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Four or five years ago my son-in-law introduced me to a penny stock he thought I should invest in. After looking at I thought he was crazy, but I had never owned a million shares of any stock and thought the certificate would make an interesting framed conversation piece.
I am by no means a financial expert, but I do have some opinions and non-partisan thoughts on this subject.
CMKM Diamonds (CMKX) has got to be one of the most interesting securities in history.
Apparently there are some 45,000 shareholders who, in the last six years, have purchased large blocks of shares in hopes of an astronomical return on investment (roi).
In no way is this intended to put down any shareholders. Many are desperate and feel CMKX is their last chance.
There are numerous chat rooms where up to some 500 shareholders will be online at one time. They are hoping that the millions of shares that they purchased for around $.0001 per share will bring a return of some $5-$6 per share.
"Experts" divulge their "inside information" on a daily basis. Payment is always "right upon us." The problem is that it is always "next week." The problem is that very few of those in the rooms actually know anyone else in the rooms other than their presence in the rooms and possibly a few phone conversations. There is no way to check the credentials of any of the gurus because most use screen names rather than their real name. All one can do is either have faith in what they are saying or say nothing and disregard it. Some are obviously intelligently challenged as indicated by their posts. It could be possible that these gurus may have some kind of agenda. What kind, I have no idea.
A California attorney has supposedly taken on a class action suit in behalf of a specific group of six or seven shareholders and has included all others who have been "damaged." There has been no information forthcoming from the attorney's office, though rumors abound from many who claim to have info from the firm. It is interesting in that while this is probably one of the largest suits of its kind in history, it is not listed among the numerous suits the attorney uses on his website as examples - either ones in progress or ones completed.
One interesting thing happened in late 2009 and was reported by the "experts." A couple of the experts reported that they had spoken with the attorney and that money would be forthcoming as soon as the attorney received the "receipt of economic release." When asked what a receipt of economic release was the response was "notification that the taxes had been paid on the funds and they could be released." I asked a couple of attorney and accountant friends the definition of the term and they had never heard of it. It turns out the term was used several times in the suit the attorney had filed. I was unable to find the term by Goggling it, so I looked up the attorney and called him and asked the definition. It turns out that the term is a very new one and is defined as a notification acknowledging that something of value had been transferred from one entity to another entity. That "something of value" can be money, property, or anything of value. I did not ask anything about CMKX because my interest was to get the definition of the term. I knew that since I was not one of the official plaintiffs he could not discuss those details with me.
The CMKM/CMKX offices are in Tyler, Texas and their attorney has also filed a suit(s). The difference between this suit and the one filed in California is that the shareholders are kept appraised of what is happened. Most recently Tyler won a suit against a number of defendants and was awarded a multi-million dollar judgment plus got all of the shares owned by the defendants cancelled. No news as to when or whether the judgment will be able to be collected.
Unlike most of the chat rooms I am familiar with, members of the various CMKX rooms have no interest in hearing anything except positive information. When someone attempts to give their thoughts or information they have come up with, if it is not something they want to hear, that person is called a "basher" or "disruptive" and often is bounced from the room.
From a personal standpoint, I am very interested in CMKX because over the years I have acquired a fair amount of stock in the company, but I am interested only in official PRs, or information I know comes from knowledgeable individuals who either have or have the resources to answer my questions. I would love a huge roi, but would be ecstatic with $.02 per share - a return of some 200 times my investment.
A case in point. There has been the rumor that there is a trust fund in the amount of $3.7trillion being held for distribution to CMKX shareholders. My question was that this is an incredible amount of money and if that were laying around in a trust somewhere, why has the media not jumped on it. All kinds or reasons have been given as to why it was kept quiet, but none of those reasons seemed reasonable to me. I decided to check myself.
Through my membership in the Rotary Club, I met the director of the Philadelphia Mint, the President of the Wharton School of Business, and the Director of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve when I made up a missed meeting at the Philadelphia Downtown Rotary Club.
I decided to contact them and ask several questions.
1. Could it be possible that somewhere there is a $3.7trillion trust held for CMKX members?
2. What could they tell me about CMKX or CMKM Diamonds?
3. If the details of CMKX and the naked shorting were to come out, how damaging would that be to our economy.
A couple of weeks later I got a response from two of their offices.
The answer to #1 was that the odds are close to zero that a trust in this amount of any kind is held in the US or anywhere else in the world. The largest holder of trusts in the US is the US Treasury and their total assets are only in the neighborhood of $2.5trillion.
The answer to #2 was that neither of the individuals had heard of CMKX or CMKM Diamonds. They did a little research and the only place they could find the company mentioned was in several lawsuits in the group of the many lawsuits by various shareholder groups. Neither apparently delved into where the lawsuits stood.
As for #3, one said he had no opinion and the other said that it would not help, but he did not feel it could be any more damaging than what little bit has already been reported. The media has done little reporting on it because it very complicated. Virtually no verifiable information is available. Few reporters or readers understand it, and the media doesn't consider it as "news." The government is working to require delivery of stock shares within the required time and they realize lack of enforcement has been their problem.
As far as the $3.7 trillion trust fund, those hopefuls do not understand the difference between a suit and money in hand. The attorney has filed a $3.7 trillion law suit. He has not collected $3.7 trillion that he can put in a trust. There may well be a few million or more that has been collected over time, but to expect that kind of a distribution is a pipe dream. Anyone can file a suit against anyone else for any amount of damages, but until the suit is settled, considering the full amount as being the amount paid, the amount of the suit means nothing.
A number of the CMKX chat room gurus do a lot of "do diligence" (DD) and that is fine, but when official information is almost impossible to come up with, all the DD does is to help that individual reason to a logical conclusion and that conclusion is nothing more than an opinion.
Another reason the media has not picked up on the CMKX question is that about the only verifiable CMKX specific things are the law suits and as soon as a knowledgeable financial reporter reads the suit he laughs and tosses it into the round file as frivolous. That will likely change if the suit actually gets before a jury, but until such time, those CMKX suits are grouped with the thousands of others the reporters consider as frivolous and forgotten unless the reporter needs something to fill a column and picks one to mention humorously.
A few really sad things are:
Many of these shareholders' first investment was CMKX. They have no idea how the market works and if CMKX does not pay off the amounts they are hoping for it will sour them on future investments. They do not realize that any investment carries with it risk and among the riskiest investments are the "Pink Sheets", one of which was CMKX. Just because one makes an investment in a security does not mean one is "owed" a return on that investment. Most feel they have been seriously damaged and are owed that huge return.
I have never understood just why anyone could think they were owed an roi on CMKX. Some bought the stock before the company was de-listed, but it appears many, if not most, bought after the company was de-listed. Financials have never, to my knowledge, been available, so there was nothing to justify investing in the company. Buyers were well aware of the naked shorting problem, and still invested in CMKX. Much like the "tulip frenzy" in the 17th century people who knew nothing about the marketing of tulips invested on the recommendation of others who knew nothing about the marketing of tulips.
The few who have made money on CMKX were those who were selling the shares.
Also, for the last 4-5 years I have been checking into several of the CMKX chat rooms regularly and without fail, find hundreds of the same people in the rooms - regardless of what time I check in. Many are complaining about how badly they need CMKX to pay them. If they only realized that were they to put that time into something productive, they might very well take care of their financial doldrums on their own.
But, it is possible that some of these are like me. I will launch the room, minimize it, listen to those who take the mike, and periodically look at the banner for any news and scroll through some of the comments, Occasionally I will take the microphone, but never mention rumors. I actually spend only a few minutes daily really in the room. Most of the time I am working while listening to WBAP talk radio and one of the chat rooms in the background.
I've finally removed the PalTalk software from my computer and will no longer be checking into the rooms. I got blocked from the one I most often go to because the room owner got upset about something I said about a show dog she thought was beautiful. It may have been beautiful to her, but to me and several friends I showed the picture to, the dog looked like a freak - certainly no dog we would want as a pet. But, I guess poodle lovers are different. cest la vie. My WBAP talk shows will no longer be interrupted any longer and when, and if, something ever happens with CMKX, someone will let me know.
There have been reports that several shareholders have had heart attacks brought on by reports in the rooms concerning CMKX. If true, I find that incredible. They simply do not understand that their investment in CMKX is nothing more than a highly speculative investment. There is little, if anything, a shareholder or group of shareholders can do other than wait to see if there is an ROI.
The latest rumor (Sept 2010) is that the reason the funds have been held up is that the attorneys want to get paid and they will not release the funds until they have been paid. The rumored amount that is to be paid to each attorney is a whopping 500 million dollars. Incredibly, there are many shareholders who believe this rumor and are insisting the attorneys get paid their $500,000,000 each. After all, that's only 1.5 trillion dollars and it would still leave the 2.2 trillion dollars of the evasive "trust fund" to be distributed to shareholders. Incredible.
If CMKX ends up paying a really nice roi, will I have egg on my face? I do not believe so. I will be happy, but that has nothing to do with what I have said above. Regardless of the outcome, CMKX was far to risky for most investors. The market is an excellent way to build a nice nest egg, but for most who are not knowledgeable about the market, the best choice for investment would be solid growth mutual funds that have a good history and are well managed, and re-invest the earnings. Over the years, 5-10% of your earnings invested this way will reap a tidy nest egg upon retirement.
When you invest in the pinks or other highly speculative instruments, you should look at that money the same way you do when you go to the casinos. Only invest what you can afford to lose because the likelihood you will lose it all is huge.
I've returned to this a little over a year after I made the last of the above notes. I've checked with a couple other sharholders to still occasionally check on CMKX and it's still like a soap opera. Nothing has changed in a year. Same people listening to same rumors, still expecting a huge return "next week."
One positive note...CMKM Diamonds (CMKX) certs may have value, along with the many things like the company's caps, poker chips, toy cars, posters, etc. Not now, but some time down the road as collectible. What is a fair price to pay for CMKX stock? I have no idea, but the range I offer is between $5 and $10 per million shares. How many people can show off a certificate for over one million shares?