Canaan Inc. (CAN) Accused of Misleading Shareholders
According to public record in November 2019 for alleged violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1933 pursuant to the Company's November 2019 initial public offering ("IPO"), Canaan finally completed a NASDAQ IPO at $9.00 per ADS for proceeds of approximately $90 million after failing to list itself on the Asian exchanges three times since 2016. Prior to its IPO, in October 2019, Canaan touted in an article that it expected $1 billion-plus RMB in sales in 2020, declaring that the Company had already received letters of intent demanding 500,000 units in total and expected the number to surpass one million in 2020. Months following the IPO, in early February 2020, Canaan shares surged more than 80% in a single trading day, pushing the Company's market cap above $1 billion. Despite its auspicious financials, on February 20, 2020, an investigation into Canaan published by Marcus Aurelius Value revealed undisclosed related party transactions that boosted Canaan sales, irregularities involving reported customers and distributors, and a fallible business model with faulty equipment that had allegedly caught on fire. As a result of these findings, the investigation concluded that regardless of the future of bitcoin, " business is simply far worse than promoted…and believe the stock is uninvestible."