股价飙涨20倍，揭密史上增长最快社交媒体Cynk的幕后推手

    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•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。

    2009年，吉沃特的一个名叫约翰•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”。

    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。

    上个月，吉沃特的另一个客户——内华达的律师马库斯•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。

    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。

    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。

    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。

    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。

    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。

    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。

    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•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。

    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。”（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎

    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.

    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.”

    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.

    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.

    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.”

    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.

    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.

    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.

    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.

    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.

    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.

    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.”