Shares of ERHC Energy dropped sharply again on Wednesday after the uninspiring shareholders' meeting. ERHE was down 5 cents, or 13 percent, for the second straight day.
The chart-readers say resistance at $0.39 may keep us at the current level, but I'm hoping - sorry to say it - we will see a return to the $0.20 era, where I'd like to replenish my hoard of shares.
How likely is that? Less so every day we get closer to identifying a drillship and setting to work. It's only because we thought we had one on the way to the Gulf of Guineau already that we rose to $0.60.
One event that might get me those cheap shares is an indictment, but as I have warned before, if one comes down, the sudden collapse of the share price is likely to be followed by an almost-as-sudden rebound the same day and over two or three following days. People who can play both ways that day may do extremely well for themselves, but it is difficult if not impossible to find short shares at some brokerages (like E*Trade) for this stock.
I saw several posters were calling others to account for their rosy and false (or at least very flawed) predictions about the outcome of the shareholders meeting. I think that's a healthy turn of events. But I fear some of those calling the kettle black were calling it white themselves just a few weeks ago.
One note on the session: Michael Madigan's remarks to a questioner about statutory limits on the federal crimes alleged against management did not do a lot to clarify the issue. He said he thought the statutory limit had already been exceeded, but offered no backup for that position. If there is a statutory limit, however, the DOJ has a laundry list of various crimes at a wide variety of times they might employ to bring the charges without fear of statutory limits.
His most compelling comment, however, was the one we've been stating for more than a year: there is no evidence available to the Justice Dept. to bring an indictment in the first place.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Annual Meeting: Good News, Bad News, And A 13% Price Drop
As I anticipated in an earlier post here, there was no good news coming out of the ERHC Energy annual shareholders meeting except that our Acting CEO Nicolae Luca is leaving and that company Secretary Peter Ntephe, with us since 2001, will take his place in the same transient capacity.
There was some unnerving news, though: it seem our drillship, the Aban Abraham, is still in drydock and not expected to arrive in the Gulkf of Guineau anytimes soon. The company is still looking for a "ship of opportunity," as VP Jim Leadbetter put it, which is a nice way of saying we are in a life-or-death struggle with other drillers to get a ship together that can deliver some of that $120-a-barrel oil that lies in the Block 4 prospect.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Howard Jeter reiterated the remarks of several speakers when he said that finding a permanent CEO is management'sfirst priority, and added that once this is accomplished the board may expand by two or three members.
Attorney Michael Madigan. who is representing us in the SEC/DOJ investigation of the company's dealing with foreign leaders, stated pretty unequivocally that while the government can't be hurried, there is no evidence against the company tgo prosecute it at trial. Madigan seemed confident that no indictment would ever occur, but I did not hear him say that, if he did, as I didn't get into the live broadcast until 5:15PM ET.
And, of course, I have been telling readers the samer thing for about a year. It seems like they could have done the same, really.
The lack of news may have been reflected in the lack of support ERHE received on the OTC Bulletin Board, where trading was only a little above average at 745,889, but traders took the share price down 13.21%, or 7 cents.
It might be wise for investors to go back through ther posts on the message boards elsewhere and search out those posters who implied or predicted good news coming from the annual meeting. Those are the folks whose advice you need to avoid.
There was some unnerving news, though: it seem our drillship, the Aban Abraham, is still in drydock and not expected to arrive in the Gulkf of Guineau anytimes soon. The company is still looking for a "ship of opportunity," as VP Jim Leadbetter put it, which is a nice way of saying we are in a life-or-death struggle with other drillers to get a ship together that can deliver some of that $120-a-barrel oil that lies in the Block 4 prospect.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Howard Jeter reiterated the remarks of several speakers when he said that finding a permanent CEO is management'sfirst priority, and added that once this is accomplished the board may expand by two or three members.
Attorney Michael Madigan. who is representing us in the SEC/DOJ investigation of the company's dealing with foreign leaders, stated pretty unequivocally that while the government can't be hurried, there is no evidence against the company tgo prosecute it at trial. Madigan seemed confident that no indictment would ever occur, but I did not hear him say that, if he did, as I didn't get into the live broadcast until 5:15PM ET.
And, of course, I have been telling readers the samer thing for about a year. It seems like they could have done the same, really.
The lack of news may have been reflected in the lack of support ERHE received on the OTC Bulletin Board, where trading was only a little above average at 745,889, but traders took the share price down 13.21%, or 7 cents.
It might be wise for investors to go back through ther posts on the message boards elsewhere and search out those posters who implied or predicted good news coming from the annual meeting. Those are the folks whose advice you need to avoid.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Why Cancer Cures Are A Dime A Dozen
Did anyone see the Leslie Stahl piece Sunday nioght after the Master's about a man's homemade garage-workshop cure for cancer? John Kanzius proved that heating tumors tagged with liquid metals like gold nanoparticles can utterly destroy cancer in rats in a heartbeat.
But don't get excited. It's another real cure that will go nowhere.
I recently tried to get the St. Pete Times to write about the long, if not infinite. delay between discovery of a promising cure and human trials. They seem unwilling to touch it. I watched this business about gold nanoparticles and I say to myself, any cure anyone finds better be expensive as hell or the cancer Establishment will shut it down in a heartbeat.
"60 Minutes" is so vacuous sometimes, particularly with respect to the surrounding issues, that I wonder if they are just stupid over there, or what? Four years "to start" human trials - while millions upon millions who would gladly try it die. Human papilloma virus (HPV) was also effective in killing tumors when injected into glial blastomas - but trials are 10 years away. Up in Montreal, the Children's Hospital found a way to cure diabetes overnight by injecting capsicum into the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas and found that insulin started flowing normally within 24 hours. But human studies need $5 million to get started. A British study showed that a person was completely cured within minutes of Alzheimer's after a drug for spinal repair (I forget the name) was injected into the spine. It was taken up to the brain and instantly dissolved the plaque that causes Alzheimer's, and the human patient began functioning normally right away.
You can go on and on, and what it boils down to is that hospitals, doctors, medical schools and insurance companies can't afford cures.
The economic losses due to a simple diabetes cure would be on the order of $18 billion alone. Curing cancer simply and cheaply would cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
That's why there are no cures - and it's why patients have no real advocates in Congress or anywhere. Only dedicated physicians who work largely alone and unfunded are making progress, it seems.
Who is the brave and daring dead man who'll take the medical industry on? When will "60 Minutes" get a clue?
But don't get excited. It's another real cure that will go nowhere.
I recently tried to get the St. Pete Times to write about the long, if not infinite. delay between discovery of a promising cure and human trials. They seem unwilling to touch it. I watched this business about gold nanoparticles and I say to myself, any cure anyone finds better be expensive as hell or the cancer Establishment will shut it down in a heartbeat.
"60 Minutes" is so vacuous sometimes, particularly with respect to the surrounding issues, that I wonder if they are just stupid over there, or what? Four years "to start" human trials - while millions upon millions who would gladly try it die. Human papilloma virus (HPV) was also effective in killing tumors when injected into glial blastomas - but trials are 10 years away. Up in Montreal, the Children's Hospital found a way to cure diabetes overnight by injecting capsicum into the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas and found that insulin started flowing normally within 24 hours. But human studies need $5 million to get started. A British study showed that a person was completely cured within minutes of Alzheimer's after a drug for spinal repair (I forget the name) was injected into the spine. It was taken up to the brain and instantly dissolved the plaque that causes Alzheimer's, and the human patient began functioning normally right away.
You can go on and on, and what it boils down to is that hospitals, doctors, medical schools and insurance companies can't afford cures.
The economic losses due to a simple diabetes cure would be on the order of $18 billion alone. Curing cancer simply and cheaply would cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
That's why there are no cures - and it's why patients have no real advocates in Congress or anywhere. Only dedicated physicians who work largely alone and unfunded are making progress, it seems.
Who is the brave and daring dead man who'll take the medical industry on? When will "60 Minutes" get a clue?
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Good News
There's a message barely spoken in the statement of a high-ranking Justice Dept. official associated with the Rep. William Jefferson bribery case and the decision by the US Supreme Court Friday not to hear an appeal by the DOJ of a denial by an appellate court of the Department's right to raid Jefferson's congressional offices.
The word is "potential," as in the DOJ feels the Supreme Court made it difficult or impossible to pursue other potential bribery and corruption cases that may have had an association with Jefferson, Africa, and - we suggest - Nigeria in particular.
In other words, ladies and gentleman, case closed. At least that's the way it looked, and it appears that's the way investors took it when they pushed the price of ERHE as much as 4 cents higher on Friday, and left it up $0.03 at the end of the day.
I want to write more about this, but tax day is upon us and I'm awfully short of time. I'll try to get back to it promptly, but for now, that's my read: The DOJ has found in the Jefferson case a way to rid themselves of the embarrassment of the ERHE situation.
Hoo boy!
The word is "potential," as in the DOJ feels the Supreme Court made it difficult or impossible to pursue other potential bribery and corruption cases that may have had an association with Jefferson, Africa, and - we suggest - Nigeria in particular.
In other words, ladies and gentleman, case closed. At least that's the way it looked, and it appears that's the way investors took it when they pushed the price of ERHE as much as 4 cents higher on Friday, and left it up $0.03 at the end of the day.
I want to write more about this, but tax day is upon us and I'm awfully short of time. I'll try to get back to it promptly, but for now, that's my read: The DOJ has found in the Jefferson case a way to rid themselves of the embarrassment of the ERHE situation.
Hoo boy!
Friday, April 04, 2008
Big Moves
Up again, down again, up again - the daily leaps and stumbles of ERHE are hard to predict and perhaps harder still to understand.
One certainty is that the penny-stock newsletters have been successively weighing in ever since we started our move up from around $0.25. Today's tipster, which rated a blurb on my E*Trade news engine, helped push the stock from $0.42 to $0.48 today (it's down at $0.45 as I post at 2:10PM ET Friday).
As long as the stock keeps performing like that, it's a certainty that the tipsters will keep pumping - that is, until they start dumping, which is less common now that the SEC has published the Threshhold list of short stocks.
Do the moves have any specific, substantial news behind them? 'Fraid not.
But there is always one piece of news that ought to be driving this stock higher every day, guided by caution since the jury is still out, literally, on the FBI and SEC bribery allegations - and that is that within four or five months or seven or eight months, Addax, Sinopec and the drillship Aban Abraham are going to start exploring on Block 4, and that's all she wrote.
There is a virtual certainty the Gulf of Guinea concession where we hold a 26 percent interest is brimming with black gold.
I was struck by the fact that posters didn't know who Mary Kay Dimke is. She's the U.S. Attorney to whom the FBI/SEC investigation of alleged foreign bribery is assigned, and who is making her case as we speak in front of Federal Grand Jury in Houston. The fact that she stopped by to check some information from 2006 was more than interesting to me; I felt as though the time of decision on whether to hand down indictments is near.
Of course, if you do sell your stock and I buy it, you can blame me, yourself or her; as I've said for the past few weeks, anyone selling now is just inviting themselves to get aced out of very large gains.
Hang on, as always. If the indictments do come down, those, too, will pass. ERHC Energy is going to be a winner, I believe, no matter what.
One certainty is that the penny-stock newsletters have been successively weighing in ever since we started our move up from around $0.25. Today's tipster, which rated a blurb on my E*Trade news engine, helped push the stock from $0.42 to $0.48 today (it's down at $0.45 as I post at 2:10PM ET Friday).
As long as the stock keeps performing like that, it's a certainty that the tipsters will keep pumping - that is, until they start dumping, which is less common now that the SEC has published the Threshhold list of short stocks.
Do the moves have any specific, substantial news behind them? 'Fraid not.
But there is always one piece of news that ought to be driving this stock higher every day, guided by caution since the jury is still out, literally, on the FBI and SEC bribery allegations - and that is that within four or five months or seven or eight months, Addax, Sinopec and the drillship Aban Abraham are going to start exploring on Block 4, and that's all she wrote.
There is a virtual certainty the Gulf of Guinea concession where we hold a 26 percent interest is brimming with black gold.
I was struck by the fact that posters didn't know who Mary Kay Dimke is. She's the U.S. Attorney to whom the FBI/SEC investigation of alleged foreign bribery is assigned, and who is making her case as we speak in front of Federal Grand Jury in Houston. The fact that she stopped by to check some information from 2006 was more than interesting to me; I felt as though the time of decision on whether to hand down indictments is near.
Of course, if you do sell your stock and I buy it, you can blame me, yourself or her; as I've said for the past few weeks, anyone selling now is just inviting themselves to get aced out of very large gains.
Hang on, as always. If the indictments do come down, those, too, will pass. ERHC Energy is going to be a winner, I believe, no matter what.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
From The 'Nuff Said Dept.
ERHC On The Move
By Location > Visit Detail
Visit 388,030
[<<] [>>]
Domain Name usdoj.gov ? (U.S. Government)
IP Address 149.101.1.# (US Dept of Justice)
ISP US Dept of Justice
Location Continent : North America
Country : United States (Facts)
State : District of Columbia
City : Washington
Lat/Long : 38.9097, -77.0231 (Map)
Language English (U.S.)
en-us
Operating System Microsoft WinXP
Browser Internet Explorer 6.0
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; DI60SP1001;
.NET CLR 2.0.50727; InfoPath.2)
Javascript version 1.3
Monitor Resolution : 1280 x 1024
Color Depth : 32 bits
Time of Visit Mar 31 2008 2:08:51 pm
Last Page View Mar 31 2008 2:08:51 pm
Visit Length 0 seconds
Page Views 1
Referring URL http://www.google.co...ch?hl=en&q=kit dimke
Search Engine google.com
Search Words kit dimke
Visit Entry Page http://erhc.blogspot...6_06_01_archive.html
Visit Exit Page http://erhc.blogspot...6_06_01_archive.html
Out Click
Time Zone UTC-7:00
Visitor's Time Mar 31 2008 12:08:51 pm
Visit Number 388,030
>
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
