•Riot BlockChain (RIOT): Pump & Dump or Disruptive Blockchain Company?•
(Updated 2/28/2018)

The rise of Bitcoin and Blockchain has led to the rise of many companies attempting to capitalize on the craze. One such company that has been throwing off huge red flags is Riot Blockchain. Riot was formerly a biotech company that made the "transition" into a blockchain company just months ago, and the stock has soared since.

Consider these 26 Glaring Red Flags before investing:

RED FLAG 1:
One glaring red flag to look at is Riot overpaying for their mining equipment. On November 1st 2017, Riot Blockchain spent over $12 Million in stock and also $1 Million in future royalties for crypto mining equipment that was worth around $2 Million from a company called Kairos Global Technology Inc. Kairos was formed October 19th 2017, under 2 weeks before the purchase.

Here is the PR that Riot put out on November 2nd:
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/riot-blockchain-enters-agreement-for-acquisition-of-1200-bitcoin-mining-machines-manufactured-by-bitmain-300548261.html

Riot’s stock price was $6.95 on November 1st. Riot purchased the mining equipment for 1,750,001 shares of Riot stock and also $1,000,000 in future royalties to “Certain of the shareholders of Kairos” So, they paid $12,162,500 worth of Riot stock and $1,000,000 in cash for equipment worth around $2 million.

Riot purchased 700 AntMiner S9s and 500 AntMiner L3s, all manufactured by Bitmain.
https://ir.riotblockchain.com/sec-filings-email/content/0001079973-18-000010/riot_s3.htm

Anybody can easily purchase this equipment online from Bitmain (the company who made the mining equipment) The Antminer S9 was $1,265 and the Antminer L3 was $2,040 on October 16th.  This can be verified by typing https://shop.bitmain.com into the Archive.org site.
700 * $1,265 + 500 * $2,040 = $1,905,500

Kairos paid exactly $2,089,679 for the mining equipment:
https://ir.riotblockchain.com/sec-filings-email/content/0001079973-18-000009/ex99x1.htm
It does not make sense for a company to buy mining equipment from another company that was just formed 2 weeks earlier and pay over 6 x the value of the equipment. They could have bought the same equipment directly from the manufacturer and waited 2-3 months. Or, they could have bought similar equipment directly from another company.

The following shows who owns Kairos:
http://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=fmE0EMNZjWiD8qFICJyf1w%253d%253d
President: Michael Ho
Registered agent: LAXAGUE LAW INC
The 2 directors are Bryan Pascual and Moses D Silverman

Here is one potential smoking gun:
The lawyer who set up Kairos, Joe Laxague, Esq. Laxague Law, Inc also did a filing in the past for one of Riot's largest shareholders, Catherine Johanna DeFrancesco.  Defrancesco also happens to be one of the shareholders who initiated the movement of forcing out old Bioptix associates to transition into a blockchain company.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1167419/000165495417000149/defrancesco13da_jan52017.htm  (Bioptix, Inc is one of the former names of Riot)

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1167419/000107997317000048/ex10x1.htm (forcing out old board members)

RED FLAG 2:
On October 17th, Riot announced that they acquired a majority stake in another Bitcoin company named Tess, Inc.
https://ir.riotblockchain.com/press-releases/detail/11/riot-blockchain-to-acquire-majority-interest-in-tess-a )

Riot paid $320,000 and issued 75,000 shares for a 52% stake in Tess on October 20th 2017.  Riot’s stock price closed at $7.79  on October 19th 2017.  So, Riot’s investment in Tess was a little under a $1 million in cash and stock.

Tess happens to have some direct connections back to the Kairos company.  Tess's Chief Software Architect is Sorin Tanasescu. On October 19, 2017 Laxague Law set up Kairos, and they also set up an entity called Ingenium Global, Inc. on the exact same day, which has a unique name that is similar to an entity in which Tanasescu manages (Ingenium IT Compusoft). Ingenium Global, Inc. listed the exact same officers/directors as Kairos (Michael Ho, Bryan Pascual and Moses D Silverman) and registered the exact same par value and share count. Given that Riot announced the acquisition of Tess the very next day (October 20, 2017), one cannot help but wonder whether the selling parties in the Kairos deal were in any way related to the shareholders of Ingenium, and ultimately to the selling parties in the Tess deal. (https://seekingalpha.com/article/4131031-riot-blockchain-sudden-business-pivot-suspicious-acquisitions-questionable-special-dividend  )

Both Michael Ho and Laxague Law appear to be connected to both Kairos and Tess.

RED FLAG 3:
Riot (formerly Bioptix) announced a special dividend of $1 a share that only applied to certain shareholders on Oct 3rd.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bioptix-announces-special-cash-dividend-300529711.html

The next day, Riot announces that they are changing their focus to “Strategic Investor and Operator in Blockchain Technologies.” It does not make much sense for a company to issue most of their cash out to special shareholders and announce the next day that they are going to focus on a new business. This new focus would require more cash. They also announced an investment in Coinsquare for $3 million.

RED FLAG 4:
Riot previously announced a shareholder meeting for December 28th. I live about 30 minutes from the "country club type hotel" that the meeting was supposed to be at. I tried to call Riot for more information on the meeting around a week before the meeting, but they never answered the phone or responded to voicemail or email. Their IR email that they put on every PR ( IR@RiotBlockchain.com ) has been bouncing back as an invalid email for over 4 weeks. I tried calling the hotel earlier in the week of the December 28th meeting. 3 different people at the hotel told me that they never heard of any meeting for Riot. Riot ended up cancelling this meeting the day before the meeting and rescheduling it for February 2018.  https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/riot-blockchain-announces-adjournment-of-annual-meeting-of-stockholders-300575416.html

RED FLAG 5:
Riot also wants to increase its Equity incentive plan to 1,645,000 shares from 895,000 shares.
Riot only has 11.6 Million shares outstanding as of its last SEC filings.  Riot appears to be trying to dilute the common shareholders for the benefit of company insiders.

RED FLAG 6:
Riot’s CEO SOLD most of his shares on the last trading day of 2017.
https://ir.riotblockchain.com/all-sec-filings/content/0001140361-17-047827/0001140361-17-047827.pdf
Riot’s stock price has went straight down since the CEO sold.

RED FLAG 7:
Riot has put out PR with no actual news relating to their company. This PR is only to draw attention to new investors that are looking for ways to jump into the BlockChain / Crypto space. Here are 2 examples:

Riot Blockchain Director Featured in ABC7 News Interview on Cryptocurrency
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/riot-blockchain-director-featured-in-abc7-news-interview-on-cryptocurrency-300574524.html

Riot Blockchain Featured in 5-Part Series on CBS Interactive This Week
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/riot-blockchain-featured-in-5-part-series-on-cbs-interactive-this-week-300556557.html

Here are 5 videos of the CEO from the article :

https://www.techrepublic.com/search/?q=riot+blockchain
On the “How to get Started” video, the CEO even recommends people can invest in his company to get exposure to the BlockChain.

RED FLAG 8:
Before October 4th 2017, Riot was a small Biotech company with about 7 employees.  They have no previous experience in Blockchain.  Riot’s Ceo, John O'Rourke, appears to live in Florida, but the company’s business address is listed in Colorado.  The next shareholder meeting also appears to be in Florida.  On January 17, 2017 Riot appointed Jeffrey Vormittag as Chief Operating Officer of Riot Blockchain Canada Inc.  On January 9th 2018, Riot appointed Daniel Stefan Robertsen from Norway as president of a new subsidiary named Digital Green Energy Corp.  It’s hard to tell where Riot’s main operating base is.  Riot also does not have anyone listed as a Chief Technology Office, yet they now claim to be a Technology company.

RED FLAG 9:
On December 19th 2017, Riot announced a PIPE offering for the purchase of 1,644,444 restricted units of the company at a purchase price of $22.50 per unit (the "Investment"). Each unit consists of one share of restricted common stock and one warrant to purchase one share of restricted common stock at an exercise price of $40.00 per share for a period of three years. This was a big discount to the current market price at the time.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/riot-blockchain-announces-37-million-private-placement-300573173.html
Riot’s stock price was:
12/15 $28.50
12/18 $36.57
12/19 $38.60
12/20 $36.12

Riot offered a very big discount to the investors of the PIPE offering.

RED FLAG 10:
Riot fired their accounting firm on 1/5/18
 https://ir.riotblockchain.com/sec-filings-email/content/0001079973-18-000008/riot_8k-010518.htm

This will be their third auditor in just a 1 year period:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/3-crypto-stocks-were-part-003000438.html

RED FLAG 11:
Barry Honig is a large shareholder of Riot. He has a well documented history with penny stocks. He was the one, along with Catherine Defrancesco, who called the meeting to force out the Bioptix people, thus beginning the transition into a blockchain company. A simple Google search for “Barry Honig” will bring up a wealth of information on his past dealings.

https://bizwest.com/2017/01/09/shareholder-forces-bioptix-board-members/

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4123062-pershing-gold-believe-shares-virtually-worthless

http://www.teribuhl.com/2017/02/09/california-doj-investigating-honig-and-the-frost-group-2/

RED FLAG 12:
Riot's CFO has already been accused of pumping this same exact company before it changed its name:
https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/comments/7npd0n/cfosecy_of_riot_blockchain_previously_sued_twice/

RED FLAG 13:
Riot put out another PR (1/10/18) about it forming a new subsidiary that is "identifying environmentally friendly projects with large energy capacity and a cost-efficient rate for cryptocurrency mining and data center operations."

https://ir.riotblockchain.com/press-releases/detail/24/riot-blockchain-establishes-digital-green-energy-corp-as

It looks like Riot bought their mining equipment first, and now they are exploring a good place to put this equipment.  There is no logical reason why Riot would need a separate subsidiary just for this purpose. Riot said "Daniel Stefan Robertsen was "most recently Chairman and CEO of Bitfury Norway AS". There is very well known blockchain company called Bitfury that was founded in 2011.  However, Mr. Robertsen was never the CEO of this well known Bitfury.  Bitfury Norway AS was recently formed on October 11th 2017.
https://opencorporates.com/companies/no/919779543

RED FLAG 14:
Riot put out a PR about TessPay on 1/17/18:
https://www.riotblockchain.com/news-media/press-releases/detail/25/riot-blockchains-tesspay-enters-definitive-agreement-for

Riot’s CEO said “The merger would be the first of Riot Blockchain's investments to become a stand-alone public company.”  This PR seems hyped up since Cresval Capital Corp has a market cap of only $1.5 Million and trades only 3,000 shares a day at around $0.05 a share.

RED FLAG 15:
From Riot’s Q3 2017 10-Q filing:
https://ir.riotblockchain.com/all-sec-filings/content/0001079973-17-000667/riot_10q-093017.htm

“The Company has experienced recurring losses and negative cash flows from operations.  At September 30, 2017, the Company had approximate balances of cash and cash equivalents of $13,140,000, working capital of $12,555,000, total stockholders' equity of $15,466,000 and an accumulated deficit of $120,823,000. To date, the Company has in large part relied on equity financing to fund its operations. The Company expects to continue to incur losses from operations for the near-term and these losses could be significant as we incur costs and expenses associated with our recent and potential future acquisitions and investments, as well as public company and administrative related expenses are incurred and winding-down BDI’s operations. “

Riot has already burned through over $100 million in the past of shareholder equity.  Their revenue for the quarter ending September 30, 2017 appears to be only $24,175.  This was exactly the same revenue that Riot received for the same quarter in 2016.  Riot has almost no revenue for a company with over a $200 million market cap as of 1/25/18.

RED FLAG 16:

Riot released another non newsworthy PR today, 1/18/18

https://ir.riotblockchain.com/press-releases/detail/27/riot-blockchain-submits-bidder-registration-for-the-u-s

Almost anyone with $200,000 is eligible for this sealed bid auction:
https://www.usmarshals.gov/assets/2018/bitcoinauction/
Putting out a PR that says you are submitting a form to participate in a sealed auction serves no purpose other than to try to make your company sound more relevant in the news.  Riot appears to be taking advantage of the Bitcoin craze in order to attempt to hype up its company.

Update as of 1/24/18:  Riot announced that they "won" 500 Bitcoins at the auction
https://ir.riotblockchain.com/press-releases/detail/28/riot-blockchain-wins-500-bitcoins-in-u-s-marshals-service

Riot did not even announce what they paid for their "winning" bid.  They could have just bought 500 Bitcoins from CoinBase or from any other Bitcoin exchange and paid the market price at the time.  Riot was the only company at the auction who has publicly for out a PR that they "won".  There were 62 registered bidders:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-23/riot-blockchain-claims-500-bitcoins-in-u-s-marshals-auction

Riot's CEO said Bitcoin is going to $50,000 within 12 to 18 months, but gives no reason for his logic.  Keep in mind that Riot was a Biotech company a few months ago, and Riot's CEO does not list any experience he has in the past with any Cryptocurrency.

RED FLAG 17:

Riot shares a lot of the same insiders as MundoMedia:

Eric So, LL.B. is a Riot director and Chief Legal and Corporate Development Officer at Mundo Inc.

Riot's CEO, John O’Rourke, still currently serves on Mundos's board.

Barry Honig is a very large shareholder of Riot, and he helped shape Riot's current board:
https://bizwest.com/2017/01/09/shareholder-forces-bioptix-board-members/

Some of the same people behind Riot were also part of Mundo Media:
"The selling shareholders are Mansfield International Trade Ltd., Four Kids Investment Fund LLC, Stetson Capital Management LLC, ATG Capital LLC, Melechdavid Inc., Barry Honig, John O’Rourke and Jonathan Honig."
https://privatecapitaljournal.com/mundo-raise-60m-ipo-8-50-9-50/

Mundo Media was involved in some interesting lawsuits:

https://www.leagle.com/decision/infdco20150112551
"In this case, Tagged alleges that defendants operate an illegal spam ring that has inundated Tagged's social network system with millions of illegal, unsolicited messages to users, intending to entice them to visit fraudulent adult dating and pornographic websites."

https://watchyourbuck.com/2013/11/08/texas-ag-slams-cellphone-crammers-with-a-lawsuit/
"Texas AG slams cellphone crammers with a lawsuit"

https://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/brilliant-brights-scam-convert2media-and-mundo-media-usa-cyprus-etc-c312195.html

Fake blogs from affiliates of Convert2Media and Mundo Media CPA Networks promoting Brilliant Brights teeth whitening scam.

RED FLAG 18:

Barry Honig sold almost all his shares:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/investor-who-rode-pivot-from-biotech-to-bitcoin-sells-big-stake-1517403600

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3326791-riot-blockchain-fast-money-investor-cashes

He owned about 10% of the company, and now owns only 1%.

RED FLAG 19:

Riot cancelled its rescheduled shareholder meeting, the day before the meeting again.  Just like last time, the hotel never had a meeting scheduled according to the hotel.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/riot-blockchain-announces-adjournment-of-annual-meeting-of-stockholders-300591550.html

This caused the SEC to issue "Item 3.01 Notice of Delisting or Failure to Satisfy a Continued Listing Rule or Standard; Transfer of Listing." 

https://ir.riotblockchain.com/sec-filings-email/content/0001079973-18-000058/biot_8k-013118.htm

RED FLAG 20:

Riot acquired another small company for an undisclosed amount on 2/7/18:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/riot-blockchain-enters-loi-acquire-133000709.html

The company's webpage looks totally empty:

http://www.logicalbrokerage.com/

Here is some more information on the company they acquired:

https://www.nfa.futures.org/BasicNet/Details.aspx?entityid=jRxBbbxQ%2Fq8%3D

Barry Honig is connected to the owner of Logical Brokerage, Mark Fisher:
http://www.floridavipers.org/page/show/2905536-our-board-

They are 2 of the 3 members of the Florida Vipers Basketball board.  

Riot keeps on buying tiny companies in whatever area seems to be "hot" at the time. Keep in mind that Riot was a Bio tech company a few months ago.

RED FLAG 21:

Riot just put out a SEC filing after the close today (2/16/18)
https://ir.riotblockchain.com/sec-filings-email/content/0001079973-18-000112/riot_8k.htm

At first, this PR might seem a little bit confusing.  Kairos is now owned by Riot Blockchain.  You can read more about Kairos much earlier in he blog.

So in the new PR, Kairos purchased mining equipment from a company called "Prive Technologies LLC". Prive Technologies happens to be owned by Bryan Pascual and Michael Ho.  These are the same exact owners as the Kairos company that Riot previously purchased.

http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/ConvertTiffToPDF?storagePath=COR%5C2017%5C1031%5C70164737.tif&documentNumber=L17000225341

Riot just bought mining equipment again at a large premium over market prices.  And, it happens to be from the same exact owners as the previous Kairos owners. Riot purchased Kairos on October 19th, 2017. On October 31st, 2017, Michael Ho and Bryan Pascual formed Prive Technologies.


The 3,800 Antminer S9 miners that Riot bought have a market value of $2,320 USD each if you buy directly:
https://shop.bitmain.com/main.htm?lang=en

Again, Riot could have ordered the miners in the past directly from Bitmain and they would have already received them for a substantially lower price.  Also, they could have negotiated a bulk discount if purchasing directly from Bitmain.

$2,320 x 3,800 machines = $8,816,000

Riot just paid $11 Million Cash and 1,000,000 shares of Riot stock.  Well, they did put 200,000 of the shares in Escrow that won't be available until Riot mines $10,000,000 worth of Bitcoins.

Riot also paid $8,500,000 for 3,000 Antminer S9 miners from Blockchain Mining Supply & Services Ltd. for $8.5 Million.
This can be bought directly at cost for $2,320*3,000 = $6,960,000


Mining is a VERY competitive market.  It makes no sense to overpay for equipment.  Plus, Riot does not seem to have any competitive advantage in this area at all.

RED FLAG 22:

Riot just put out a SEC filing after the close today (2/23/18)
https://ir.riotblockchain.com/sec-filings-email/content/0001079973-18-000125/riot_8k.htm

Riot is paying a company called INGENIUM INTERNATIONAL LLC $4 million up front in consulting fees.... The people behind this company happen to be Michael Ho and Bryan Pascual.  These are the same people who also happened to own Kairos and Prive.
http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/SearchResultDetail?inquirytype=EntityName&directionType=Initial&searchNameOrder=INGENIUMINTERNATIONAL%20L170002525470&aggregateId=flal-l17000252547-c7fcad0c-b342-484a-9925-0f65422097bb&searchTerm=Ingenium%20Group%2C%20LLC&listNameOrder=INGENIUMGROUP%20L130001682030


On November 1st 2017, Riot Blockchain spent over $12 Million in stock and also $1 Million in future royalties for crypto mining equipment that was worth around $2 Million from a company called Kairos Global Technology Inc. Kairos was formed October 19th 2017, under 2 weeks before the purchase. (See Red Flag #1)

See Red Flag 21 for more information on Prive.

Here is the consulting agreement:
https://ir.riotblockchain.com/sec-filings-email/content/0001079973-18-000125/riot_8k.htm

This consulting agreement makes no sense on so many levels.  First of all, Riot could just hire 1-2 people to oversee this project and pay them between $50-150k a year each instead of $4 Million up front. Also, look at Red Flag #8.  Riot already overpaid Jeffrey Vormittag to set up Digital Green Energy Corp.  Riot paid Jeffrey a signing bonus of $25,000 and $225,000 a year plus bonuses.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1167419/000107997318000036/ex10x1.htm


RED FLAG 23:

Riot's valuation of CoinSquare seems VERY suspicious to me:


CoinBase has 13.3 million users a of November 2017, and was getting over 100k users a day. CoinSquare only has around 100k users.

CoinBase was valued at $1.6 Billion. Even if you value CoinSquare at 1% of CoinBase, that gives you a valuation of $16 Million. Riot owns 12.5% of Coinbase.  12.5% of $16 Million is $2 Million.

Riot put out the following PR on CoinSquare:
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/riot-blockchain-participates-in-coinsquare-private-

placement-coinsquare-receives-cad-430-million-post-money-valuation-300595589.html

Riot invested CAD $3.4 Million at a CAD $430 Million post-money valuation.  Riot now owns 12.5% of Coinsquare, which would be valued at CAD $53.75 Million or about USD $42.5 Million.
I do not understand how this valuation makes any sense at all.  CoinSquare's userbase is tiny compared to Coinbase, plus there is now a lot more competition.  Also, I can hardly find any information at all about Coinsquare.  The information I do find appears to be mostly pissed off users:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinCA/comments/7i2xyp/coinsquare_is_a_scam/


Also, there are at least 75 exchanges that do more volume than CoinSquare:
https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/volume/24-hour/

GDAX (name for Coinbase's global exchange) did over $800 million in volume over the past 24 hours.  CoinSquare did under $6 million in volume.  GDAX constantly does around 130x + the volume of Coinsquare.

CoinBase was valued around the $200 per user when it last raised money at the $1.6 Billion evaluation.  It looks like they had roughly 8 million users in August 2017 when they raised the money.

CoinSquare has around 100,000 users, and they raised money at a $340 Million valuation.  

This would be $3,400 per user.

Plus, CoinBase already had some very big names behind it in 2017.  Plus, CoinBase was growing at a much faster rate around that time than CoinBase is growing today. There were also less exchanges back in August 2017.

The New York Stock Exchange was an early investor in CoinBase.  

The multiple per user should be much higher on CoinBase than CoinSquare.  I don't see what changed with CoinSquare since Riot invested.  Something does not add up.

*** Update on 2/26:
Circle acquired an exchange called Poloniex today for $400 Million.  Poloniex is much larger than Coinsquare:
https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/26/circle-acquires-cryptocurrency-exchange-poloniex/
https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/volume/24-hour/

They are well over 30 times larger than Coinsquare and much more established.  Riot valued Coinsquare at $340 Million.  Poloniex does over 30x the volume as CoinSquare.  Even if it was just 30x, this would value CoinSquare at around $13 Million

RED FLAG 24:

In the same SEC filing from today (2/23/18)
https://ir.riotblockchain.com/sec-filings-email/content/0001079973-18-000125/riot_8k.htm


Eric So resigned.  Eric So was just appointed to the board on October 23rd 2017.  So, he lasted exactly 4 months.  Riot appointed  Remo Mancini to take his place.  Mr. Mancini is also from Canada.  There seem to be a lot of connections with Riot and Canada for some reason even though Riot is a US company.  He will receive 45,000 restricted stock units which shall vest 50% on the date of grant and 50% after six months along with cash compensation of $5,000 per month.


RED FLAG 25:

In a SEC filing from today (2/28/18)
https://ir.riotblockchain.com/sec-filings-email/content/0001079973-18-000127/riot_8k.htm



 Mr. Frank M. Bishop resigned from his position on the Strategic Advisory Board of the Company.  He was just appointed to the board on November 21st 2017.  So, he lasted about 3 months.

RED FLAG 26:

In the same SEC filing from today (2/28/18)
https://ir.riotblockchain.com/sec-filings-email/content/0001079973-18-000127/riot_8k.htm



On February 27, 2018 the Board of Directors (the "Board") appointed Mr. Robby Chang to the position of Chief Financial Officer and to serve as Principal Accounting Officer effective upon completion of the Company's 2017 audit and filing of its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 (the "2017 10-K").

He will be replacing Mr. McGonegal.

Here is Robby Chang's  LinkedIn page:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbychang/

He has never held a CFO position.  Actually, it looks like he has never held an accounting position.  He went to college at the University of Toronto and seems to have a degree in Management.

Rob Change also recently gave a Buy rating to Pershing Gold Corp:
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:pm5Hd3sP-FoJ:https://www.streetwisereports.com/pub/co/pglc-otcqx+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

He gave a price target of $4.25 a share on 10/26/17
Pershing Gold Corp stock was priced at $2.90 on 10/25/17
As of 2/28/18, Pershing's stock was $2.18.


Barry Honig happens to be on the board of directions of Pershing Gold Corp:

Conclusion:
Riot appears to be quickly spending the $37 million cash that they recently raised.  This money is being spent on some very questionable purchases.  And, Riot also appears to keep diluting the shares of the company by issuing more shares.    Plus, it appears that company insiders will be receiving more shares in the near future, thus diluting current shareholders.  Riot wanted to increase the board's compensation at the shareholder meeting that never seems to happen.  Barry Honig, Riot's largest shareholder already sold most of his shares during the peak, when Riot was pumping out PR constantly.   The only asset that might have value for Riot is its share in CoinSquare, but Riot keeps on diluting its sharers, so even this asset will not be worth much to current shareholders with all the dilution.  Riot does not appear to have any real operations.  Their CEO lives in Florida, and they might have 5 old employees from their old Biotech firm.  They do have  several well paid executives now also.  It looks like Riot will likely need to eventually raise money again since they are burning cash quickly and they do not really have much revenue at all. 

Disclosure: I am/we are short RIOT.

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