22nd Century Group, Inc. (XXII) Accused of Manipulating Its Stock Price
According to the complaint against the company for alleged violations of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 between February 18, 2016 and July 31, 2019, Since 2016, 22nd Century Group, Inc. (XXII) has failed to disclose its role in manipulating the price of its stock. 22nd Century’s stock promotion scheme first became public in February 2018. Fuzzy Panda Research published a Seeking Alpha article claiming that 22nd Century’s stock price had been inflated through various paid stock promotion articles from 2014 through 2017 Then, in October 2018, Fuzzy Panda Research disclosed in another Seeking Alpha article that its FOIA requests from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission pertaining to investigations of 22nd Century Group from January 2016 to July 2016 were denied because releasing the documents could “reasonably be expected to interfere with on-going enforcement proceedings.” Seven months later, the executive assistant of 22nd Century’s CEO sent a letter to the Company’s board of directors that revealed the CEO had disclosed he was working “behind the scenes” to “get stock price up” so the Company would be listed on the “Russell Index,” allowing the Company to raise the cash it needed to survive. Since the beginning of the disclosures in February 2018, 22nd Century’s stock has plummeted more than 61% and currently trades at around $1.05.
