Genius Group stock jumped over 84% in premarket trade, extending its prior-day gains after the Singapore-based edtech company revealed that it had appointed ex-FBI official Timothy Murphy to lead a task force investigating alleged illegal trading in its stock that it first disclosed in early January.
Investors sent Genius Group stock up over 84.2% to $3.85 in in premarket trade on Friday in heavy volume which saw 7.2 million shares change hands.
This comes on the back of Genius Group shares rising a record 290% on Thursday.
The company said Timothy Murphy, a former deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), will lead a task force investigating naked short selling of its stock that has depressed the price. The task force will include Richard Berman, also a Genius Group Director and chair of the Company’s Audit Committee, and Roger Hamilton, the CEO of Genius Group.
“The company has been in communication with government regulatory authorities and is sharing information with these authorities to assist them,” the company said in a statement.
Following proof from Warshaw Burstein LLP and Christian Levine Law Group, with tracking from ShareIntel, that certain individuals and companies sold (but not delivered) a significant amount of the company’s ordinary shares, as part of a market manipulation scheme seeking to artificially depress the price of Genius stock, the firm’s board authorized strong action.
This included exploring legal action against anyone suspected of being involved in any type of market manipulation relating to the company’s ordinary shares and issuing a special dividend to all shareholders.
The company is also exploring the possibility of a dual listing of Genius Group’s shares, which management believes “could make market manipulation by illegal naked short selling more difficult.”
The Genius Group has a user base of 4.3 million users in 200 countries.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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