Long ago, when I was a child, there was an excellent pizza restaurant in the nearby town. Food was great, but it was kind of run-down and not advertised at all; sometimes it would be inexplicably closed for a week, sometimes not.<p>One very hot summer, when we did not want to be cooking in the kitchen without AC, we had pizza for dinner one night. The next night it was even hotter, so we did the extraordinary thing (for my family) of having takeout two nights in a row.<p>Well, when dad got to the pizza place to order a pizza, he discovered that it had been converted into a coin-op laundromat, literally overnight.<p>Moral: mob front businesses are <i>weird</i>; enjoy the surprisingly cheap pizza while it lasts!
> One of the Macau companies, VCH Limited, in May 2020 entered into a consulting agreement with Hometown International, the filing said. “Pursuant to this agreement, VCH was engaged as a consultant to the Company, to, among other things, create and build a presence with high net worth and institutional investors,” Hometown said in its annual report.<p>This is not exactly just a deli in NJ. Although it looks like one.<p><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/15/hometown-international-nj-deli-owner-worth-millions-in-stock.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/15/hometown-international-nj-de...</a>
I had given this some thought in the last few months about how valuations across the board are so nonsensical that the investment landscape is ripe for essentially small businesses to go public, and not even have to game their finances because people will mis-screen them anyway and flock to purchase literally anything.
Serious question, could this be money laundering, bribery or something else shady? The fact that the owner made $2.5 Million on a stock sale for a seemingly worthless business seems like it could have some less than legal explanations.
I really think the market is due for a culling. All around me I see people invest in stocks, pennystocks and crypto. I've had to explain to people, who own a few thkusands in crypto, about what a wallet is and how it works. I see people who don't know the difference between debit and credit tell me why Tesla is such a great buy. People who don't know who Adam Smith is. Then there's a few hundred thousand people "investing" (gambling) through /r/wallstreetbets. In my country never have more houses been purchased by investors than ever before. In my personal circle I see people jump through the craziest hoops to get the maximum mortgage possible. Everyone is just leveraged to the tits and I feel like we're in crazy town now. Wonder what happens when the bond yields rise... Or maybe it's just me and I've spent a bit too much time on the internet.
More details:
<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/15/hometown-international-nj-deli-owner-worth-millions-in-stock.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/15/hometown-international-nj-de...</a>
Nothing surprises me anymore... Last year I did a bit of freelance writing on equity markets with a focus on some more interesting stocks. During the period I did read lots of SEC fillings, other articles on various website, etc. It looks like the bigger piece of crap it is, the bigger the valuation. There are tons of companies out there that shouldn't be trading more than a kebab kiosk,yet the stock price is like they are doing missions to mars. Absolute bonkers.
There is no Chinese involvement here!! Dont' t be fooled. It's all one person an American expat who is living/operating out of HK, Macau, Shenzen