Yesterday the Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading in the securities of Neuromama (NERO), a tiny Internet company with Russian roots, “because of concerns regarding the accuracy and adequacy of information in the marketplace.”
Based on the latest transactions on over-the-counter markets in the USA, the company’s capitalization exceeds $35 billion — more than Tesla or Gazprom.
Neuromama’s stock was worth $35.44 billion before transactions were suspended by the SEC on August 15.
The commission is expressing doubts about “the identity of the persons in control of the company’s operations and management,” and believes that transactions might have been “manipulative.”
In addition, “false statements” might have been made to company shareholders and/or potential investors regarding the company’s application for listing on the NASDAQ, the SEC stated.
However, NeuroMama has not formally been accused of wrongdoing, and its stock transactions involve just a few investors, notes Bloomberg.
Involved in the company’s development is Vladislav Zubkis, a former Soviet émigré to the USA also known as Steven Schwartzbard. Zubkis was sued by the SEC in the 1990s for orchestrating a $12 million penny stock scam. In 2007, he was sentenced in to five years in prison for defrauding investors through the renovation of a casino in Las Vegas, notes Bloomberg.
Zubkis said in an e-mail to Bloomberg that high valuations are typical in the tech industry.
“We’re suffering from a negative side effect caused by our success,” said Zubkis. “Our attorney has contacted the SEC and asked them if there is anything we can do to clear up this matter,” he added.
News from Siberia
NGS Novosti, an online publication from the city of Novosibirsk, Russia, has met Igor Weselovsky, the company’s CEO.
NeuroMama positions itself as “the world’s first search engine with artificial intelligence.” As Weselovsky explained to NGS Novosti, “in contrast with Google or Yandex, NeuroMama learns the search process from its users, analyzing their habits and behavior. When a user enters a keyword, the engine will remember all his actions on the result page and try to understand how important to the user was the delivered information, based on multiple-criteria analysis.”
Vladislav Zubkis aka Steven Schwartzbard explains NeuroMama’s superiority over Google
NeuroMama has also developed a “social network,” an “e-commerce platform,” and “communication infrastructure,” the company claims on its website.
Established in 2013, the company was initially based in Novosibirsk — even though its activities had remained totally unknown so far to Novosibirsk IT professionals interviewed by NGS Novosti.
After a while, NeuroMama moved its development center to Latvia and its headquarters to Rosarito, Mexico, Weselovsky told NGS Novosti.
