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What a few weeks it’s been for Baiyu Holdings — the Delaware incorporated, Nasdaq-listed microlending-business-turned-used-luxury-car-leaser-turned-metals-trader with offices in Shenzhen, China.
On Tuesday and Thursday we wrote about how WhatsApp pig-butchering had helped push the company’s share price almost 300 per cent higher in the second half of August. But pumpers gonna dump, and the stock collapsed over the past five days:
To no one’s surprise, trading in the company’s shares was temporarily suspended by the SEC late on Thursday (emphasis our own):
The Commission temporarily suspended trading in the securities of BAIYU Holdings, Inc. because of questions and concerns regarding the adequacy and accuracy of publicly available information in the marketplace concerning BAIYU and indicia of potentially manipulative trading in the securities of BAIYU effectuated through recommendations, made to investors by unknown persons via social media to purchase the securities of BAIYU, which appear to be designed to artificially inflate the price and volume of the securities of BAIYU. The order was entered pursuant to Section 12(k) of the Exchange Act.
The Commission cautions broker-dealers, shareholders, and prospective purchasers that they should carefully consider the foregoing information along with all other currently available information and any information subsequently issued by the company.
Will Baiyu bounce back? We don’t know, but for now it is simply the latest in a very, very long list of Nasdaq-listed stocks alleged to have had its price manipulated by “unknown persons”.
We suspect it will not be the last.