text: Cynk Technology Corp., the supposed social-network operator that caught the attention of the financial world with its skyrocketing stock price, was suspended from trading by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 
   
   The halt is because of “concerns regarding the accuracy and adequacy of information in the marketplace and potentially manipulative transactions in CYNK’s common stock,” the SEC said today on its website. Judith Burns, a spokeswoman for the agency, declined to comment further. 
   
   Cynk’s social network appears to have no members, no revenue, no assets and only one employee. The stock-price chart has been the talk of all manner of business blogs and Twitter pundits, from Business Insider to the Wall Street Journal and Zero Hedge, which has called Cynk’s moves “pure madness.” 
   
   Cynk climbed as much as 49 percent to $21.95 yesterday in over-the-counter trading on volume of more than 380,000 shares before erasing its gain to close down 5.5 percent to $13.90. After closing at 6 cents on May 15, it began its surge with a 3,650 percent jump to $2.25 on June 17. The stock rose as much as 36,000 percent from May 15 to yesterday’s intraday high. 
   
   “The issue of stock manipulation, or perceived stock manipulation, particularly in the penny market, is extremely common, and it’s a challenge to the regulators,” said Jacob Frenkel, a former SEC enforcement official who’s now a securities attorney at Shulman Rogers Gandal Pordy & Ecker PA. “Real companies get hurt when the entire space gets tagged as bad because of really bad incidents such as this.” 
   
   Source: Introbiz.com Introbiz offers services to buy contact information of various types of people, including celebrities such as Nicole Kidman and Johnny Depp. Close Introbiz offers services to buy contact information of various types of people,... Read More Close Open Source: Introbiz.com Introbiz offers services to buy contact information of various types of people, including celebrities such as Nicole Kidman and Johnny Depp. 
   
   ‘Buyer Beware’ 
   
   Before the SEC said the stock was suspended, it had been halted by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The halt was reflected on the website of OTC Markets Group Inc., which runs venues for trading penny stocks. It marks stocks it deems suspicious, including Cynk, with a skull-and-crossbones icon and a “buyer beware” warning. 
   
   Once OTC Markets “skull and crossbones something,” brokerage firms lock it down, said Cromwell Coulson, the company’s president and chief executive officer. 
   
   “Ninety-nine percent of investors take a look at a stock like this and say no way,” Coulson said. “One percent says that would be fun to trade.” 
   
   The surge in the shares may have occurred because of difficulty in shorting the stock, or borrowing the shares and betting they’ll decline, as well as brokerage compliance systems preventing owners from selling after the suspicious jump in price, Coulson said. 
   
   ‘Out of Whack’ 
   
   “The big challenge is how can we get the information out to help Finra halt these and speed up the SEC suspension process to easily stop these heavily promoted securities that trade completely out of whack,” he said. “They’re a waste of time for our capital markets, hurt small-company capital formation and are harmful to investor confidence.” 
   
   A message left today for Cynk wasn’t immediately returned. 
   
   In Cynk’s last quarterly earnings report, filed with the SEC in November 2013, the company reported a $1.5 million net loss and no revenue for the first nine months of the year. The bulk of that loss came from stock-based compensation, which was listed under operating expenses. 
   
   The document was signed by Marlon Sanchez, Cynk’s one employee at the time of the filing. He was listed as president, CEO, chief financial officer and secretary. A June 2013 filing showed Sanchez holding a 72 percent stake in the company. 
   
   Belize Headquarters? 
   
   Cynk said in its most recent filing from April that its headquarters are in Suite 400 of the Matalon, an office building in Belize City, Belize. The Matalon does not have a Suite 400, said Tiffany Techeco, secretary of building. She also said there is no main company with the name Cynk Technology; Introbiz, which is the name of Cynk’s website; or Introbuzz, the company’s former name. 
   
   Cynk’s website, Introbiz.com, was created in June 2009 and uses GoDaddy Inc. as its Internet domain registrar and for Web hosting services. A Scottsdale, Arizona-based proxy company, Domains by Proxy, which promises to protect clients’ identities, registered the site. 
   
   Introbiz offers services to buy the contact information of various types of people, including celebrities such as Nicole Kidman and Johnny Depp. It is currently possible to create an account on the website, deposit money through PayPal, or purchase information with a credit card or PayPal. 
   
   (An earlier version of this story was corrected to show that OTC Markets wasn’t responsible for halting the stock. It was halted by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.) 
   
   To contact the reporter on this story: Jing Cao in New York at hcao38@bloomberg.net 
   
   To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sarah Rabil at srabil@bloomberg.net Crayton Harrison, Stephen West ||||| Instagram/javierthelieutenant Everyone has been going nuts over a penny stock, CYNK Technology, that has surged 25,000% since mid-June. 
   
   Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading of CYNK until July 24. 
   
   CYNK Technology operates a "social network" called Introbiz.com. The company has no revenue, assets, or full-time employees. It has also been a mystery who runs the company. 
   
   According to a filing with OTC Markets, the company's CEO is Javier Romero. 
   
   "Javier Romero is the President, CEO, Secretary, Treasurer, and Director of Cynk Technologies, Inc. Since 2009 Mr. Romero has been a Fisheries Officer for the Government of Belize based out of Belize City," the filing says. 
   
   Other than that, there's scant information available on Romero. 
   
   Introbiz is a website that allows users to pay for connections to celebrities and business people on social media. We were able to track Romero down via a more old-fashioned technology, Facebook, where the profile includes photos of him flying airplanes and fishing. 
   
   On the Facebook messaging system, he seemed to match the description on the filing. He told us that he's from Belize and lives in Boston. He also said he's learning how to fly airplanes and that he used to work as a fishery officer back in Belize. 
   
   Eventually, we asked for his number and called him up. 
   
   When reached by telephone, the man responded when we addressed him as "Javier." But after we told him we were working on a story about CYNK Technology, he quickly told us that he's not Javier and that his name is Jason. 
   
   "Jason" told us that he works for Javier, but doesn't work for the company. He said that he's been friends with Javier since they were kids in Belize. He also said that Javier is in Boston for the next few days. 
   
   Here's what we talked about on the phone: 
   
   BI: Hey Javier, it's Julia. 
   
   "Jason": Hi. How are ya? 
   
   BI: How are you doing? 
   
   "Jason": [laughs] All right. 
   
   BI: Are you in Boston right now? 
   
   "Jason": I am actually. 
   
   BI: I'm a reporter and I've been really impressed with this company I know you're affiliated with — CYNK Technology and Introbiz. I was wondering if you could help me out and tell me more about it. 
   
   "Jason": [laughs] Hey, I actually knew there was basically something like that going on. 
   
   BI: So were you surprised the stock went up so high? 
   
   "Jason": Well, actually I'm not Javier. I work for him. 
   
   BI: Wait. But why are you Javier on Facebook? That's a little weird. 
   
   "Jason": Yeah. I work for him. 
   
   BI: Well, where's Javier? 
   
   "Jason": He's actually out right now. I don't really want to disclose his business. I can definitely get a number for you guys. 
   
   BI: Yeah. So do you work at CYNK, too? 
   
   "Jason": I don't. I just work for him. I don't know. 
   
   BI: Oh you work for him, but you don't work with Introbiz? 
   
   "Jason": I do not. 
   
   BI: If you're not 'Javier' then what's your name? 
   
   "Jason": My name is Jason. 
   
   BI: Jason what? 
   
   "Jason": Hah. Ahhh like I said if you want to give me a number I can have him reach you guys. 
   
   BI: Is he also in Boston with you? 
   
   "Jason": He is here. He will be here for a couple of days. 
   
   BI: Is he really excited about the stock? 
   
   "Jason": I'm sure he's going nuts about it or whatever. We haven't really talked about it. Like I said, I just work for him. 
   
   BI: You get to be Javier on Facebook? 
   
   "Jason": He asked me to check out his stuff. I just let him know what's going on. 
   
   BI: Does he usually let you talk to girls on his Facebook? 
   
   "Jason": Uh, no. 
   
   BI: I was really hoping you could give me a little more insight into this. 
   
   "Jason": Personally, I don't know much. I just work for the guy. We've been very good friends since we were young. He recently got a hold of me and said he has a job for me. 
   
   BI: How did you guys meet? 
   
   "Jason": You know like I said Julia I don't know if I should be talking to anyone about this. 
   
   BI: You sound a little nervous on the phone. 
   
   "Jason": Yeah no, because I'm not supposed to be talking to too much people on his Facebook for him. I was just supposed to check his message. Then, here's this good looking girl and she wants to talk to me. I got a little carried away, OK. 
   
   Jason has our number and we'll update if he or Javier gets in touch. Meanwhile, we might just reach out on Introbiz. ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating how Cynk Technology Corp., a social network that reports zero assets, no revenue and one employee, soared to a $6 billion valuation, according to people close to the probe. 
   
   The SEC on Friday halted trading in Cynk—whose price had shot up more than 100-fold since mid-June—because of concerns...
target: – Too good to be true? A company with just one employee, no assets, and no revenue saw its penny stocks rocket to a $6 billion valuation this summer—enough for the SEC to shut down its trading and launch an investigation, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company, Cynk, runs a website called Introbiz.com designed to help connect people with celebrities and various kinds of professionals. Fair enough—until its stock leaped by 25,000% since June, notes Business Insider. Worse, the company address in Belize City, Belize, is inaccurate (Cynk apologized) and the company's shares have swapped hands three times over six years, always between people who were the CEO and sole employee. More details: Business Insider found someone matching CEO Javier Romero on Facebook and called him up. He answered to Javier until the reporter identified herself, when he said he was really Jason. Javier is "actually out right now," he said. "I don't really want to disclose his business. I can definitely get a number for you guys." Stock manipulation in the penny market is "extremely common" and hard to regulate, an expert tells Bloomberg. Another says that "one percent" of investors would trade in a company like Cynk—but stock promoters hardly helped, raving on Twitter that the stock "keeps surging higher!!" and "this could be EPIC!!" The SEC probe is part of its recent crackdown on penny-stock fraud. Over the past two years, the commission has halted trading in over 1,300 companies. The blog Zero Hodge drew attention to the stock this week, quipping, "Lord Overstone said it best. 'No warning can save people determined to grow suddenly rich.'"