Dear MMAT Stock Fans, Get Ready for FINRA to Go to Court

Advertisement

  • A shareholder of MMTLP has filed a petition for pre-action disclosure against FINRA.
  • The shareholder requests blue sheet information related to the trading of MMAT and MMTLP in order to take action against “spoofing, naked short selling, market manipulation, and fraud.”
  • MMAT stock is down by more than 80% year to date.
MMAT stock - Dear MMAT Stock Fans, Get Ready for FINRA to Go to Court

Source: ilikeyellow / Shutterstock.com

Meta Materials (NASDAQ:MMAT) and MMTLP are in full focus after a shareholder filed a petition for pre-action disclosure against the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The petition notes that after FINRA halted shares of MMTLP on Dec. 9, more than 65,000 shareholders were harmed as a result.

On or about Dec. 16, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), asking for information related to the trading of MMTLP between Dec. 1 and Dec. 14 and to the halt of MMTLP. The SEC responded on March 30, disclosing that MMTLP had “hit [FINRA’s] fraud team’s radar.”

The agency also revealed that it had blue sheet information from “unknown and unidentified brokers securities transactions in MMAT and MMTLP,” and that such information exists. Blue sheet information includes trading and account holder information.

This has led the petitioner to request that FINRA turn over the blue sheet information.

Dear MMAT Stock Fans, Get Ready for FINRA to Go to Court

The petitioner seeks this information in order to take action, or file a lawsuit, against “spoofing, naked short selling, market manipulation, and fraud.” In addition, some shareholders who were stuck with shares of MMTLP believe that the stock was halted too early. They assert that an absence of the halt could have resulted in a short squeeze from selling short sellers, which could drive the price of MMTLP higher.

The court document notes that FINRA originally stated that shares of MMTLP would be tradable until Dec. 12 and then be cancelled the following day, and that the distribution of Next Bridge shares would occur on Dec. 14.

On Dec. 8, FINRA stated that shares of MMTLP would be “deleted” on Dec. 13 and also removed Dec. 14 as the distribution date. This announcement was not approved by Meta Materials. A U3 halt was then imposed on Dec. 9.

From Nov. 18 to Dec. 8, the price of MMTLP dropped to $2.89 from $8.90, marking a decline of almost 70%. The petitioner believes that the unidentified brokers and/or market makers were partially responsible for the drop. Meanwhile, FINRA is the only party that has the information to identify the unknown entities.

“The information Petitioner seeks is readily available to Respondent, and would impose essentially no burden on Respondent. Indeed, Respondent only needs to check its records for the Blue Sheets on MMAT and MMTLP, and turn the relevant information over to Petitioner’s legal counsel,” reads the court document.

On the date of publication, Eddie Pan did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines. 


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2023/05/dear-mmat-stock-fans-get-ready-for-finra-to-go-to-court/.

©2024 InvestorPlace Media, LLC