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Ireland based US Oil & Gas (USOP) – a company which has a joke valuation has today secured orders from the Dublin Courts to secure the names and addresses of certain Bulletin Board posters who, it is alleged, have made defamatory anonymous comments about the officers of the company. I have some sympathy for US in what it has done ( while mainting my view that its valuation is a joke) but I doubt that this course of action will do it any good.
The posters on three British Bulletin Boards posted anonymously and made various comments using words such as “liars” and “scam.” Some folks think that posting anonymously on BBs allows them to act with impunity. In reality it is relatively easy for a company or an individual to force a BB owner to hand over details of posters so that they can be sued.
Using a word such as “liar” must be done with care. There is, for what it is worth, no evidence that the officers of US Oil and Gas have lied. I believe – and have stated in print – that they have over-promoted the stock but they have told no lies. I have in the past accused PLC company officers of telling a lie but only when I have him on tape or video saying one thing which is provably an untruth
For my most recent liar PLC Director accusation click here
I think it is harder to prove, as US maintained in Court in Dublin today, that the fall in the US Oil & Gas share price from 690p to a low of 50p ( they are 150p today) is down to the BB comments. At 690p this company was capitalised at £283 million. For a company which at that point had proven oil reserves of 0 that might be regarded as a tad on the generous side. Indeed the company is still capitalised at £62 million and still has proven reserves of 0. For the same price you can buy 100% of Northern Petroleum (LSE:NOP) which has proven reserves of 52 million barrels ( more than the entire historic production of the state of Nevada where US operates) in Italy, plus potential reserves of (perhaps 50 million barrels ( no one knows) in Guyane plus £20 million cash plus Dutch gas assets throwing off £15 million a year. As such I will happily act as a defence witness for any BB moron accused, saying that the reason the shares collapsed ( and may still fall) was that the stock was ( and still is) overvalued on fundamentals.
But that is not to say that I defend the BB Morons for making defamatory statements. If you are going to accuse someone of being a liar you need to ensure that he is either dead (you cannot libel the dead) or you have slam dunk evidence. There is no slam dunk evidence ( or indeed evidence at all) against the officers of US Oil & Gas on this count.
Some of the BB and twitter rampers of this stock (could anyone who bought at 690p sue them for saying that they KNEW there was oil worth £15 a share at Hot Creek, I wonder?) now think that US Oil & Gas will come after those bloggers who have said nasty things about them. There is a big difference between saying that a company has a joke valuation, was over-promoted and explaining why it is overvalued and saying that it is a “scam” run by “liars.” Sensible bloggers such as myself and Wexboy have stuck rigidly to the former line.
Moreover shares in US Oil & Gas rose after Wexboy published a super piece in mid September and rose after one of my pieces (although falling after my effort earlier today). And that is the real point for US Oil & Gas shareholders to consider. I do not blame the company for having a go at those who do make anonymous, cowardly and defamatory remarks. But will it do any good for the stock price? I seem to remember the former CEO of Nighthawk (LSE:HAWK) also spending large amounts of his time pursuing his anonymous BB Critics. Fat lot of good it did him or the company.
The bottom line is that the success or failure of US Oil & Gas is all down to drilling. If it finds a field of oil at Hot Creek which is larger than any field ever found in the entire 100 year history of the State then its shares might not be that expensive. If it does not then the shares will go down whatever is written about them.
I explain the very serious valuation issues about this company in detail here
As for the bulls of the stock they continue to send me abusive tweets and emails by the shedload – I am almost tempted to publish another e-book “The deranged abuse and fantasies served up by USOP shareholders to anyone who dares question valuation”.
As a demonstration of the sort of intellectual powerhouses that own shares in this company I reprint an email from a Mr Gary More received 30 minutes ago.
Still on about usop are you, haaaaaaaaaaa you are a joke continue making pizza there’s a good boy
haaaaaaaaaaaaa
Keep up the rigorous analysis Mr More.
Over on twitter BigOilMonkey says
“$2bn market cap easily. Based on 42m shares in issue we could be £30 per share”
So BigOilMonkey reckons that a company with proven reserves of 0 and daily production of 0 is worth more than Premier Oil (LSE:PMO) which is producing at 75,000 bopd and has reserves of 550 million barrels? Really?
Prior to this stunning piece of analysis Mr Monkey has noticed the Dublin Court case and tweets to myself and Wexboy
“ha ha ha ha ha USOP are coming for you.”
I really do wonder about the sanity of some of our fellow humans sometimes. And Monkeys.
Libertarian investment writer Tom Winnifrith writes extensively for a number of US and UK financial websites. All of that material appears on his own blog, which also carries his extensive original non financial material, at TomWinnifrith.com – for alerts on all Tom’s follow him on twitter at @tomwinnifrith
very ironic Tom that you were cheerleading Bramhill when he resorted to similar legal games….i guess in hindsight you realised what a wasteful exercise that was….it backfired on Bramhill
Don’t worry Tom. I’m sure you will be in the dock alongside the BB morons. How much have you personally benefited from the volatility in the share price? ;) Of course you don’t sell straight after you hand out one of your “tips” and buy after you promote a panic drop…
Bob Burnard
Now that is defamatory. Luckily I know that your are a pestilent little cretin so cannot be bothered.
Charlie. I thought Bramhill was defamed but told him privately he was wasting his time. I was right on both counts. My advice to US Oil & Gas is exactly the same. As it my advice to me with the cretinous Bob.
Best wishes
Tom
@tw@….a fine example of peddling an agenda by an attention seeking moron whilst providing commentary on the agendas of other attention seeking morons. Priceless.
I thought the share price dropped because they tested their well for 60 days and didn’t manage to flow any viable oil. After the unrelenting ramping of this share to above £6, based on hope and fantasy, what did they expect? And the transcript of the AGM shows that the ramping started at the top. Wasn’t this company suspended from its previous stock exchange for alleged disorderly trading in its shares? The investigation is still going on but in the unlikely event that this case comes to court, I think the defendants may have a field day.
Sadly Tom, as with much of your research, you should have taken a bit more care,because that earlier comment from ‘Bob’ was not from me.Presumably that’s one of the reasons why we have to provide email addresses.
You were right with Bramhill. He had death threats it was personal defamation pure and simple. When he left did Nighhawk fare any better? There may have been a problem at Nighthawk, but Bramhill was not the guy that caused it, but the guy that took the blame. Some posters were going to go after Bramhill, which would have lost them even more money in any court. Perhaps they should have looked further afield
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