Hollow startup with no revenue is raising $50M in an IPO with CNBC commercials
-The offering site: https://yayyoipo.com/
-SEC filing highlights [2,3]: IPO is for $50mil. Company has $160k in assets, $3k in liabilities, $1mil net loss, $0 in revenue
-Commercials advertising the IPO (not the product) are airing on CNBC[4]
-Company Overview Document shows they expect to grow their revenue from $0 currently to $5B in 2018 (almost fortune 500 in one year!) to $30B in 2021[5]
The CEO, Ramy El-Batrawi
-Was charged by the SEC with stock manipulation scheme[6]
-In 2010, he was banned from being an officer of a public company for five years[7]
-A CNBC commentator was also indicted (but I don't think convicted?) in this case, as she allegedly took $1.1mil as part of this scheme[8,9]
The company's mobile applications:
-<500 downloads on Android, two iOS reviews. The reviews just that the app doesn't work at all.[10,11]
Preliminary Offering Circular [12]
-Page 62 states that if the company raises $50mil in the offering, Ramy El-Batrawi will then own 49.9% of the company (which currently has $160k in assets)
-Page 46 details a share buyback plan for an LLC owned by Mr. El-Batrawi
-IPO price of $8, but dilution of $6.50 if the IPO raises the max amount
-The people who determine compensation are the directors (also majority shareholders) themselves (no independent directors)
-They state that they don't have any significant foreseeable revenues in the future (very different from the Company Overview Document, above)
(Link attributions in comments due to character limits)
4 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 16.3 ms ] threadAdvertising an IPO on CNBC? That is insane.
The front to the scam is deep.
http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/7565579/ma...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQg6WPlAQWE (Master P - Yayo Theme song).