Penny stock hits $6B-even the auditor perplexed
A social networking company with no revenue and no assets saw its stock soaring Thursday-to a market cap of well over $6 billion at one point. The firm's meteoric rise is so unlikely, that even its last auditor says it defies logic.
CYNK Technology (OTCPK:CYNK - News), which is based in Belize according to an SEC filing and only has one recorded employee, runs a social networking site called IntroBiz. That site says it allows users to "both buy and sell the ability to socially connect to individuals such as celebrities, business owners, and talented IT professionals," but it is not clear how many registered users it has.
CYNK's stock was valued at less than a dime in June, and rocketed to over $20 at one point Thursday morning.
CNBC could not reach the company. The phone number listed on CYNK's SEC filing was answered with a recording that said the number was unassigned.
"Who knows if insiders are trying to pump it to a high price?" CYNK's last auditor, Peter Messineo, said in a telephone interview Thursday with CNBC. "All I know is that I disassociate from this. ... You issue a report on something and then they pump and dump."
Messineo, who said his last review of the company was on Oct. 31, 2013. added that he works in a "very s---y industry."
"I'm a one-person shop. I do my due diligence and then they go dark," he said.
This has not stopped many from criticizing Messineo online for his connection to CYNK.
As for CYNK, he said he barely recalled the company, and had to search through his files before summarizing what he knew.
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"They were all but a shell company other than the plan for what they were going to do: Issuing some stocks and paying professional fees, they had some research and development-they were trying to do something on the programming end, so something was going on," he said. "Nothing to generate revenue, nothing like contracts, nothing of that sort."
CYNK was created in 2008, and was orginally known as Introbuzz, according to a regulatory filing. Based on a May 2012 SEC filing, CNBC reached the former chief executive of IntroBuzz, Ken Carter, and he said he is no longer involved in the enterprise.
"I used to run a company called Introbuzz, and I brought them to the stock market," he said. "I resigned from the company because of the players."
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When asked to elaborate, Carter only said that there are "major players in this game," and explained that he wanted to talk to his lawyer before he could say more.
According to the most recent filings, CYNK's only recorded employee is CEO Marlon Sanchez. The Wall Street Journal reached someone claiming to be Sanchez by email on Thursday, and he said he resigned several months ago and is "no longer associated with this company in any way, shape or form." A June 11, 2014 document reveals that a Javier Romero is now "the sole officer and director" of the company.
Attempts to reach the Belize City headquarters on the firm's filings were unsuccessful: CNBC learned that the listed office suite did not exist.
-By CNBC's Everett Rosenfeld , Brian Sullivan contributed reporting.
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Penny stock hits $6B-even the auditor perplexed
