This is so quintessentially… Riot.
The boys put out a press release announcing the retirement of 20 year vet, and CFO, McGonegal, after NASDAQ close tonight. [Any chance it is a pure coincidence, that this week saw the renewal of the 2018 era federal securities class action in New Jersey, naming him personally?] McGonegal has seen at least seven Chairmen/CEOs come and go, going back to its days in the life sciences industry (Aspen and Bioptix, mainly) — but even if we only count since the pivot…
There have been at least four CEOs (he was one of them, temporarily), and three CFOs (again he was… twice, one of them) — and he… is the only constant — the only face unchanged, through it all.
The entire board has turned over; yet he remains. It seems hard to imagine that he did not know what Honig and O’Rourke were up to, in late 2017. But seriously — I. Don’t. Care. About. The. Five-Year. Old. Con. Anymore.
I do care about the one year old one, from June of 2021. He should have at least raised his hand — when he saw Jason Les take the O’Rourke path (selling on inside information) last summer. But he was silent.
And now a youngster will become CFO in August. All while the company still pays McGonegal his full compensation for another year, to mid-2023. Yes, he knows where the bodies are buried.
It is very very odd, as well, that Bloomberg/Yahoo! has confirmed a former Nomura banker out of Hong Kong is now the head of corporate development at Riot, as of today.
But he is nowhere mentioned in the presser shuffling others as McGonegal is retiring.
His name is Jason Chung, and he’s an M&A deal specialist — and he gets bridge financings together for them.
All of which confirms… there’s a cash crunch at Riot.
We will likely see it, in tomorrow’s May 2022 deeply-reduced / lowered Bitcoin mining production totals.
But seriously, guys — did you think we wouldn’t see a Nomura banker joining to solve the cash crunch?!
What a two-bit operation this is. Damn.
RIOT Platforms (nee BlockChain) Reviewed -- For Sanity's Sake 