被一份股市刊物《SEC新注册报告》（SEC New Registrations Report）评为代表公司从事“上市前流程（pre-effective IPOs）”的15家顶级律师事务所之一。
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，吉沃特打赢了内华达州历史上最大的一场民事官司。他代理的一方是一家化学公司的女继承人，据称是在出售拉斯维加斯热带花园酒店（The Tropicana）的过程中受到了诈骗。这起案件的价值高达3500万美元。
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.
不过这起案件后来还是让吉沃特与联邦官员结下了梁子。1995年，FBI指控吉沃特涉嫌帮助涉案的酒店与赌场洗脱与犯罪团伙的关系。但是后来有一名法官指出吉沃特曾与政府合作收集此案的犯罪证据，因此政府后来撤销了指控。
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时间，帮助销售额与发展前景有限甚至是根本没有利润的小公司卖股票。
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，吉沃特帮助一家名叫老虎石油能源公司（Tiger Oil and Energy）的公司售出2800万股，募集到了近85万美元的资金。像Cynk一样，老虎公司的交易似乎也是由吉沃特一手包办的，没有一家投行被列为承销人。
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.
老虎石油能源公司称，它从事的是让荒废油井再次出油的业务。但是该公司并没有任何营业收入，而且就在其IPO之前的一年，它的财产一度从337,880美元暴跌至不到15,000美元。该公司股票的历史最高价是去年12月的1.59美元，现在只有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.
另外还有营收和资产都少得可怜的Stark Naked Bobbers公司，这家公司主要生产一套能把任何摩托车改装成一辆“Bobber”范儿摩托车的改装配件。该公司的上市申请文件（目前尚未完成上市）将吉沃特列为IPO代理人。据该公司的招股计划书介绍，该公司的唯一一名高管特里萨o斯塔克“没有任何上市公司经验，而且还在从事其它商业活动”，她不仅经营着这家公司，同时还在运营加州圣迭哥市的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.”
当《财富》试图联系斯塔克时，她先是挂断了，等《财富》再打过去时，她说：“我通过某个人找到了（吉沃特），我现在必须要自己做调查了，我什么也不知道。”