New cloud over Super Micro adds to its dark relationship with Wall Street

Report of Chinese spy chip adds to company’s accounting troubles

As investors debated the frightening potential raised Thursday by a Bloomberg News report of a supposed secret spy chip hidden on American servers by the Chinese government, the stock of one company was hit far harder than any others mentioned in the report.

That company, Super Micro Computer Inc. SMCI, -8.49% is a little-known Silicon Valley server developer, which rode the early days of the data-center boom but has fallen out of favor among investors in recent years under an accounting cloud. Its shares — currently traded over the counter — plunged 41% Thursday, as the company’s server components were cited as being compromised with a minuscule computer chip inserted during the manufacturing process in China that could let hackers gain access to any network containing the altered motherboards. read more »

Tesla shares fall after Musk mocks SEC on Twitter

Shares of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) fell as much as 5 percent on Friday, after Chief Executive Elon Musk stirred nerves about the settlement of his securities fraud lawsuit by mocking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Twitter. read more »

SEC Charges Real Estate Developer With Fraud in Project Tied to New Commuter Rail Station

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a Virginia real estate developer with skimming investor funds that were intended for use in purchasing an office building near the site of a planned commuter rail station on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Silver Line.  The complaint also alleges commingling and misappropriation of investments in various real estate and other projects.

As alleged in the SEC’s complaint, over at least a four-year period, Todd Elliott Hitt used two of his companies – Kiddar Capital LLC and Kiddar Group Holdings, Inc. – to raise more than $20 million from investors for the purpose of acquiring and operating the Silver Line office building, new home construction in Northern Virginia, and a fund managed by Hitt that invested in a startup business.  The SEC alleges that Hitt made misrepresentations about his own investments in the ventures and misappropriated several million dollars of investor funds to support his extravagant lifestyle and make Ponzi-like payments to prior investors. read more »