Bull markets are a great time for fraudster promoters to make money. If you are a fraudster and also want to benefit from this bull market, here's a thread that explains how you can defraud shareholders and get rich.
— Amit Mantri (@amitmantri) November 28, 2017
2. Draw analogies to D-Mart or other businesses that investors love (next Page Industries maybe?). Doesn't matter if your business is nothing like the ones you are comparing it with.
— Amit Mantri (@amitmantri) November 28, 2017
4. Start making up the numbers. Only Revenue and PAT matters. So don't worry if the Balance Sheet has all sorts of large unexplained scary stuff. No one looks at the BS in a bull market.
— Amit Mantri (@amitmantri) November 28, 2017
6. Gold plate the capex to siphon out funds. Pay salaries and other operating expenses using siphoned cash resulting in even higher profits and market cap. No one questions absurdly low salaries or purchase of computers worth 20 lakhs per employee.
— Amit Mantri (@amitmantri) November 28, 2017
8. Also, don't worry if you have almost zero on-ground sales or operations. No one will check. Even the outlets you mention in the investor presentation don't really have to exist. Just don't do the mistake of providing store location links on Google Maps or your website.
— Amit Mantri (@amitmantri) November 28, 2017
10. Start advertising on CNBC and Economic Times. Why? Because your audience is the investor community. Doesn't matter if actual consumers have never heard of your products, the investors should hear about it every week.
— Amit Mantri (@amitmantri) November 28, 2017
12. Publish fancy quarterly investor presentations, glossy annual reports with language that would wow even Shashi Tharoor, hold con-calls after every good quarter reiterating aggressive guidance.
— Amit Mantri (@amitmantri) November 28, 2017
14. Buy few shares of your own company. Investors will take your buying as a sure sign of a booming business. Doesn't matter if other related parties are selling. Follow the PP Waterballs playbook – https://t.co/5X4Zb96pxn
— Amit Mantri (@amitmantri) November 28, 2017
16. Announce de-merger of a part of the biz. Nothing creates as much value as a de-merger even if it makes no logical sense. Promise other value-unlocking measures.
— Amit Mantri (@amitmantri) November 28, 2017
18. Pledge your stock as much as you can. Spread rumour that you are pledging stock to buy your own stock which will again be taken as a +ve.
— Amit Mantri (@amitmantri) November 28, 2017
20. Pledges will be invoked, stock will crash. Announce that you are facing temporary cash flow problems which will be quickly resolved. Of course, they will never be resolved. After few weeks of panic, yelling, and abuse, investors will forget your company ever existed.
— Amit Mantri (@amitmantri) November 28, 2017
21. Wait for the next bull market. Repeat from 1.
(END)
— Amit Mantri (@amitmantri) November 28, 2017
3 replies on “Amit Mantri: How to defraud investors and get rich”
Super. Absolutely spot on. Holding a mirror to our investing ways! I am already seeing these traits – Time to exit I guess!
Great sir
Amit you are doing a great service for the investors. After reading your 20 points I cant wait to start my own company. I will give you
2 examples of my narrow escape. Based on strong recommendation from SP Tulsian I bought 500 share of Vakrange at Rs 200 ( pre bonus) . As the price kept going up I kept on booking profits and felt bad about doing so because price kept going up and up. I think it reached 900 and Rs 500 ex bonus. I was lucky to read Tanushri Banerji’s article wondering about suspicious rise of Vakrange price. Next morning I sold the remaining quantity and then the slide started. Another is an old story about Zylog and the analyst was PN Vijay. But that story for another day.