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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Courtside Products shares trading again

From staff reports

Shares of Courtside Products Inc. resumed trading Friday, three weeks after a federal securities crackdown halted the small Spokane Valley company’s stock activities.

Courtside’s initial public offering of stock has been a disaster, the company’s CEO has said. Courtside hired a stock promoter to handle its public offering and things quickly spun out of control.

Spam e-mails and a fax campaign hyping the stock and driving up the price — called a pump and dump scheme — ran afoul of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules, leading to a stop-trading order and investigation.

The company, run by CEO Lola Emter, was caught off guard by the episode. A lawyer for the company said in a news release Friday that the company’s reputation has been damaged and that it is working with the SEC to identify the people responsible.

A consultant who helped take Courtside public, Keith Robertson, has denied any involvement with the spam e-mail campaign. So has Michael Paloma, the Phoenix, Ariz., stock promoter who was given 7.5 percent of the shares to launch trading.

Both Robertson and Paloma are reportedly working with the company to resolve the issues.

About 21,000 shares of Courtside traded Friday afternoon. The stock price rose a penny to close at 2 cents.