Porter Stansberry

Last updated

Porter Stansberry
Born
Frank Porter Stansberry

(1972-12-18) December 18, 1972 (age 50)
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater University of Florida
Occupation(s)Financial publisher, Founder Stansberry Research
Height1.81 m (5 ft 11+12 in) [1]
Website Porter Stansberry

Frank Porter Stansberry is an American financial publisher and author. Stansberry founded Stansberry Research (previously Stansberry & Associates Investment Research), a private publishing company based in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1999. [2] <That was before he murdered Rey Rivera. He is the author of the monthly newsletter, Stansberry's Investment Advisory, which covers investments and investment theory in commodities, real estate, and the stock market. Stansberry is also the creator of the 2011 online video The End of America, in which he predicts the imminent collapse of the United States. [3] In 2002, the SEC brought a case for securities fraud, and a federal judge fined him $1.5 million in 2007. Porter also murdered Rey Rivera in 2006.

Contents

Career

In 1999, Stansberry founded Stansberry Research, a private publishing company based in Baltimore, Maryland. [4]

SEC case

In 2002, Stansberry sent out an email offering to sell for $1,000 the name of a company purportedly about to obtain a contract to dismantle nuclear weapons for Russia. [5] The Securities and Exchange Commission sued him in 2003 [6] on this basis and for his newsletters containing "nothing more than baseless speculation and outright lies", [5] accusing him of a "scheme to defraud public investors by disseminating false information in several Internet newsletters." [2] [5] The case went to trial in 2005, [7] and a federal court found that Stansberry had sent out a newsletter to subscribers predicting one company's stock, USEC Inc., would increase by over 100%. Stansberry maintains his information came from a company executive; the court ruled he fabricated the source. [2] The verdict was upheld on appeal. The court rejected Stansberry's First Amendment defense, saying "Stansberry's conduct undoubtedly involved deliberate fraud, making statements that he knew to be false." [5] In 2007, U.S. District Court Judge Marvin J. Garbis ordered Stansberry and his investment firm, then called "Pirate Investor", to pay $1.5 million in restitution and civil penalties for defrauding "public investors by disseminating false information in several Internet newsletters." [6] [7] [8]

At the time of the trial, many media outlets spoke out due to their views that the case was relevant to First Amendment rights. A group of newspaper publishers urged the Supreme Court [9] to reverse the decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that Stansberry was liable, and signed an Amici Curiae in defense of Stansberry. They claimed that a guilty verdict was "a significant threat to the free dissemination of news about the financial markets and specific investment opportunities" and could lead to a situation that "would be contrary to the spirit of our system of a free and independent press." [10] When the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, a New York Times editorial column noted that "the implications of the S.E.C.'s action are potentially profound: newspapers or Web sites promising their paying readers stock information that later turns out to be untrue suddenly leave themselves open to fraud charges. Any financial commentator who passes on bad information in good faith could be sued." [11]

Continued career

Stansberry was also previously the editor of the internet financial newsletters Porter Stansberry's Investment Advisory and Porter Stansberry's Put Strategy Report. [4] He also contributes regularly to Daily Wealth and The Growth Stock Wire, other Stansberry Research publications.[ citation needed ]

He became the first American editor of the Fleet Street Letter, Britain's longest-running financial newsletter. [4] [12] Stansberry is a frequent contributor to WorldNet Daily, an American web site that publishes news and associated content from the perspective of U.S. conservatives and the political right.

In June 2017, Stansberry Research Publications began publishing a financial/political online opinion magazine, American Consequences, which ostensibly is intended to be, "a new, online magazine about what's really happening in American finance… and what's about to happen next." The Editor in Chief was libertarian journalist, humorist and commentator, P. J. O'Rourke. Stansberry is listed as a contributing editor. The free publication includes many ads for Stansberry publications and seminars.[ citation needed ]

Rivera case

On May 16, 2006, Stansberry's childhood friend and coworker Rey Rivera went missing and was later found dead inside the Belvedere Hotel. The case was portrayed in the Netflix reboot of Unsolved Mysteries .

Claims and predictions

Porter Stansberry claims to have made a number of successful financial market predictions. In June 2008, Porter claims that he predicted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would go bankrupt in the next 12 months, as well as going on to say that he positioned his clients to profit by shorting stocks, and that he does not know of any other firm that "more accurately forecasted" or warned that the financial crisis was coming. [13] By September 2008, both mortgage companies were placed into government conservatorship. [14]

In 2008, Stansberry released a "tip" to his subscribers to invest heavily in gold. The full heading was "Why You Must Buy Gold, or Even Better, Silver, Now".

The End of America

In 2011, Stansberry produced a 77-minute promotional video titled The End of America. [15] Adam Wiederman of The Motley Fool referred to The End of America as a mixture of valid points and hyperbole. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission</span> Government agency overseeing stock exchanges

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market manipulation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarbanes–Oxley Act</span> 2002 U.S. law regarding corporate accounting

The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 is a United States federal law that mandates certain practices in financial record keeping and reporting for corporations. The act,, also known as the "Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act" and "Corporate and Auditing Accountability, Responsibility, and Transparency Act" and more commonly called Sarbanes–Oxley, SOX or Sarbox, contains eleven sections that place requirements on all U.S. public company boards of directors and management and public accounting firms. A number of provisions of the Act also apply to privately held companies, such as the willful destruction of evidence to impede a federal investigation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pump and dump</span> Form of securities fraud

Pump and dump (P&D) is a form of securities fraud that involves artificially inflating the price of an owned stock through false and misleading positive statements (pump), in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price (dump). Once the operators of the scheme "dump" (sell) their overvalued shares, the price falls and investors lose their money. This is most common with small-cap cryptocurrencies and very small corporations/companies, i.e. "microcaps".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Cox</span> American lawyer and politician (born 1952)

Charles Christopher Cox is an American attorney and politician who served as chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a 17-year Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, and member of the White House staff in the Reagan Administration. Prior to his Washington service he was a practicing attorney, teacher, and entrepreneur. Following his retirement from government in 2009, he returned to law practice and currently serves as a director, trustee, and advisor to several for-profit and nonprofit organizations.

Penny stocks are common shares of small public companies that trade for less than one dollar per share. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) uses the term "Penny stock" to refer to a security, a financial instrument which represents a given financial value, issued by small public companies that trade at less than $5 per share. Penny stocks are priced over-the-counter, rather than on the trading floor. The term "penny stock" refers to shares that, prior to the SEC's classification, traded for "pennies on the dollar". In 1934, when the United States government passed the Securities Exchange Act to regulate any and all transactions of securities between parties which are "not the original issuer", the SEC at the time disclosed that equity securities which trade for less than $5 per share could not be listed on any national stock exchange or index.

In business, the term boiler room refers to an outbound call center selling questionable investments by telephone. It usually refers to a room where salespeople work using unfair, dishonest sales tactics, sometimes selling penny stocks or private placements or committing outright stock fraud. A common boiler room tactic is the use of falsified and bolstered information in combination with verified company-released information. The term is pejorative: it is often used to imply high-pressure sales tactics and, sometimes, poor working conditions.

Value Line, Inc. is an independent investment research and financial publishing firm based in New York City, New York, United States, founded in 1931 by Arnold Bernhard. Value Line is best known for publishing The Value Line Investment Survey, a stock analysis newsletter that tracks approximately 1,700 publicly traded stocks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States securities regulation</span> Law and regulations that relate to Securities

Securities regulation in the United States is the field of U.S. law that covers transactions and other dealings with securities. The term is usually understood to include both federal and state-level regulation by governmental regulatory agencies, but sometimes may also encompass listing requirements of exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange and rules of self-regulatory organizations like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

Securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, is a deceptive practice in the stock or commodities markets that induces investors to make purchase or sale decisions on the basis of false information. The setups are generally made to result in monetary gain for the deceivers, and generally result in unfair monetary losses for the investors. They are generally violating securities laws.

Herb Greenberg is an American journalist.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is a private American corporation that acts as a self-regulatory organization (SRO) that regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets. FINRA is the successor to the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (NASD) as well as the member regulation, enforcement, and arbitration operations of the New York Stock Exchange. The U.S. government agency that acts as the ultimate regulator of the U.S. securities industry, including FINRA, is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Louis G. Navellier is Chairman and Founder of Navellier & Associates in Reno, Nevada, which manages approximately $1.0 billion in assets. Navellier also writes five investment newsletters focused on growth investing: Growth Investor, Breakthrough Stocks, Accelerated Profits, Power Options and Platinum Growth Club, and can frequently be seen giving his market outlook and analysis on Bloomberg, Fox News, and CNBC.

John Westergaard was an American stock analyst and founder of the Westergaard Fund. He was also as political advisor to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stansberry Research</span> Investment research firm and publisher

Stansberry Research is a publicly owned American publishing company founded by Frank Porter Stansberry. The company is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, with additional offices in Florida, Oregon, and California. The company specializes in investment research with an information services product line consisting primarily of monthly and bi-monthly advisory newsletters written by a variety of financial editors. Topics include natural resource, power, oil and mining company investments, as well as health care and biotechnology. Value, corporate bond and alternative investing are also featured. The company claims its newsletter has subscribers in over one hundred countries.

Andrew Edward Left is an activist, short seller, author and editor of the online investment newsletter Citron Research, formerly StockLemon.com. Under the name Citron Research, Left publishes reports on firms that he claims are overvalued or are engaged in fraud. Left is known for advising investors on short selling and has often appeared on various media outlets such as CNBC and Bloomberg to talk about his opinions on stocks. In 2017, Left was called 'The Bounty Hunter of Wall Street' by The New York Times. Left gained further notoriety following his announced short of GameStop, precipitating a short squeeze that has hurt him and other short sellers in the short term.

Agora, Inc. is a Baltimore, Maryland-based network for over thirty companies in the publishing, information services, and real estate industries. Agora was founded in 1978, in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. The Agora Companies operate independently from cities around the world.

Lorenzo v. Securities and Exchange Commission, 587 U.S. ___ (2019), was a United States Supreme Court case from the October 2018 term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death of Rey Rivera</span> Death of a man whose body was found in Baltimore, Maryland, US in 2006

The body of Rey Rivera was found on May 24, 2006, inside the historic Belvedere Hotel in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Although the event was ruled a probable suicide by the Baltimore Police Department, the circumstances of Rivera's death are mysterious and disputed.

The Sky Capital Fraud Case was a significant securities fraud prosecution in New York's history involving Ross Mandell, the founder of Sky Capital Holdings Ltd., and Adam Harrington, a former broker at the company. The two men were accused and successfully convicted of defrauding investors out of $140 million over an eight-year period by using high-pressure sales tactics and false promises of high investment returns.

References

  1. "¿Cuánto mide Porter Stansberry? - Altura - Real height".
  2. 1 2 3 Liptak, Adam (August 3, 2003). "E-mail Stock Tip Tests Limits of Security Laws". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 23, 2015. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  3. Curtin, Stacy. ""The End of America": Porter Stansberry Sees the Future ... And It's Grim". Yahoo Finance. Archived from the original on February 19, 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 "Porter Stansberry Profile". Townhall.com.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Complaint, Agora, Inc, Pirate Investor, LLC, and Frank Porter Stansberry, Defendant" . Retrieved June 30, 2013.
  6. 1 2 Pellejero, Sebastian; Maranz, Felice (February 8, 2019). "His Hedge Fund Shut, Whitney Tilson Says Now He'll Try Research". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  7. 1 2 Fenton, Justin (August 5, 2020). "Rey Rivera's friend, former Baltimore employer pushes back on Netflix's 'Unsolved Mysteries'". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
  8. Bishop, Tricia (August 10, 2007). "$1.5 million payback ordered in SEC suit". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on March 24, 2021. Retrieved March 24, 2021.
  9. AP. "Supreme Court won't hear appeal of financial newsletter prosecution on securities fraud". Fox News. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
  10. "Brief Amici Curiae Of The Reporters Committee For Freedom Of The Press And Media Organizations In Support Of Petitioners" (PDF). NY Times Graphics. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
  11. "The Right to Be Wrong". The New York Times. July 3, 2010. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
  12. "The Fleet Street Letter".
  13. Abelson, Alan. "Au Revoir or Goodbye?". Barrons. Retrieved October 7, 2014.
  14. Goldfarb, Zachary A.; Cho, David; Appelbaum, Binyamin. "Treasury to Rescue Fannie and Freddie". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 7, 2014.
  15. "Silver Prices Kindled by Unorthodox Investors". KUOW NPR. Washington: University of Washington. June 11, 2011.
  16. Wiederman, Adam (June 9, 2011). "The End of America?". The Motley Fool. Retrieved July 28, 2022.

Official website