Agoracom Accused of Touting Stocks in Online Chat Rooms

- 4/5/2010 8:58:49 AM

The Ontario Securities Commission has filed a complaint against Acoracom, a popular Toronto-based investor relations firm, for allegedly using secret aliases to tout microcap stocks in its online chat rooms, The Globe and Mail reported. According to the OSC, the newspaper said, Agoracom representatives secretly posted more than 24,000 chat-room messages under hundreds of fake names when promoting companies that it was paid – through cash and stock options – to represent. In some cases, the newspaper said, Agoracom staffers allegedly adopted up to 200 different aliases when flooding the online forums with positive messages about the companies. As a result, the newspaper said, Agoracom allegedly created much of the online chatter that seemed to indicate legitimate investor interest in those microcap stocks. For its part, the newspaper said, Agoracom has blamed the regulatory complaint on a “misunderstanding” while promising to defend itself against the agency’s allegations.