Belize was trending in US business news today because of the soaring stock of a dubious tech outfit which claims to be headquartered at the Matalon Building in Belize City.
Various articles from CNBC, Bloomberg News and other outlets took note of CYNK Technology and its social networking site Introbiz, which offers users the, quote, "ability to socially connect to individuals such as celebrities, business owners, and talented IT professionals..."
CNBC notes that "CYNK's stock was valued at less than ten cents in June, and rocketed to over $20 dollars at one point on Thursday morning. It adds that the company's stock gained nearly 25,000% in 16 trading days, giving it a market cap of over $5 billion dollars." That's billion with a "b"! So is someone in Belize making mega bucks over this? Apparently not. The address appears to be bogus - the company is not headquartered at the Matalon as it claims. We checked and learned that when Matalon management e-mailed the company today asking basically, "what's up?", they replied saying, quote, "The address is being removed. Our error - apologies." We note however that there is a licensed Trading in Securities company in the Matalon called Titan International Securities Inc - which is in suite 403 at the Matalaon while CYNK claims to be in suite 400. The Matalon building in Belize city is an office tower with dozens of office suites rented out to local attorneys, a bank, a nightclub, and companies offering offshore financial services.
And while the address is apparently a wash, it seems that so too is the explosive rise in share value. Experts say it has the trappings of what looks like a "pump and dump" scheme - meaning the value of the stock is artificially inflated by insiders and then dumped once they make money off a stock which is of little or no value.
The Wall Street Journal article on the Belize based company says: "That’s what is happening with the one-time penny stock, Cynk Technology, which is up more than 100-fold since mid-June, bringing its market capitalization to more than $6 billion on Thursday. Yet the self-proclaimed social network has no revenue, no product, no assets and one employee."
As to what CYNK business is involved in that would cause it's stock share meteoric rise, Forbes writes: in an article The Mystery Of Cynk Technology, No Assets, No Turnover And A $4.5 Billion Valuation "As to what the business actually does it claims to broker contact information. Say you want to make contact with a Hollywood star (Nicole Kidman and Johnny Depp are both listed) then you can pay $50 to gain access to their contact details. It may well not be worth paying such a sum. My best guess here (and it is speculation but informed such) is that this contact information will simply be a listing from a standard publication listing the PR agent and so on information of those respective stars. The sort of thing you can buy a book of hundreds of pages of for $50, the sort of thing that every Hollywood reporter already has at their fingertips."