The Lowdown on the VMRI Scam

July 18, 2016: One of the hottest and most preposterous OTC offerings these days are the shares of Valmie Resources, Inc. (VMRI), a long time share selling scheme that has taking down a lot of investors in the past and will do so again soon.

   » Related: VMRI Offers Lesson in the Perils of High Priced Pump and Dump Schemes

Furiously promoted during the first half of 2015, investors in VMRI quickly and collectively lost several millions of dollars courtesy of the pump as the share price dropped to 20 cents from its lofty highs of $3.40 achieved during the heyday of the promotion.

VMRI Chart for 2015

Well over a year later and after VMRI has produced nothing but press releases, shares are de rigueur again merely because of what remain to date a series of empty promises. Yes, perhaps receiving a 333 exemption from restrictions that prevent the flying of drones in national airspace is perhaps a nice achievement, but we still don't know how the company will capitalize on the FAA's permission slip. Certainly no steps have been taken to do so in the 5 months since receiving the exemption beyond talk. In fact, that's what the majority of VMRI's press releases are about--talk--"Valmie and AeroLift are in talks", "Valmie (VMRI) and Aerolift eXpress... Begin Talks with Prospective Buyers" and various other opportunities to meet and talk or guest appear and talk.  Talk. Talk Talk.  That's all VMRI has to offer at this point and its own financials SPEAK volumes. As of May 31, 2016, the company has a grand total of $104K in assets including $12K in cash. This is a significant discount to the asset value VMRI claimed a year ago of nearly $2.8 million, the result of shoddy accounting and why we represent that Goodwill is never worth considering when valuing a penny stock.  Robert Walker has written an excellent article regarding VMRI's dubious accounting practices as well as certain violations of securities laws and other questionable activities.

For all its talk, VMRI has yet to ring the register, having never earned a single penny. The company also spends very little money so we are left to wonder how much of an operation there really is. And yet, this company with practically nothing but a CEO with a gift for oratory has been deemed worthy of a market cap of over $130 million. That's $130 million worth of air. Sooner or later the law of gravity will take effect. We're guessing sooner.

On July 6, it became evident that VMRI was paying for the stock pumping itself when some outfit named "Small Cap Sentinel" issued a press release touting shares. We draw your attention to the disclaimer at the bottom of the press release.

$135,000 was paid for this pump piece "on behalf of Valmie Resources". This should cause prospective bag holders to ask the following questions; (1) Where is $135,000 coming from--VMRI doesn't have it--and what is VMRI giving up for it; and, (2) Why is VMRI pumping its own stock? The answer to the latter ponderable is clearly found within a pair of S-1 Registration Statements filed by the company, the most recent occurring a week prior to the Sentinel's press release.

2 million shares are going to be sold by Crystal Resource Corp., which received those shares in a private placement for $200,000.  Thanks to the generosity and gullibility of penny stock players, those shares are now worth more than $2.5 million. Not willing to miss the opportunity to cash in on the highs, VMRI's CEO, Gerald  Hammack will also line his pockets rather nicely through the sale of 212,765 of his own shares. Obviously, the $135,000 paid for the pump piece by the Sentinel was contributed by Crystal Resource Corp who somehow convinced Hammack to take responsibility for the promotion.  What is not clear is whether VMRI has to repay Crystal Resource the $135,000 with yet more stock.

The private placement bonanza was not Crystal Resource Corp.'s only dealing with VMRI. The company owns several notes issued by the company as detailed in this Form 10-Q filing.

But who or what is Crystal Resource Corp.? According to Wyoming Secretary of State it is a dissolved corporation run by Gerald Pitts. First registered on April 21, 2014, the corporation was deemed inactive for tax concerns, presumably the failure to file returns or pay obligations.

The June 30th S-1 Registration Statement represents 2016's second attempt from VMRI to enable insiders to dump stock.  On March 30th, an S-1 initially filed on September 2, 2015 was finally deemed effective. That registration enabled the sale of 14,839,270 shares--including 10 million shares by Tuverga Finance Ltd.--much of which can be assumed to have be dumped during the run up of the last couple of months. With much of that stock presumably left unsold and additional shares soon to be freed from restriction courtesy of the latest S-1 filing, the July 6th press release is surely meant to buoy VMRI's share price and trading volume.