There Was a RadioShack Ponzi
Also Tether’s valuation, crypto treasury company buybacks, strip-club bribery securities fraud and corporate rap.
Does this sound familiar?
Franklin Mint! RadioShack! Bed Bath & Beyond! GameStop! No wait. Not those. Just the first two. Not Bed Bath, not GameStop. Bed Bath & Beyond sure was distressed; it filed for a horrific bankruptcy in 2023. But before that it raised tons of money from retail investors in absolutely doomed at-the-market offerings. As its bankruptcy lawyers later put it, it raised that money as “part of the ‘meme-stock’ movement started and fueled on Reddit boards and social media websites,” because it “checked the two boxes needed to become a meme-stock: (i) a troubled financial situation and (ii) nostalgia value.” And because it checked those boxes, Bed Bath was able to go out to ordinary investors and get them to shovel money into a furnace.