Traders scratch their heads as financial stock soars 2,800%

I wonder how prevalent it is to launder money through stock listings by inflating prices, and if there are traders out there who attempt try to track such schemes and get in and out before the launderers switch stocks.

"money launderers" tend to avoid commodities that keep their name on the paper trail, as do equities brokerage accounts. They usually uses shills+fences, but the SEC has the ability to prosecute these crimes using financial forensics.

But in a case like this the launderers could just be rich princes trying to move money out of the country without domestic blowback, but otherwise not breaking any laws, foreign or domestic. If you're Putin or some Venezuelan general, all you really need is a mechanism that flouts currency controls primarily intended to restrain the commoners, plausible deniability, and a sufficiently clean paper trail to satisfy international regulators. Schemes like 1MDB seem to usually go under the radar and are rarely prosecuted, even in the U.S., which is somewhat unique in its long-arm statutes. Anyhow, you may be okay with avoiding dollar-denominated transactions altogether.

Also, I may go ahead and just say it, but I wonder how much Middle Eastern and Chinese money has found its way into the Silicon Valley VC ecosystem, and specifically the degree to which those sources are tolerant of low or even negative returns. Sometimes I daydream about a Middle Easter shell company offering a few million in seed money, perhaps on the condition I provide a nice salary to a princely board member's third-cousin recently graduated from Stanford. Though in truth I'm not sure why they'd even care to involve someone like me, anyhow :(

Something fishy is going on here...

seems legit