Has the Pump on Virtus Oil and Gas Corp. f/k/a Curry Gold Corp. (OTCBB:VOIL) Finally Ended?
After starting the week with an almost 6% drop, Virtus Oil and Gas Corp. f/k/a Curry Gold Corp. (OTCBB:VOIL) has been making tiny steps forward and has recovered. At the time of yesterday’s closing bell, VOIL was up 1.88% on a volume of 458.6 thousand, and closed at $1.63.
It’s been almost a month since VOIL last issued a press release. The company also hasn’t filed anything new since its latest quarterly, on Oct 15. Until the company releases updates, let’s recap the information we already have.
So far, we know for certain that VOIL has been one of the most heavily pumped stocks this year. It’s promotion started shortly after the stock began active trading, which was after June 23. Barely a month later, on July 17 promoters began pumping the stock through email alerts. As the promotion progressed, so did the methods of pumping it. The campaign went on to include articles, phone calls, hard mailers and two landing pages (here and here).
Today, other than the lack of recent news on the company, there has also been a lack of promotional emails, as the latest one was received on Oct 26. Could it be that the promotion has finally ended, or is this just the calm before the storm? Time will tell.
In any case, the pump certainly fulfilled its purpose. We’ll elaborate.
Let’s go back to 2009 when VOIL was still known as Curry Gold Corp. In a quarterly report for the three months ended August 31, 2010, the company disclosed that 1.3 million “founder’s shares” were issued at the price of $0.01 per share “in exchange for proceeds of $13,000“. After that, in 2013 the company executed a 14-for-1 forward split, which turned these 1.3 million shares into 18 million shares, and shrunk their price to just $0.0007 a piece. The company then changed its name, started registering trades, and then came the pump. Judging by the volumes registered in the months following July 17, these unnamed investors may have cashed in a long time ago.
Let’s turn to more recent events. On Oct 15, VOIL filed its latest 10-Q for the period ended Aug 31. The company reported poor financial numbers and more issuances at bargain prices. VOIL has printed a great deal of shares to Fieldstone Industries at substantial discounts. There were shares priced at $0.40, $0.74, $0.97 and $1.07.
The whole report was somewhat discouraging, as VOIL also showed it’s still nowhere near to where it needs to be financially, given its pending payment of $2.5 million for the completion and drilling of the first test well in the recently acquired land in Utah. The money will have to be transferred thirty days prior to the spud date, which was originally planned to be at the beginning of the year, “February 03, 2015”, but the 10-Q states that it was pushed to “September 1, 2015”.
Given VOIL‘s poor financial situation, the toxic funding, and the spectacular pump, potential investors should carefully weigh in the risks before committing to the stock.
