The CFO and Secretary of Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ:RIOT) is Jeffrey G. McGonegal See here: http://ift.tt/2qi5GvU The first pump-and-dump incident was under the name AspenBio: http://ift.tt/2lIiB5r CFO of AspenBio, Jeffrey McGonegal, was awarded a bit under $290k in stock options in just 2009 off of that pump and dump scheme (probably a lot more over the years of the now-defunct company's existence). Investors sued in 2011 (see: http://ift.tt/2qf4OI7). Jeffrey G. McGonegal is personally named in the lawsuit. After years of delay, a judge dismissed the lawsuit, despite misleading statements being made by AspenBio executives, and countless smaller investors losing money. The case was also dismissed despite AspenBio's management team personally profiting heavily due to these poorly informed investments. Then again, in 2015, after AspenBio was renamed to Venaxis, just 2 defendants were individually named in another lawsuit involving the then re-branded firm: http://ift.tt/2lK7c5h The two individually named defendants were Stephen Lundy and Jeffrey McGonegal. This lawsuit was over a separate pump-and-dump scandal involving Venaxis, and its shares falling from $2.04 to $0.55 on January 29th due to damaging information. The complaint states: "Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the APPY1 510(k) submission and the Company’s future prospects. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) the APPY1 test failed to meet the criteria for “substantial equivalence” based upon data and information submitted by Venaxis in its 510(k) submission; (2) the Company lacked a reasonable basis to conclude that the results from the APPY1 pivotal study were sufficient to support FDA clearance; and as a result of the foregoing, (3) Venaxis’ public statements pertaining to the expected FDA clearance of its 510(k) submission were materially false and misleading at all relevant times." This is what comes up from a very quick, cursory Google search. Who knows how much more information would surface with more thorough background checks on Riot Blockchain's management team.
Submitted January 06, 2018 at 08:32AM by blastmax http://ift.tt/2CPr0yA
