Virtus Oil and Gas Corp. f/k/a Curry Gold Corp. (OTCBB:VOIL)’s Promotional Campaign Refuses to End

After ending last week with a two-day ascent, Virtus Oil and Gas Corp. f/k/a Curry Gold Corp. (OTCBB:VOIL) started this one in the red. The stock dipped 2.03% on a volume of 338.7 thousand shares, and is currently at $1.45.

VOIL has undergone one of the most notorious pump campaigns this year. Since July 17, the stock has been pumped via email alerts, articles, a hard mailer, landing pages (here and here), and even phone calls. The last email alert was received on Oct 26, but that doesn’t mean that the campaign has ended. As we mentioned, the pump was not limited to just email alerts. For instance, someone is still using hard mailers to pump the stock. There are multiple posts on Twitter and on investor forums about people still getting them at their front doors.

Who stands to gain the most from the pumped stock? In order to answer that question we have to go back to the time when VOIL was traded under a different name – Curry Gold Corp. On Oct 14, 2010 the company filed a 10-Q for the quarter ended Aug 31, 2010, which disclosed that 1.3 million shares were issued “for proceeds of $13,000”. That means they were priced at $0.01 per share. After a 14-for-1 forward split in 2013, these shares turned into 18 million, and their price shrank to the mere $0.0007 each. Given the volumes registered since the pump started, these shares have probably been dumped by now. In any case, this is worth mentioning as the unnamed investors could possibly have something to do with the pump campaign.

The company hasn’t been particularly active on the PR front lately. The most recent press release was issued on Nov 7, and the latest filing was turned in on Oct 15. It was their quarterly report for the three months ended Aug 31. The 10-Q contained some rather grim information. There was working capital deficit, an increased net loss, and even though cash has increased, with $632 reported for the previous quarter, the bar wasn’t set particularly high. The financials were unsatisfactory to say the least, but they weren’t the only issue found in the report.

VOIL needs to provide $2.5 million for the completion and drilling of the first test well in Utah, but is still nowhere near to having that amount of cash. Maybe that is why the spud date was postponed from Feb 3, 2015, to Sept 1, 2015. Hopefully for investors, the company will manage to collect the required cash by then.

As the 10-Q showed, VOIL is definitely prone to share issuances. The company has printed quite a few shares for an entity called Fieldstone Industries, most of which were priced at $0.40, $0.74, $0.97, or $1.07 each. Due to these prices and the possibilities of substantial profits, Fieldstone gives an alternative answer to the aforementioned question “Who stands to gain the most from the pumped stock?”

Considering the poor quarterly results and the still ongoing pump, investors would do well to do their own due diligence before deciding whether or not to invest. Pumped stocks are always a risky investment, so don’t gamble with money you cannot afford to lose.