[O/T] "The Rest Of The Story" -- As Paul Harvey Used To Say... On Ex-Riot Director Remo Mancini. "Sunshine, As Antiseptic" Dept.

Or, "In Which Ex-Lead Director Remo Mancini Channels... L. Frank Baum's "Wizard Of... GREED," As Updated -- For 2020."

Well, it is not like we didn't say this was afoot.

It turns out, that only a few days after amending the stock plan for executives (with only one-tenth of the outstanding shares voting in favor of that move -- and without calling out this new and material discretion, in any of the proxy materials), the plan administrator of the executives' stock plan exercised its discretion under the plan, to accelerate a grant. The largest grant ever made under that plan, in its history -- 100 per cent in full, of a grant made only nine months earlier.

It did so, as Mr. Mancini resigned as a director -- at exactly midnight on November 16, 2020 (I told you there would more "back-story" in the official SEC filings, didn't I? Yep -- I did!). At that moment, Riot shares were quoted at $7 per share, on the NASDAQ. His discretionary payout then (as if by magical wizardry, no less!), instantly totaled PRECISELY $3.3 million, on the nose. To walk away without a fight. To retire. To be severed, by the company.

So -- all in, I guess he made well north of $6.8 million for perhaps 40 half-day meetings a year, over a little more than two years.

He took it from a company that has never posted anything but eye-watering losses for its shareholders. [Ed. Note: The total at left below, in my now-dated graphic, from late 2019, calculated the $2.73 million by relying on a much older (i.e., lower) NASDAQ trading price. At over $5.50 a share today, his haul is well over $6.8 million -- when we add in the cash fees he paid himself, for each meeting. Insane.]

It made him, by a factor of ten times, the most highly paid person on Riot's compensation expenses line.

The CEO is making $330,000 a year -- still way too much, but that's one-tenth of what Mancini paid himself.

It strains credulity that Riot's stock popped on the night of the 16^th, to exactly $7, when it was $6 and change that afternoon, and returned to about $6 and change the subsequent day -- and is now trading with a $5 handle, on Thursday morning. The figure was painted (likely by sycophant market makers) so Mancini could get exactly $3.3 million in this accelerated vesting.

Sure -- this sort of abuse of small public company shareholders happens pretty regularly, but it just so happens we were watching, this time.

So -- I think a detailed, factual letter is on its way to the SEC enforcement staffers. . . this is abuse, plain and simple.

In any event, good to be rid of Mancini's avarice -- and mendacity. Let's hope this next guy. . . is. . . better.

Onward, grinning now -- on a sunny, and for the city of big shoulders, quite warm day here, by the lake.

नमस्ते