instant history

"Take the solution to the waste
not the waste to the solution"
--Xethanol

Sharesleuth has launched. The site actually launched a while ago, but its first official investigative piece came out only a few days ago on August 7.

Mark Cuban responds to critics (again), and also writes a full-disclosure afterward on the first piece, which takes on Xethanol Corp. for not producing "signifigant" quantities of ethanol and for what it sees as questionable management:

Stanley C. Brooks, chairman of Brookstreet Securities Corp. in Irvine, Calif. Brooks has a long history of fines and disciplinary actions by the NASD and state regulators.

In January, he settled compliance-related charges the NASD brought against him and an affiliated brokerage, First Securities USA Inc. Brooks did not admit or deny guilt, but agreed to a two-year ban on serving in any supervisory capacity with any member firm.

Xethanol filed a registration statement with the SEC last year listing Brookstreet with 100,000 shares. The filing said Brooks had voting and disposition power over the shares. Brooks’ personal website says he and his wife are the sole owners of Brookstreet.

--Sharesleuth.com

Since the story, Xethanol's stock has slipped from $6.95 to $5.31, giving Mark Cuban at least a minor payday:

So I am short 10,000 shares of Xethanol. I would like to short more, but I haven’t been able to borrow any more. I am currently in the money on the shares.

I am also short approximately 25,000 shares of UTEK because of its relationship to Xethanol. I have tried to short more, but have been unable to borrow the stock. I am currently underwater on this short.

-- From Cuban's afterword

Update July 7, 2008: After noticing this post was getting a large portion of my natural search hits, I investigated why. I'm guessing it's because I copied a rather large portion of ShareSleuth's story, and I can't imagine why. I have now greatly reduced the quoted text. It's a long story, and my quotation was still just a fraction of that, but I think it went overboard.