Janice Shell likes to sniff out fraud. An art historian by training, she once spent her days digging through Renaissance archives in Italy.
Now 74, retired and living in suburban Philadelphia, she pores over financial filings instead. She hunts for sketchy penny stocks, then flags them in tart commentaries on message boards such as Investorshub.com.
Ms Shell has been remarkably prescient. In several cases, the US Securities and Exchange Commission later imposed sanctions on companies she’d called out — and for the same reasons.
In 2011, on TheStreetSweeper.com, which aims to expose corporate fraud, Ms Shell questioned how Miller Energy Resources, an oil and natural gas driller in Tennessee, valued its properties.
“This hot ‘Alaska’ stock may be about to melt,” the headline read.
Four years later, the company paid more than $5 million to settle SEC allegations that it overstated the value of its Alaska oil and gas reserves.
Miller Energy, which neither admitted nor denied the claims, ultimately filed for bankruptcy.
The SEC runs a whistleblower programme that would seem perfect for Ms Shell.
If investigators bring a successful case based on information sent their way, the informant can keep 10 per cent to 30 per cent of any money recovered as a reward.
Over the years, Ms Shell figures she’s sent in a dozen tips. But she stopped about seven years ago, because she never heard back.
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