Taxi medallion lender bought glowing news stories to pump up its stock price, SEC alleges
CNN
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Medallion Financial and its chief operating officer with scheming to fraudulently inflate the stock price of the lender to taxicab medallion buyers, amid competition from ridesharing companies Uber and Lyft.
Shares of Medallion (MFIN) plunged 57% to $3.65 in premarket trading.
According to a complaint filed on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, Medallion and COO Andrew Murstein paid a California media strategist to place positive stories about Medallion on various websites and create fake identities to make the opinion pieces appear credible to investors.
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