Last week I wrote on pharmaceutical development company Nuformix (NFX) “absolutely delighted with the data we've generated”. Er, how’s the balance sheet now?”, concluding still a financial red flags fluttering Sell. What about now following “unaudited results for the twelve months ended 31 March 2023 following the change in the company's accounting reference date from 31 March to 30 September”?

Previously writing on pharmaceutical development company Nuformix (NFX), in May with the shares falling below 0.50p I noted management chaos follows operational chaos, hopefully warnings heeded!. Co-founder and now again Executive Director Dan Gooding today though argues in half-year results, “I expect our on-going penultimate pre-clinical studies to conclude that our data and IP support the progression of the programme towards patients for whom I believe NXP002 can address both the side effect and efficacy limitations of existing IPF treatment options. We hope to announce results for both NXP002 and NX004 in the near-term”. So what of a 0.375p share price now?

You will remember that when the old auditor to Versarien (VRS), run by loathsome charlatan Neill Ricketts, walked, the new bean counter said that it would not have sufficient time to sign off on results to March 31 so Ricketts extended the year end to September 30. But the shares are today sliding (again), off 10% to 18p, as chickens prepare to come home to roost.

Tortilla Mexican Grill (MEX), the mid-market restaurant chain, has announced that just nine months after its IPO, it has dumped existing auditors, Blick Rothenburg. And after a competitive tender, it has appointed Haysmacintyre LLP as its new statutory auditor.  Odd timing: is this a red flag?

AIM-listed Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO) is certainly keeping its Brokers – SI Capital and Allenby – busy. Only in April the company raised £1.7 million, although the funds weren’t in the bank when the announcement went out. In March the company rattled the tin for £2 million – plus an additional loan of another £1.5 million. Now it has rattled the tin once again – to raise just £800,000 (before expenses) as the company strains to keep its head above water.

AIM-listed Catenae Innovation (CTEA) was suspended from trading on Friday morning as it was unable to publish its FY21 Accounts to September 30 by deadline day. I can’t say I didn’t warn you – the only surprise is that it has taken this long for a suspension.

I noted at the beginning of this month that AIM-listed Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO) needs to get a fundraise away pronto, but that its shares were threatening to drop below the nominal price of 25p, below which it cannot issue new shares by law. On Friday the shares closed at 24p (mid) and I would suggest that Advanced – or, rather, its shareholders – have a big problem.

It was announced yesterday that CEO Lyin’ Steve Sanderson of AIM-listed UK Oil and Gas (UKOG) has again been buying shares in the market. But if you think this might be a buying signal, you need your head examining.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. If it was not enough that the fine firm of EY (formerly known as Ernst & Young) resigned as Finablr’s auditor amid the shocking revelations over undeclared debts owed by fully-listed but suspended since March 2020 Finablr (FIN), we learnt last week that replacement auditor, PKF Littlejohn, threw in the towel last week. To lose one auditor might be seen as a tad careless, but to lose a second with no accounts published in between times is truly shocking.

On 23 September 2021 the AGM of Versarien (VRS) voted to reappoint PWC as its auditors. Today we discover PWC has resigned and been replaced with the rather less top drawer BDO LLP. And there is more. This stinks.

I see that shares in AIM-listed Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO) are down to just 26.5p – only a penny and a half above the nominal price. Normally that might not be an issue, but Advanced is a serial non-deliverer of promises and has had to place at regular intervals until now. So what chance a bucket-shop placing to keep the lights on whilst we await the ever-delayed first LIGHT system to even offer a sprinkling of hope for some revenue?

Last week saw yet another RNS Reach announcement from AIM-listed Graphene play Haydale (HAYD). Reach announcements are used for non-regulatory news, ie non-financially significant announcements and advertising, so a deluge of them is a Red Flag for me, indicating it is bucket-shop placing ahoy.

As predicted on this fine website, AIM-listed Purplebricks Group (PURP)’s interims to October 2021 are suitably disastrous. But since the company isn’t bust (yet) the market has reacted with relief and the shares are marginally up on the day, at 20.3p – though a long way shy of the 50-60p they were at only last autumn, and a country mile off the £5 at peak Neil Woodford-ramp back in 2017. The opening preamble tries to polish the turd, but a peek at the formal accounts shows that it lost £20.2 million in just six months. During a housing boom where anything standing sold within hours and average prices roofed it as mortgages were almost free to a good home. Yikes – just how bad might it have been in a slump?!

Well surprise, surprise! AIM-listed Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO) has announced that the first fully operational LIGHT system has been delayed from the end of this year to the end of Q1 next year. I noted HERE that the delay announced this morning was pretty well baked in. Given that we have moved from “could slip into Q1 2022” to “around the end of Q1 2022” in the space of less than two and a half months, it seems to me that further slippage is highly likely. Indeed, despite this morning’s announcement, one wonders whether any progress has been made at all since the announcement of diabolical interims at the end of September. So there will be at least another quarter sans revenue……what about the cash?

Cloudbreak Discovery (CDL) only joined the sub-Standard List in June, but the stock has been a one-way ticket south ever since. Having listed at 3p and peaking at 5.5p, the shares are now just 1.425p. Anyone who purloined IPO shares has now lost some 53% of their cash in around five months. Is that some kind of record?

AIM-listed jam-tomorrow IoT investment company Tern plc (TERN) has a history of not keeping its own investors abreast of what is going on going almost all the way back to when Tern was formed out of the wreckage that was Silvermere Energy back in 2013. An eight year history of deceiving investors?

I commented on Tuesday that Acquis-listed Rutherford Health (RUTH) seems to be having a bit of a problem collecting the placing proceeds originally announced at the end of August. The original payment day – September 13^th – came and went, with an after-hours announcement that the deadline had been extended to September 23^rd – yesterday. There was no announcement yesterday, but at 11.57am – ie lunchtime – today the company announced the grisly news:

The fraud Supply@ME Capital (SYME) has now postponed its results four times and still they are not out. The mugs who own this stock should be panicking. Firms delay results for two reasons:

The fraud Supply@ME Capital (SYME) first stated that it would announce the work of fiction that is its calendar 2020 results in April. But on April 23, that became May. On May 26, that became next week (i.e. this week). And today it is er…next week again. As they say, good news travels fast…

AIM-listed jam-tomorrow investment company Tern plc (TERN) has released its Annual Report for FY20, which contains a few surprises (not least of which Boardroom pay) but the shocker is the FY20 accounts which investee Wyld Networks – which Tern claimed a £2 million uplift on – has filed at Companies House. I’m no accountant, but I wonder what Tern’s Auditor, Smith & Williamson, was smoking.

I first warned that The High Street Group was a £60 million mini-bond scandal waiting to collapse 358 days ago. But the FCA has still failed to act. Now the company has lost its second auditor within 7 months. Surely the woke dullards at the FCA can take a few minutes off from issuing another paper on the transgender pay gap to take some action?

There may be no limit to the stupidity of the lunatic fans of AIM-listed jam-tomorrow IoT investment company Tern plc (TERN) but the market’s early reaction to this morning’s FY20 results – a drop of 18% – suggests that you can’t fool all of the market all of the time. In short, the numbers are a calamity.

AIM-listed Yu Group (YU.) released its Full Year numbers for 2020 this morning which show continued cashburn, a horrible lack of balance sheet support and negative net current assets. As I had suspected, the trumpeted cashpile announced in the FY Trading Update was a mirage, with payables up and receivables down. The shares may have been on a tear recently, but the company is heading for a brick wall.

It was announced this morning that AIM-listed Catenae Innovation (CTEA) is to delay releasing its accounts to 30 September 2020 with the blessing of AIM Regulation, which has given the company until the end of June on the grounds of the Covid pandemic. I will come to this later, but we were also treated to a trading update……which was indeed a treat, if you are a bear.

The long-running saga of AIM-listed Mediazest (MDZ) and its full results continued this morning, with first a promise to release full numbers for the year to September 2021 eventually replaced with a promise to offer up numbers to September 2020 next week. Apart from the comedic cock-up involving Mediazest’s crystal ball, how sure can we be that the promised numbers will indeed be served up in the coming week? Not very, I fancy!

Of course you do not have to listen to me or, in this case to an industry veteran. Why not just listen to Zak Mir, Alex McKinley and the other “experts” and fill your boots with this con when its shares resume trading. On that note, Looker published its delayed accounts today and its shares were unsuspended at 9.35 AM. I wonder why the FCA is not unsuspending Supply@ME Capital’s (SYME) shares yet? Anhow back to the expert auditor who notes:

The pressure must surely be mounting on Roland “Fatty” Cornish as he tucks into his fourth helping of spotted dick with extra lashings of custard this Sunday lunchtime. The shambles at AIM-listed Octagonal (OCT) where he presides as (London’s worst) Nomad is a shocker, as detailed by Tom Winnifrith HERE. But fellow AIM-listed Inspirit Energy (INSP) – same Nomad, same finance director, same head honcho in the form of John Gunn – is surely at risk of suspension this coming week, and it released diabolical FY results to June at 11.22 am on Christmas Eve.   

Facing SEC charges which will destroy its core business and should wipe out its balance sheet, John Gunn’s Octagonal (OCT) is toast. But were there warning signs? Is the Pope a frigging Catholic? This site warned you time and time again about this company and also Gunn’s other AIM hound Inspirit (INSP) which is surely also a zero now.

Like its AIM-listed little sibling Karelian Diamonds (KDR), fellow AIM-listed Conroy Gold and Natural Resources (CGNR) has had six months to release its FY numbers and waited until no-one-is-watching o’clock on deadline day to admit the grizzly truth. But luckily once again ShareProphets was indeed watching.

AIM-listed jam-tomorrow investment company Tern (TERN) has seen its shares come crashing back down again: there is still no news from Wyld (quelle surprise) and another stack of cash has headed off to the great computer in the sky over at Device Authority – not that Tern has announced that either. Having raised £1.5 million back in July, I wonder how much cash will be left over by Christmas.

AIM-listed graphene outfit Haydale Graphene Industries (HAYD) was “pleased to announce” its interims to June this morning – I’m not sure why, for a £14 million market capitalisation company to offer up a pre-tax loss of £4.4 million in just six months is surely nothing to be pleased about.

There is that old saying that when good management (although the jury is out on that) meets a bad company it is the reputation of the latter which survives. And that brings me to AIM-listed uber-dog St James’ House (SJH) – formerly Lib Dem grandee Lord Razzall disaster Boxhill Technology (BOX). We’ve had funding not arrive, vacuous trading statements and now this morning the company tells us it cannot get its accounts out on time. So why has AIM Regulation not suspended the shares forthwith?

AIM-listed jam-tomorrow, next year, never, investment company Tern plc (TERN) has announced a TR-1 and…….oh dear, oh dear!…

Tom Winnifrith hinted at a perceived problem in the last placing by technically insolvent POS AIM-listed URU Metals (URU) and I fear history is about to repeat. Back at the beginning of May the shares raced ahead to 200p and then a placing at 85p was announced. Now the shares have raced ahead again to 285p on minimal volume…..are shareholders about to be plundered again?…

Yesterday another adviser to AIM-listed jam tomorrow investment company Tern (TERN) has departed the building. We have already this year learnt that Tern’s Auditor slipped out of the back door under cover of night, and it is not so long ago that Allenby took on the role of Nomad, leaving one wondering if the former incumbents jumped or were pushed, shortly after Redleaf had vacated the PR role. Now Broker Whitman Howard has jumped ship. Should shareholders be concerned?

Someone who does not have a Shareprophets subscription (so cannot see what I write or hear what I say) has been in contact to abuse me. The name rang a bell. David Dunham, Daveycaferacer. His latest missive reads:

Oh dear, oh dear. Has AIM-listed jam-whenever investment company Tern (TERN) lost its biggest investor? Yesterday we learnt that Mr John Mahtani had reduced his holding in Tern from 5.02% to 4.65%. Mr Mahtani was the biggest shareholder and given the share price drop since the beginning of July from 10p down to yesterday’s closing mark of 6.55p it doesn’t exactly look like a total vote of confidence…

EY - better known as Ernst & Young - is auditor to a few outfits covered here on ShareProphets. It ha had a bit of a run - think Wirecard, NMC Health, Finablr and so on. Some people might view the audit profession as the enabler of fraud, but surely these guys are only human and in that vein I offer up some questions in an open letter with regard to Airbus (EPA: AIR) 'cos I'm just a nice guy. Naturally, there will be hghly satisfactory answers to the questions raised and there is nothing wrong at all, but let's ask them anyway.

I start with the economy and the idea of Michael Gove and Boris Johnson that somehow FDR shows us the way out of this mess they have created. Sure,conscript all the snowflakes, after they have finished their degrees in media and gender studies and send them to invade Albania. It sort of worked in 1939. Seriously, this is more madness. Then I look at the nature of fraud and our failure to tackle it ref Wirecast, Blur and auditor EY now being sued by 1,000 cockwomble investors who "thought they knew better."

Tom Winnifrith and I have covered the FY19 results of AIM-listed Tern plc (TERN) and subsequent discovery of an unannounced change of Auditor is some detail already here on ShareProphets. But amid all our questions, in true Sam Antar style, Tern has remained stum so our questions go unanswered. Top of the list is why former auditor Grant Thornton stepped down – or was pushed – and whether the valuations on Tern’s balance sheet has anything to do with it. Indeed, one might wonder whether a breach of AIM Rule 11 has occurred.

That monstrously overvalued jam-tomorrow AIM-listed investment company Tern plc (TERN) did not announce or explain why its Auditor disappeared is already a Red Flag. But looking through the Annual Report prepared under new Auditor Nexia Smith Williamson raises more questions – and a huge giant-sized Red Flag for this particular non-auditor.

What a complete and total POS. As I pointed out (yet again) yesterday, AIM-listed URU Metals (URU) was technically insolvent and for no apparent reason the shares had marched up to 200p, overvaluing this outfit by…..er….200p. Needless to say, the directors had a duty to raise money and at no-one-is-watching o’clock last night (4.56pm) we learnt that they had. But the company misleads over the massive 57.5% discount – and that is a best case scenario – and the company is STILL technically insolvent.

AIM-listed jam-tomorrow Internet of Things investment company Tern plc (TERN) finally got around to releasing its FY19 numbers this morning, at 8.15am. To me, the numbers were dire – and the market’s reaction was to mark the stock heavily down: they are off by 25% as I write.

After all that has gone on at (now former) FTSE100 play NMC Health (NMC), which is now in administration and where shareholders face a potential 100% loss, and Finablr (FIN) which is also suspended and shareholders face wipe-out as well, Dr Shetty – the man apparently at the centre of the shambles – has finally spoken out in a co-Chairman’s statement from Finablr issued at 10.50am this morning. If we are to believe Dr Shetty, he is not so much the perpetrator of fraud against both companies but the victim. Heck let's set all up a vrowd funding site for him.

AIM-listed Internet of Things jam-tomorrow play Tern (TERN) has seen  its shares miraculously rise from a low point of just under 4p last month to (last seen) today’s mark of 8.5p. So has Tern offered up a big contract from one of its investees? Er……no! I do know Tern still needs more cash, and that the BBs are full of a progress update from investee Wyld suggesting big things. But of course, there has been no RNS from Tern – something we have seen before ahead of placings which I would argue were on the back of wild speculation which remained uncorrected by Tern. Is it happening again?

It was announced this morning that Ernst & Young resigned as auditor to fully listed (but suspended) Finablr (FIN), citing concerns arising out of recent events atht e Company and NMC Health plc [NMC]…..the Board of the Company, the adequacy of corporate governance concerns and the recent issues that have caused the Company to commission an independent review of the Company’s financial arrangements, including of related party transactions and on- and off-balance sheet debt”. Quite a list! It’s a shame that Ernst & Young (EY) has shut the stable door so long after the horse has bolted!

AIM-listed Yu Group (YU.) has offered up a Covid-19 statement and delayed its results, mindful of the recent request from the Financial Conduct Authority. Except that the FCA’s request as per its RNS released ended with This statement does not apply to AIM companies. Do I smell a rat? You bet!

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. AIM-listed jam-tomorrow (if ever) Internet of Things investment company Tern (TERN) has announced a placing at just 6p to raise just £0.8 million as predicted HERE to keep the lights on as its auditor is surely raising going concerns. That is a whopping 22.6% discount to last Friday’s close and 35% down on my tip of the year to sell when the shares were 9.25p. But there is more....

With markets in turmoil over the corona virus, it is a terrible time to be rattling the tin for cash-guzzling AIM stocks. And that brings me to jam-tomorrow Iot investment company Tern (TERN): how much cash has it got left and when's the placing?

Why would a company which claims to have had a year….of highly encouraging progress sneak out its results at approaching quarter past five in the evening – no-one-is-watching o’clock? Let us turn to the auditor’s report for AIM-listed Conroy Gold and Natural Resources (CGNR) in its Annual Report for the year to May 2019 – in particular the Going Concern section. Here we are told:

Neil Woodford Uber-dog Xeros Technology (XSG), the great man’s revolutionary washing machine outfit, announced a rescue bailout placing at just 1p at almost lights-out yesterday – 3.46pm, just two minutes after announcing the appointment of FinnCrap as its Nomad and Sole Broker. Times must be really tough for FinnCrap, I guess any retainer will do when you have bills to pay. But forget's Finncap's abandonment of claims that it only acts for quality companies, the real story here is that the losses for Neil Woodford’s former investors at WEIF and WPCT are staggering – and now look set to hit 100% as the stock is trading below the placing price.

Having mentioned two major blunders already, it seems that new appointment Raymond Abbott to the board of WPCT (whose previous directorships are yet to be corrected by WPCT) has another major blunder on his hands – and it is back at Foresight 4 VCT where, having presided over a £30 million blunder as chairman of the audit committee (and he a trained accountant) he was promoted to Chairman. Let us now turn to the FY18 accounts of Foresight 4……

Neil Woodford’s revolutionary bedding company, AIM-listed Eve Sleep (EVE), has released its interim results and whilst the company boasts of the halving of EBITDA losses (bullshit losses), revenues are down and it reported losses of £6.7 million on revenues of £12.9 million. Of course, Neil Woodford knows best and has thrown ever more good money after bad into this one-way ticket to financial oblivion and now sees net current assets of £13 million as at 30 June, which the mathematicians of you will see is less than twice the H1 loss – and that was almost three months ago. Eve Sleep needs yet more cash…..and Neil hasn’t got any.

Once upon a time I had shares in Edge Performance VCT over several classes of share. It proved a disaster, and I sold out at a loss. I did cover some of the problems (see HERE) some time ago, but it seems that the shit show has continued ever since. On 29^th August the shareholders decided enough was enough at the AGM, booting out three of the board and the auditor. This leaves the company with just one director – I believe company law is that it must have two as a fully listed plc, but the shares have not been suspended, nor has there been any announcement of an interim appointment.

Only last Friday I predicted a fundraise by AIM-listed Neil Woodford backed cash-hungry dog Xeros (XSG), pointing out that Neil hadn’t any cash, in the wake of news that Xeros had sold its US washing machine business. Amazingly, the shares went up even though it was clear the company needed cash and was still haemorrhaging money faster than your average washing machine drains water. The passing of this crock as a going concern by the auditor as a Going Concern only at the end of April will have shareholders all in a spin (that’s enough washing machine gags – Ed). Well blow me down with a feather – its Ouzo time.

Neil Woodford cash-hungry dog Atom Bank has produced its Annual Report for the year to March 2019. As you can see HERE  it is a beautiful document full of nice pictures and lots of blurb to keep the sheep happy. But no amount of presentation can hide the truth: it burning cash and – incredibly – lending at a loss! That’s not a business, that’s a charity!

Previously writing on industrial chains and related power transmission products supplier Renold (RNO), I questioned last year another profit warning, house broker right to ‘remain positive’?. Now a “Postponement of Annual General Meeting” announcement. Sounds ominous…

This gets worse and worse for Chris Rynning, the former boss of ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Origo Partners (OPP). Having discussed how a billion Kroner disappeared to tax-havens under this self-styled China expert, today E24 looks at the company credit card. If you thought Nilesh Jagatia of Teathers (TEA), Insprit (INSP) and Octagonal (OCT) was, ahem, generous (to himself), this appears to take the biscuit.

The announcement from Ferrexpro (FXPO) today is brief but shocking.

And so AIM-listed jam-tomorrow investment company Tern plc (TERN) has handed over another $315,000 to principal investee Device Authority (DA) in the form of yet another convertible loan, and surprise, surprise the previous loans have yet again been extended by another 6 months. I suppose it was easier to do now that the confetti printing machine got another massively discounted placing away a few days ago at 8.5p, although the shares have since collapsed to just 7.25p – a bad sign indeed.

AIM-listed Cloudbuy (CBUY) released its FY18 results this week and they  were truly awful. The company remains dependent on future improvements in trading performance and/or its ability to raise additional finance, in order for it to continue operating for the foreseeable future, revenues are still falling, cashflow (apart from Mr Sella’s loan) is still solidly negative and profits came in at minus £2.2 million. It is grim reading indeed.

Previously writing on Goals Soccer Centres (GOAL) in January it was own goal as goes from “optimistic” to profit warning in 4 months – with I concluding, despite the shares then heading down towards 60p and the company arguing “it is anticipated that during 2019, considerable headroom will be generated”, that “anticipated” can be very different to reality – and particularly with also the “current economic and political uncertainty”. Sell / avoid. Now a “Trading update and change of reporting date”. Uh oh…

I sincerely hope that no ShareProphets readers were left holding this particular baby we warned you often anough.

And so having seen the announcement that Immunocore had signed a deal with deal with Genetech worth $100 million, having reported the good news for Neil Woodford who could breathe a sigh of relief that he could keep his  wallet (full of other people’s money) I commented Still, I’m sure the $100 million will come in useful – might we now see publication of Immunocore’s FY17 results at Companies House? After all, it should have got its results in for FY17 by the end of September. One has to wonder whether the cash will be needed to get a Going Concern all-clear from the auditor

Yesterday it was the turn of AIM-listed Conroy Gold and Natural Resources (CGNR) to show that it is one tiny little centipede step from insolvency. Today sister company, AIM-listed Karelian Diamonds (KDR) took advantage of a good day to bury bad news and followed suit – and my conclusion is the same. Indeed, for Conroy Gold there is another worry here which could bring its life to an early termination. My view is that both are stand-out sells and here is why...

In August it was announced that Cenkos was buying the Nomad operations of Smith and Williamson, with completion expected in November after due diligence had been done on Smith & Williamson’s Nomad clients. On Friday, at no-one-is-watching o’clock (natch – 6.09pm!!) AIM-listed Arricano Real Estate (ARO) announced that Smith & Williamson had served notice that it would resign on 23 November 2018. Talk about Red Flags at Night!

Shares in payment network company Earthport (EPO) had already more than halved in price over the last year and now a “Restatement of Fair Value Adjustments” announcement – and they currently down a further nearly 9%, to 7p, in response…

A marginally less bad day today for AIM-listed Patisserie Holdings (CAKE), owners of Patisserie Valerie in that there was good news in with the bad as announced just before 9am this morning. The good news is that a winding up petition against its main trading subsidiary, Stonebeach Ltd, has been thrown out. Good news: no trip to the insolvency shop, then. As for the bad news, it is a relatively small matter but perhaps tells us what may have been going on.

Just when you think you have seen almost everything the market could throw at you...news today that Patisserie Holdings (CAKE) shares are suspended after 'the board of directors of the Company...has been notified of significant, and potentially fraudulent, accounting irregularities and therefore a potential material mis-statement of the Company's accounts'. Well we know what majority shareholder and Chair of the company Luke Johnson will be coordinating for the next few days, if not weeks and months…

An intra-day (12:33pm) “Trading update” from Murgitroyd Group (MUR). Such intra-day ‘updates’ tend not to bode well…

Air Partner (AIR) has updated including that it “traded well over the first half of the financial year” and “remains confident in the group's prospects for the full year and beyond”. Sounds encouraging…

Tom Winnifrith pointed to some previous anomalies at AIM-listed Octagonal (OCT) where John Gunn (of AIM-listed dog Inspirit Energy) and Nilesh Jagatia (of Teathers infamy) reside. Today, I had an email drop into my inbox…..it is all very odd.

I warned on Thursday that if you are still holding, one might be tempted to compare the benefits of that versus a bag of crisps. Following a flow of dire news, on Friday ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Origo Partners (OPP) issued the most damning statements in its FY17 accounts, and the shares crashed by a horrifying 64%. It is truly horrifying. Step forward the investment adviser Origo Advisers (which more-or-less doubled as the company’s previous management), take a very special bow, please, Auditor BDO in Hong Kong. Take a turn, please, former Nomad Smith & Williamson. Normally at times like this I would be reaching for some of Tom Winnifrith’s Ouzo, but I can’t seem to let the sick-bucket go.

AIM-listed jam-tomorrow IoT investment company Tern plc (TERN) has an interesting date in its diary at the end of this month, for on 30 June its recent loans to investee company Device Authority must be converted into DA stock or repaid (at 300% of principal!) Given the scale of the cash-crisis across the portfolio at FY17 (see HERE) it seems unlikely to be repaid, so what happens if/when the loan is converted, and why is it a problem for Tern?

AIM-listed Rurelec (RUR) has released its audited FY17 numbers this morning. Once again we see losses (£5.8 million vs £9.3 million FY16) and the cash was down to just £163,000. We are told liquidity was a major issue for the Group in 2017 – you bet! We also see the auditor resigned – more on that below – and a previously unreported asset sale which leaves me rather puzzled. Finally, we are told there was no qualification of 2017 accounts which sounds great, but that was not quite all it seemed at first sight.

I see that AIM-listed Milestone Group (MSG) has had its shares marked down below their nominal price of 0.1p today: they are now 0.09 – 0.1p bid to offer. Given that the company has a desperate need for cash, that’s a problem – especially when it passed on the opportunity to put resolutions for a capital reorganisation to its forthcoming AGM.

A “Final results update” from Utilitywise (UTW). Such an announcement would not normally be a cause for alarm, but here Woodford Investment Management has a major shareholding - and it was previously Auditor requests estimation methodology review by a third-party, results delayed again!…

In a brochure boasting of its (dis) services to the capital markets, auditor PKF Littlejohn proudly lists some of the clients it has helped bring to London’s capital markets (some of which it also audits). The roll call of shame includes:

Well, well. How do you issue shares at a discount to par? Simple: pay a whopping fee to the subscriber. AIM-listed Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO) has announced another loan note conversion under its death-spiral funding package with Bracknor and a new fee seems to have appeared which might just derail discussions between the company and its auditor as they work on the going concern statement for the forthcoming FY16 results due out by the end of next month. Oh dear, oh dear.

AIM-listed Rurelec (RUR) updated the market last Thursday that its currently crocked power generation plant held in its JV Energia Del Sur in Argentina may get fixed rather sooner than first feared – even if the proposed repair sounds a bit of a Heath Robinson affair. Good news. The slightly more disconcerting news is that the Companies House website is showing an Auditor’s Resignation filing as being processed and available in five days.

ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Asian Citrus (ACHL) has offered yet another update on its delayed (due to allegations which looks like accusations of fraud) FY16 results. Having tried ever so hard to obtain relevant information and to facilitate additional audit procedures (ie visits to the banks in person) the company has announced that it has initiated legal proceedings to remove relevant senior management members of the relevant subsidiaries. With the shares having been suspended since 28 September execution after six months as long-termers on AIM’s Death Row is scheduled for 29 March. The company cheerfully tells us that the implementation of such changes may take time – ShareProphets RNS Translation Service: it’s delisting ahoy.

A profit warning out yesterday afternoon had Tom Winnifrith in yesterday’s Bearcast saying that his cat, Oakley, was seeing through the recent histoire of ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty Taihua play  (TAIH) and coming to awkward conclusions. Is Oakley a genius, I wonder?

Having inherited a train wreck from Peter Earl and his former colleagues in the AIM-listed Rurelec (RUR) boardroom, the current directors of the company have been living something of a hand-to-mouth existence surviving on scraps of short term finance while they try to rescue what has long appeared to be a basket case. But not satisfied with his fine work at the company (before departing in 2015), it seems Mr Earl has one last hurrah for his former shareholders. This morning the company announced receipt of Statutory Demands from AIM-executed IPSA (IPSA) and from Independent Power Corporation plc. Uh-oh.

Oh joy upon joy, the accounts of ex-AIM Cesspit posterboy Daniel Stewart Securities plc and its subsidiary Daniel Stewart & Co plc have been published. As plcs they should have filed accounts to Companies House for the year to 31 March 2015 by the end of September that year, so the date stamp of Companies House of 22 December 2016 means that they were filed almost a year and three months late. But what joys there are to be had!

I am yet to get an explanation from Peterhouse Corporate Finance, the advisor to ISDX and (pro tem) AIM listed fraud African Potash (AFPO) as to why accounts for the year to June 30 were signed off on 28 December but not released until 3 hours and 48 minutes after the stockmarket closed for a three day New Year break on 30 December. This is surely a breach of ISDX rules and it shows, again, that the fraudsters are prize rotters. Why is Peterhouse not resigning NOW? But it gets worse, the actual, annual report was promised by 31 December but has only this morning appeared on the company's ramptastic website. Why the delay? How about not wishing to admit to damning comments from auditors RSM Tenon which show that this company is toast? The auditor does not mince its words.

That the London market – and especially AIM – is fleecing investors on a regular basis is a given in these parts. Of course, most companies are run by honest individuals but the regulatory set-up is failing to bring those lacking in morals to book and investors need protection. It is not even the community of BBMs who need to be looked after either – consider the plight of those whose cash has ended up in institutional hands such as those of Tom Dobell of M&G and despatched to the great central bank in the sky via the fraud Quindell.

The Red Flags plastered all over the currently suspended pending accounts ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Asian Citrus Holdings (ACHL) can all be found HERE and the latest development is that it has now called its AGM – still with no accounts published – on 28 December, right in the middle of the Christmas and New Year break. I guess the board is saving precious shareholder cash in that it will be able to book a very small room.

Talk about a good day to bury bad news: every media commentator is trying to come to terms with the election of Donald Trump (with the notable exception of our own Tom Winnifrith, who is off to get his new Poll Sheriff’s badge) and so at 3.41pm yesterday AIM-listed Milestone Group (MSG) slipped out a “miscellaneous” RNS. It may have won two big contracts recently but in terms of this RNS, there was nothing miscellaneous about it: this company is in serious trouble.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. There’s trouble brewing at AIM-listed Blenheim Natural Resources (BNR) in the wake of a total disaster at the company’s AGM. In an RNS released yesterday at 3.19pm (HERE) the company announced that every single one of the resolutions put to the AGM were rejected. Thus, following the departure of Chris Cleverly of African Potash (AFPO) infamy, two further directors have been ousted as their retirement by rotation became permanent as shareholders voted down their re-election.

Already suspended ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Asian Citrus (ACHL) announced this morning that there has been a bit of a delay in getting its circular together in relation to a property acquisition first announced back in August which seemed riddled with related party issues. Since then the company’s shares have been suspended from trading on the Casino amid allegations of accounting irregularities which have led to a delay in releasing its FY16 accounts. 

Strike two. The September reporting season has just taken its second victim of the 17 remaining members of the ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty. Asian Citrus (ACHL) has announced that it can’t get its numbers out by tomorrow’s deadline for the HK Stock Exchange in the wake of allegations over conflicting bank statements and books which have triggered further audit work so as to get to the bottom of it. Thus the shares are to remain suspended over here (having had the plug pulled yesterday lunch time, “pending an announcement”). Oh dear Mr Marcus Stuttard, the Sham Sheriff of AIM, surely this could not be yet another China FRAUD on the Filthy Forty coming to light, could it? But I thought there was no problem of fraud on AIM….

Yesterday morning the Peter Earl trainwreck IPSA (IPSA) was booted off the AIM Casino having served its maximum time suspended pending financial clarification. In fact it had been suspended since September last year, once again making a mockery of AIM Rule 41. It has repeatedly warned shareholders that it could face a one-way trip to the corporate knackers’ yard and now, with no listing, one wonders whether administration now beckons – and whether this could be the beginning of the final chapter for fellow cash-strapped (and ex- of Peter Earl) Rurelec (RUR), itself recently restored to trading on AIM, for at the last count Rurelec owed IPSA £1.8 million.

My good friend, the king of the fraudsters Sam Antar, was on cracking form this week reminding us all of how he used to hoodwink auditors KPMG over many years when masterminding the Crazy Eddie's fraud. You can see the genius Sam explaining all HERE. I am keen that the fine firm of RSM UK Audit LLP, does not find itself made to look like KPMG style fools, and have thus penned it an open letter today on the subject of both impending bankruptcy and also fraud at its client African Potash (AFPO). I am such a nice guy trying to help out these simple City folk don't you think? The open letter follows:

Tern plc (TERN) investee company Cryptosoft Ltd as was (now Device Authority Ltd) has filed its accounts for the fifteen-and-a-bit months to Dec 2015 and the picture painted is not pretty. Nor is the cross-match (or lack of it) to the accounts of (then) majority owner Tern plc. Call me a pedant, but surely the investment by Tern into the share capital of Cryptosoft at period end should not exceed the total of share capital and share premium, should it? Oh, and then there were a few balance sheet issues.

So having pointed out that AIM-listed and under-the-Sheriff’s-spotlight African Potash (AFPO) was in slam dunk breach of AIM Rule 26 by naming the wrong brokerage as its joint broker (actually the one named closed down at the start of this year), and incorrectly naming its Auditor, the company has got around to getting things up to date. And so we can now see that it has one joint broker in the form of its Nomad, Cantor Fitzgerald. So what happened to the other joint broker, Cornhill? Has it resigned? I think (and AIM Rules dictate) that we should be told.

I read with alarm the deluge of shocking revelations regarding AIM-listed African Potash (AFPO) from the Sheriff of AIM, Tom Winnifrith. The most recent – and possibly most surreal – development was the lawyers’ letter from the twice-bitten-but-still-not-shy Memery Crystal on behalf of its client, Potash. Tom Winnifrith has already suggested that the letter makes a number of stunning admissions, but in my view the implications of the African Potash affair for Nomad Cantor Fitzgerald Europe need to be addressed urgently.

I’ve no idea what AIM-listed Yujin (YUJ) got up to in its previous life, but its shareholders (who may be wondering the same!) are clearly in for a treat as it moves to ISDX doing an RTO, share consolidation, change of name, a new board comes in and new advisers are appointed. We may have thought we had seen the Dream Team on ShareProphets, but this one goes straight to the top of the pile.

They are still dropping like flies. This morning the ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty saw its 23^rd victim as LED International Holdings (LED) had its one-way trip from AIM’s Death Row to the lethal injection room. There are now just 17 of the original forty remaining, of which one is currently suspended. This is an incredible indictment of AIM, and the recent history of LED is the sour cherry on the rancid icing on the mouldy cake.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Things are starting to terminal for AIM-listed Galasys (GLS). With the boardroom already at war with itself and dragging the dispute into English, Jersey and Singapore court-rooms and with qualified accounts released for FY15 now we learn that Computershare has terminated its services as company secretary and provider of the registered office. 

ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Taihua (TAIH) released its FY15 numbers on Thursday – deadline day to avoid suspension under AIM Rules. But they were released after-hours at 4.52pm: talk about last-minute. The numbers are a horror, but then so is the Auditor’s Qualified opinion, and the material uncertainty warning in the Going Concern Statement.

I just love Companies House. You can flick through so many companies in just a few moments and last night I came across a share allotment filing for ex-AIM Casino stock Teathers Financial (TEA) which turned up out of the blue only yesterday, and was filed on 25 June 2016 – just two days after Justin Drummond stepped down from the board. It seems that 3.05 million shares were issued on 29 Sept 2015. So why does this smell so badly of anchovy-stuffed rotting kippers?

On Friday at 5.36pm, no-one-is-watching o’clock, ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty member Origo Partners (OPP) updated on court proceedings in the Isle of Man with regard to the winding-up petition presented last month.  The trial date is set for Friday 22 and Monday 25 July, which means that shares in Origo will remain suspended pending financial clarification until then. Unless, of course, Nomad Smith & Williamson decides enough is enough and resigns.

Yesterday I had a few comments to offer with regard to AIM-listed ValiRx (VAL) and its £4 million (or is it £8.6 million, or is it £8.6 million plus proceeds from exercise of 5 million warrants at 9p?) CUL deal with Bracknor. My fear is that details of that deal offered up in the RNS of 21 March 2015 look (from Friday’s RNS) to have been incredibly lacking. But wandering over to the Companies House website leaves me wondering if the company can’t get simple Companies House filings right, what hope is there for the mechanics of a complex CUL deal to be fully understood and conveyed to shareholders?

Well you can’t say you weren’t warned: ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Origo Partners (OPP) was finally suspended pending clarification of its financial position this morning. It was blindingly obvious that this - or a Nomad resignation - was inevitable. I hope anyone unlucky enough to hold this POS managed to get out even if only with a bag of Tesco Value crisps. Perhaps I should head to Bristol and claim a glass (or two) of Ouzo to toast the Filthy Forty’s 23^rd suspension/delisting.

That soft spot for fully listed Telecom Plus (TEP) is hardening. Looking at Companies House filings and analysing accounts seems to present a less than convincing case that the company can afford to repay its loans and continue to meet its progressive dividend policy, especially in the light of the (as yet, still) unannounced new borrowing facility of £150 million. But today it is time to look into the company’s investment into Opus Energy. Oh goodie: another excuse to trawl through Companies House filings. Anorak at the ready….

And so, in the face of all the questions being asked about AIM-listed Inspirit Energy Holdings plc (INSP), rather than answer them we had news yesterday that the Chairman and CEO, Mr John Gunn, had dipped into the market and bought 5 million shares. But what of the elephant in the room?

Having posed a few questions over the change of auditor already, another one crosses my mind. It concerns dates. We have already seen that AIM-listed Inspirit Energy Holdings (INSP) mis-stated in its results RNS of New Year's Eve that both the 2014 and 2015 acounts had been audited by Welbeck. Yet we know that the 2014 accounts were audited by PKF Littlejohn LLP - and elsewhere in the results RNS we are told that PKF resigned during the year. Something is wrong somewhere! One could explain this away perfectly reasonably, of course, by postulating that it was just a cut-and-paste error with regard to the statement about Welbeck. But there are a few more details....

AIM-listed Inspirit Energy Holdings plc (INSP) has confirmed that its change of auditor was due to the resignation of PKF Littlejohn. There is a statement in FY15 accounts that the auditor was appointed during the year following the resignation of PKF Littlejohn LLP. But that means that PKF resigned during the year to way back in June 2015. When an auditor resigns there is supposed to be a filing to Companies House to that effect, with an accompanying letter from the retiring auditor giving the circumstances relating to the resignation, or a statement that there is nothing to be brought to the attention of the members or creditors of the company. Those are supposed to be filed to Companies House within fourteen days. Here we are more than six months later: where are they? 

I have already flagged up enough Red Flags with regard to the ex-Lenigas play, AIM-listed Inspirit Energy (INSP) - see HERE and HERE - to consider it a share to keep well clear of even Desperate Dan's bargepole. But a change of Auditor is also a Red Flag, and there appears to be no statutory filing showing on the Companies House website to explain why PKF Littlejohn LLP is no longer in post.

The ex-Lenigas stock that is AIM-listed Inspirit Energy (INSP) issued its full year results to 20 June 2015 on the day of its reporting deadline of New Year's Eve. Just the timing of the RNS during no-one-is-watching o'clock week is a Red Flag in itself. But quite how it has taken six months to collate its numbers when there are no sales is a mystery to me - that is another Red Flag, but there are plenty more. For a start, there is a change of auditor but a glaring error and a few other matters leave me reaching for the bargepole even before looking at the balance sheet.

Having examined Team Stevens and Team Lau, Graham Chester moves on to take a look at Team Wilson/Sacker at UHY Hacker Young in his continuing horror story. Once again, watch as the losses pile up.

The Globo (GBO) scandal brings up the issue once again of what an auditor is there to do. Yesterday’s admission that, essentially, Globo’s accounts could not be relied upon suggests that there has been a massive failure. Auditor there: Grant Thornton. But Globo is by no means the only case of investors being misled as to the true picture in a company’s accounts.

AIM-China Filthy Forty member Auhua (ACE) issued a statement re share price movement yesterday afternoon. Come off it chaps, this just isn’t good enough. The statement reads:

As previously flagged HERE there is some mystery regarding a warrant exercise announced by AIM-listed Tern plc (TERN) on 17 August (see HERE). I wondered where these warrants, which were exercised at 0.02p, had come from. Following quite a bit of enquiry, it is still unclear. What is also unclear is where the responsibility may lie. So this is not an attack on Tern plc, or its Directors, or its Nomad. It is more a case of how the current regulatory set-up has once again failed investors. In this case it is in a small way, but next time?

Earlier today Nigel Somerville and Tom Winnifrith demonstrated quite clearly (HERE) why Camkids (CAMK) has committed accounting fraud and why the statement of yesterday just does not add up. We have been saying that this company is a fraud for months and months and that is now clear to all. Now it is time for Nomad Allenby to show principle and quit on the spot and if it is so desperate for fees that it will not for AIM Regulation to force a suspension. We explain why in this open letter: 

We flagged up early yesterday that a change of auditor is always worth looking into especially when the firm is one link blinkx (BLNX) which has issued profits warnings, attacked its critics with lawyer’s letters and was spun out of Autonomy whose accounts have been questioned a tad. And thus hat tip to Tempress for pointing this out picking up a very perceptive post on ADVFN. Over to temptress

Over the past months we have seen an astonishing array of articles clearly demonstrating that company directors, Nomads, Brokers, Auditors – just about every profession involved in running AIM-listed companies – have  broken rules or been negligent in performing their duties. Tom’s ongoing exposee on Quindell (plc), Daniel Stewart (broker and Nomad), KPMG (auditor to QPP) are recent examples. Ben Turney’s revelations about New World Oil and Gas show the most extraordinary behaviour by its management and by its Nomad – and now Broker – Beaumont Cornish. I’ve been a right old bore about Digital Learning Markerplace plc from 2012 which has posed questions about its management, Broker, Nomad and Auditor. There are more. Many, many more.