14 ms·
Turkish Magician Built a $600M Nasdaq-Listed Scam Based on Lies
- myst11 4y agoBaffling how easy it is for this brand of criminal to run free ruining and even ending lives every step they make. Somehow once you accrue enough money, this becomes mostly acceptable behaviour. Pharma bro just got out of jail on good behaviour super excited to see how many lives they ruin next...
- RF_Savage 4y agoWild that nobody at any point tried to verify anything. They must be really convincing.
- runnr_az 4y agoOr just more convenient to not ask
- BbzzbB 4y agoTheranos was valued $9B yet no one sleuthed the actual machine. Nikola Motor Co was valued $22B with a "fully functional" truck rolling downhill. Maddoff ponzied $65B without a business. It really is wild that so much money gets thrown at frauds without proper due diligence.
- quickthrower2 4y agoBecause it is a gold rush.
- vlovich123 4y agoThere’s a difference between a gold rush and a mad scramble to steal everything possible before the ship sinks.
- netheril96 4y agoEverybody just assumes that somebody else has done the due diligence. Why else would the company be valued so much? They think. The more the value, the more people jump in assuming others have done the due diligence. So all it takes is a few people with enough money or influence jumping in at the beginning.
- tluyben2 4y agoThis exactly; when your banking or investment app shows the stock, you assume already that it has been vetted by people who know so much more about all this than you.
- everybodyknows 4y agoManagers at GM who signed off on the Nikola stake then had an overwhelming career incentive to hide any bad news, however criminal.
- irjustin 4y agoWe see this time and again - to be clear, it will continue forever. The goal is take meetings with those who don't probe too deep. Who doesn't ask too many questions? Personally a trend I've seen it starts with groups/investors who want to break into the space and jump at any deal because that's all they have. After you get a lead, it's relatively easy to get follow on money that almost never asks questions. If you're willing to out right lie you can get very far. It catches up as eventually you run out of groups who are willing to believe the lies.
- KingOfCoders 4y agoWhy verify if you want to make money with it by increasing the worth and then selling?
- missedthecue 4y agoI've only sold short one company. It was called Parateum, and claimed to sell IoT products to telecoms in emerging economies. They were worth about $550 million at the time. It caught my eye when I was looking through their accounts and saw a very dubious clause that defined the way they recognized revenue. Basically it said management can unilaterally decide when revenue happens, and they were deciding it happened whenever they dispersed a press release about a supposed new major contract being signed. The money never existed. I decided they were a fraud for certain when I used Google Earth to search the addresses of their offices in various countries they claimed to do business in. Time after time, the result was a dead end dirt road in the African bush, or some dingy hovel in South East Asia occupied by a suspicious looking night club. It was that easy. I had the short on for about a year until a major hedge fund released a report on it. Shares fell ~90% pretty quickly. They've been delisted since.
- zone411 4y agoI shorted this Nasdaq-listed fraud: https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2020/lr24706.htm https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2020/lr24706.htm. It was a wild story that included a 2000% price increase after they bought a blockchain company, Russell 2000 inclusion and reversal, a CEO who is "a true believer in disruptive technologies and believes that every piece of information is worth millions [and] in the alchemy of structured trade finance," CNBC appearances, a picture of their U.S. operations consisting of three empty desks, and a long trading halt. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/04/controversial-crypto-stock-longfin-surges-then-halted-after-its-announced-ceo-to-appear-on-cnbcs-fast-money.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/04/controversial-crypto-stock-l... https://www.wsj.com/articles/longfin-collapse-puts-focus-on-lax-ipo-rules-1522788520 https://www.wsj.com/articles/longfin-collapse-puts-focus-on-...
- baobabKoodaa 4y agoI assume you got out before the delisting?
- missedthecue 4y agoI did, but even if you didn't you can still buy back the shares on the OTC market and close your position. The company is now only worth $600k. I should have waited!
- sigil_my_ev 4y agoAndrei Jikh is on track to a similar amount but by selling poor financial advice haha. Yes, in 2022 we have reached a point where the low-bar for being a youtube "financial influencer" is literally lacking a college degree but having experience as a magician.
- blobbers 4y agoAt least he's pleasant. Isn't most of his financial advice "buy index stocks"?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- vowelless 4y agoWhy did you mention Andrei Jikh?
- nimos 4y agoInteresting, just went to the channel to look and the comments are full of people promoting a scam amazon crypto: https://amazonwt.com/ https://amazonwt.com/ Interesting to see the scams play out in real time. To be clear it looks like bots on his channel not something he is actually promoting. His content seemed not that bad? Extremely clickbaity for sure.
- schroeding 4y agoI like how they made the cursor to a hand when hovering over the comments, as if you could click it, but it actually does nothing and is just a css class :D Also, lol @ the comments: https://amazonwt.com/js/ytc-settings.js https://amazonwt.com/js/ytc-settings.js ... actually, when I think about that, I believe those scammers are German, IMO. They used the word "commis" for comments, which kinda looks like a false friend from the german netspeak "Kommis". They also have a german comment in there, "Geht das echt" (=> "Does this work", very non-ML, native speaker translation), no other non-english language. Mhh.
- 4y ago
- floatinglotus 4y agoThis is a systemic error. How can large conpanies and individuals not detect this sort of grifter?
- wly_cdgr 4y agoBecause his contributions are comparable in quality and impact to those of most legitimate executives
- jackblemming 4y agoThis is exactly right. Elon Musk can do it, this random street magician can do it, Elizabeth Holmes can do it. We hold these millionaires up as if they're some sort of super geniuses. Nope, they're mostly just charismatic. The world is yours if you can talk a big game, even if it's mostly bullshit.
- darawk 4y agoYou know that Elon's companies actually build electric cars and rockets that go to space, right?
- pigeonhole123 4y agoYou know Enron did actually trade energy right?
- jackblemming 4y agoHe's smart enough to say "self driving cars are coming soon" or "neural link will be done in five years" or the millions of other things he's said are right around the corner. The other grifters weren't as smart.
- extheat 4y agoAll companies should seek to be ambitious. It’s one thing to have a tangible product in development be hyped and other to be selling literal vaporware without the internet of delivering or lying about possessions.
- andrewstuart 4y agoWhy "Turkish Magician", why not "Magician"?
- jahewson 4y agoBecause he’s from Turkey, where he was a magician.
- bhaney 4y agoYou mean Türkiye?
- jahewson 4y agoThat would be in Turkish and I’m writing in English.
- sgt 4y agoApparently it's supposed to be Türkiye in English now too. If you don't comply, you might receive a stern talking to from the ambassador!
- diegoperini 4y agoTurkish here. Let politicians use whatever name they want. "Türkiye" is hard to pronounce in English and "Turkey" worked just fine for a hundred years. I'm not gonna report you :)
- random314 4y agoHindenburg research does a crazy amount of research on publicly listed companies. What's shocking is how obvious the fraud is and how credulous the investors are. Nikola comes to mind.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- lodovic 4y agoThis is an eye opening article. It's disappointing that nobody asks questions when someone with unverifiable credentials claims to have a cure for HIV, cancer, Covid and others, using leeches and mistletoe, this should immediately raise all kinds of red flags.
- 2b3a51 4y agoThe company name itself alone would be a bit of a red flag for me. I skimmed the original article first to see if any of the directors were called John Dee or Edward Kelley. (A quick Web search for 'enochian magic' will clarify the references)
- bilalq 4y agoThe OP references an analysis from Seeking Alpha in 2021, but it turns out that there's yet another article from Seeking Alpha[0], published all the way back in Nov 2019, calling ENOB a house of cards and highlighting a lot of the same concerns. It blows me away how fraud that's already had proof dug up by journalists can just sit there with no action from regulators for years on end. Maybe it just needs to go more viral before it stops being ignored or left unseen? [0]: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4307809-enochian-biosciences-is-house-of-cards-pipeline-is-entirely-pre-clinical-and-management https://seekingalpha.com/article/4307809-enochian-bioscience...
- altacc 4y agoI think most people grossly overestimate the ability of government to act on fraud, scams and crime, even when there is information available. I see this with other scams & ponzi schemes. A common sentiment from both victims and con-artists is "if this is a scam, why haven't the police/government/etc... closed it down". All our governments are dysfunctional & ineffective to some degree and there just aren't enough resources to cope with everything and the burden of proof for action is high. Normally some political will is needed to prioritise an investigation into a particular company. Regulators are underfunded and outgunned by those whose massive profits rely on outsmarting them.
- folbec 4y ago"Regulators are underfunded and outgunned by those whose massive profits rely on outsmarting them." That's a feature, not a bug, and generally true in any country. If regulators were correctly funded and staffed, they would have time to look into the shady dealings of the rich and powerfull. That will not do.
- altacc 4y agoIndeed. Corruption takes many forms and in most Western countries that like to think they don't have corruption, allowing the rich to set the rules, decide the referee and how to hobble them is a very popular and effective form of corruption.
- Thorrez 4y ago>As part of our research, we purchased a similar black market Russian medical degree from the same school, with the same claimed major, the same date, and the same “official” stamp as Gumrukcu’s. The process was surprisingly easy—the hardest part was smuggling it out of Russia through a neighboring country to the U.S., given new wartime export restrictions. Wow... that's... interesting. Did their lawyers sign off on that?
- jhugo 4y agoDo you think any laws were broken? I'm not certain. Purchasing a fake degree most likely isn't a crime (passing it off as a real one most likely is, perhaps depending on context). Exporting a piece of paper from Russia is also probably OK, even with the sanctions? You'd want to be sure you didn't pay any sanctioned people, but that's probably not that hard. I imagine that the hard part might mostly be that the usual obvious shipping services aren't usable now if they've ceased operations in Russia.
- marie1595 4y ago[dead]
- lormayna 4y agoHow those situations are possible? Why investors are not making any kind of due diligence and background check on the founders and on the technology? I was scrutinized in deep before being hired by my company, but it seems that people are raising millions just grabbing miracle without any kind of verifications. Why the system is so vulnerable to con men and snake oil sellers?
- throw_m239339 4y ago> How those situations are possible? Why investors are not making any kind of due diligence and background check on the founders and on the technology? Not only some people within the company questioned the magician's credentials but were fired for doing so and these people were subsequently harassed by the company itself to make them keep their mouth shut, in order to protect the "reputation" of the scammer. To me it seems like some higher ups were complicit... > Enochian’s former CFO is currently embroiled in an undisclosed lawsuit with Enochian’s leadership, claiming he was fired for asking “critical questions” about “serious financial improprieties” and large payments to Gumrukcu, and for questioning the company’s close association with an individual accused of numerous felonies. So many redflags...
- lormayna 4y ago> So many redflags... Redflags start with the history of the founder. If the VC asks about a PhD proof, the credibility of the founder will be destroyed. The funny things is that those scanners (as sociopathic narcissistic) know very well how to hide that with foggy and not verificable experiences. Sometimes I am thinking to found a startup that can verify the con men bullshit as a service
- itsoktocry 4y ago>So many redflags... Investors literally don't care about red flags: https://www.vox.com/recode/23142106/adam-neumann-crypto-carbon-credit-offset-flowcarbon https://www.vox.com/recode/23142106/adam-neumann-crypto-carb...
- 4y ago
- TheGigaChad 4y ago
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- mrtksn 4y agoIn Turkey, there are some fascinating scams and corruption going on or blowing up, Turks don't get impressed for anything less than a billion dollars these days. Sometimes I feel for the people who don't speak Turkish and missing out the drama. Now I see that scam exports are happening. The person in question seems to have some footprint in Turkish media too, presented as the genius Turkish doctor doing cutting edge research in the USA. These people often exploit the patriotic feelings of the people. Any questioning of their claims is viewed as treason by the wider public, so they are usually immune of scrutiny up until the money dries out and someone starts screaming "where is my money".
- deng 4y agoAfter reading that article, what really blows me away is that the stock is down by only ~30%. I fully expected to see a penny stock by now. I wonder what short position Hindenburg has taken...
- cascom 4y agoThese trades become hard at this point, as the stock available for borrow becomes limited and expensive (all of the float is already short)+ the potential for a short squeeze increases (increased by the fact it can be manipulated by insiders)
- lupire 4y agoBut who is holding the stock and why? Or is there no volume and price is wash trading?
- cascom 4y agoWell 60% is insiders and 5% is institutions, which means the other 35% are likely individuals that are in for a rude awakening when they open their brokerage statement (and were likely the victims of some form of pump and dump). Second you can’t get a borrow or it’s super expensive so there’s no marginal seller…until random retail investors or insiders bail… Who knows what the algos, market makers, and stock promoters are doing with the stock, but a bunch of wash sales
- belter 4y agoA jack of all trades. Was also working on a cure for COVID: https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/turkish-scientist-works-on-drug-that-can-kill-covid-19-in-2-days/news https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/turkish-scientist-works-on...
- pea 4y agoIt's crazy reading some older press on this guy [0]. It seems he duped people who should know what they're talking about. How did they fall for it? > "Dr. Serhat recently presented his research findings at the 2021 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), regarded in the medical research community as the leading HIV and viral research conference in the world. His Hijack RNA treatment method is an elegant scientific approach that highlights his signature creativity for addressing these treatable, but incurable illnesses," says Dr. W. David Hardy, Adjunct Clinical Professor of Medicine at The Keck School of Medicine at USC. "This strategy beautifully reflects Dr. Serhat's exceptionally keen understanding of how viruses work." [0] https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/la-based-research-scientist-introduces-novel-covid-19-prevention-and-cure-strategy-301253975.html https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/la-based-research-s...
- droopyEyelids 4y agoGreed overwhelms the human ability to act based on reason the same way anger and lust do. Intelligence and education are no defense against these passions overwhelming our brain's executive function.
- lupire 4y agoPR Newswire is a database of ads written by companies about themselves. Hardy is in on the scam. He's a paid medical advisor to the company. His job is to trade his credibility for investor dollars. https://seraphinstitute.org/team/david-hardy-md/ https://seraphinstitute.org/team/david-hardy-md/ He's apparently 60+ years old, despite using a younger looking photo. Retirement-age, cashing out his credibility for a chance at one big score. Back on 2021 a different org called out Enochian/Hardy's fraud: https://www.treatmentactiongroup.org/cure/media-monitor/story-hiv-short-film-right-to-try/ https://www.treatmentactiongroup.org/cure/media-monitor/stor...
- high_byte 4y agowow he was quite active. if only he was busy doing good instead what he could've achieved...
- jsemrau 4y agoFunny that this comes up here now because I recently learned that the co-founder got arrested [1] But at least they have "Strong Confidence in the Promising Future of the Company". In 2022, we have seen so many SPAC's crash and burn so stories like these don't surprise me anymore. [1] https://app.finclout.io/t/nDxEoGG https://app.finclout.io/t/nDxEoGG
- ericmay 4y agoHighly recommend Fooling Some of the People All of the Time by David Einhorn here as relevant reading.
- runeks 4y agoGo on
- ericmay 4y agoLong story short the book highlights the experience of a short seller (similar to what Hindenburg does) who uncovered a fraudulent company and couldn’t get the SEC or any government agency to do anything despite the evidence being in plain sight. Once you read it, you will definitely see how frauds like the OP can and will continue to occur.
- sudden_dystopia 4y agoUsing the name “Enochian” was a pretty clear warning sign the dude was into magic. However, the history of Enochian magic is actually quite interesting and revolves around John Dee, the origination of the idea of manifest destiny, and ultimately England’s exploration of the “new world”.
- bufferoverflow 4y agoThe guy manifested himself some lengthy prison sentence.
- itvision 4y agoThis guy definitely deserves a Wikipedia article.
- mrandish 4y agoWhile this guy definitely appears to be guilty of a bunch of stuff, it's worth noting Hindenburg Research, the firm that paid for and published this article makes money by discovering over-inflated investments, taking a short position, publicizing their research and profiting when the stock drops. Arguably, Hindenburg is providing a useful service in funding speculative research and then educating the marketplace when they discover a significant value disparity. While Hindenburg is often correct, just keep in mind what they publish isn't from a neutral POV.
- yieldcrv 4y agoNo conflict = no interest It is impossible to reconcile "put your money where your mouth is" with "wait and now you have a conflict of interest!?" > "just keep in mind what they publish isn't from a neutral POV" even as a mere FYI disclaimer on their behalf, they already have their own disclaimer, twice > Initial Disclosure: After extensive research, we have taken a short position in shares of Enochian Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENOB). This report represents our opinion, and we encourage every reader to do their own due diligence.
- samatman 4y agoOh, so you're saying the authors bet money on the truth of what they wrote? Good to know, my priors as to its accuracy went way up. You can go to prison for lying to make money, you know. It's not civil like libel, it's fraud.
- actionablefiber 4y agoIt's mechanically possible to come up with fake accusations, take on the short position, publish the accusations, and cash out on the immediate stock drop, since just publishing the report is itself a market moving event, betting that the SEC either won't notice or won't bring down the hammer hard enough to wipe out their gains. This might have happened before with a different short selling institution in 2019 when an investigator working with a hedge fund published a report accusing GE of accounting fraud[1]. The accusations led nowhere and GE's stock rebounded rapidly after an initial ~10% drop. I couldn't find details on who the fund was or if they made money cashing out on the dip. I don't think that's what Hindenburg is doing here, and they have a pretty good track record of spotting fraud (IIRC they've called it correctly on a lot of bad companies in the past few years). [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Markopolos#2019_General_Electric_fraud_allegation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Markopolos#2019_General_...
- slhck 4y agoHe actually sold $2 million worth of shares two weeks ago. Good timing, I guess? https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1527728/000173112222000960/xslF345X03/ownership.xml https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1527728/000173112222...
- throw_m239339 4y agoWell, hopefully he isn't going to profit from any of this, since he was charged in Murder-for-Hire Conspiracy Resulting in Death. https://www.justice.gov/usao-vt/pr/two-men-charged-murder-hire-conspiracy-resulting-death https://www.justice.gov/usao-vt/pr/two-men-charged-murder-hi... Hopefully justice will prevail. It's one thing to defraud people, it's another to eliminate one's victim so they don't testify in a court of law...
- everybodyknows 4y agoPerhaps most shocking, to Americans anyway, the links to public institutions: > ... close friendship and mentee relationship with Dr. Anthony Fauci and his relationship with Bill Gates, Dybul called Gumrukcu a “rare genius” > Dr. Brosgart has served as a Senior Advisor on Science and Policy for the CDC since 2011, in addition to her roles as director on Enochian’s board ...
- ncmncm 4y agoThat's nothing. Energy Vault is over $2B. It was approaching $3B not long ago. It is still a long way to zero, for a transparent grift play. They could still borrow against their market cap and buy some actually functional tech. And then ruin that.
- rossdavidh 4y ago"We learned of Gumrukcu’s actual past by scouring old magic shops and second-hand bookstores in Turkey, finding that he was a local magician. With his stage name “Dr. No”, he studied and taught spoon-bending, firewalking, and performing as a mentalist, claiming magical healing powers and garnering praise from the likes of fellow hucksters like Uri Geller." This must be an odd kind of company to work for, unless they're based in Turkey. "Joe, your job today is to fly to Turkey and look around old magic shops..."
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dataangel 4y ago> s he awaited sentencing following a pleading guilty to one felony, Gumrukcu attended the Nasdaq bell ringing ceremony for Enochian, likely with permission from his probation officer. He was praised as Enochian’s “scientific founder” at the ceremony. Does NASDAQ have any rules preventing major shareholders from listing if they are actively being investigated or literally on probation? Shouldn't this be a thing? Do they not background check major shareholders of companies trying to list? An alleged major reason big exchanges have valuation requirements for companies to meet the list is to prevent this kind of thing.