The Governor’s bump

Posted on | August 11, 2009 | 8 Comments

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CADIZ Inc filed its quarterly report for April through June 2009 yesterday, a period still pregnant with unanswered questions over compromising endorsements from the Governor of California, Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno) and San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt.



Seen at start and finish of the quarter, trading looks innocuous enough. A share price that was at $8.17 at the close of trading on April 1st  ended at $9.63 on June 30th.

But the date that bucks the trend is June 5th, when in a sudden, nearly seven-fold increase in trading, the share price closed at $12.50, making it number four on the Wall Street Journal’s daily report of NasDaq’s Biggest Percentage Gainers.

Driving the sudden rush in trading was a Cadiz press release carrying an endorsement of its Mojave groundwater project by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The governor’s chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, is a former Cadiz consultant, who earned $120,000 from the company in 2005.

Also endorsing Cadiz in the corporate press release were San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, who the Los Angeles Times reported “got a total of $10,000 in campaign contributions from Cadiz in 2007” and  Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno), according to the same Times report a recipient of more than $12,000 in donations from Cadiz associates.

Pressed by the Times as to whether Kennedy had anything to do with the announcement, the governor’s staff responded “We’re not going to elaborate . . . on our internal process.”

Internal it was, so internal that the governor’s Cadiz endorsement didn’t make his own website’s news feed.  Instead, on June 4, the logical news day that Cadiz might have picked up the governor’s comments without inside advantage, the press release from Schwarzenegger’s official website was “Governor Launches New Component for Transparency Website.”

Governor Schwarzenegger promised a reform agenda when he was swept to office after Gray Davis’ controversial recall in 2003. According to Los Angeles Times reports, Davis was the recipient of $345,000 in Cadiz donations.

CADIZ TRADING TIMELINE FROM 2ND QUARTER 2009

May 13, 2009:  733,051 Cadiz shares traded. Cadiz Share Price opens $6.34, closes $6.00

May 14, 2009: Cadiz announces signing “Green Compact” with Natural Heritage Institute. Cadiz Share Price opens $6.04, closes $6.28

May 20, 2009: 262,300 Cadiz shares traded. Cadiz Share Price opens $6.42, closes $6.37

May 22, 2009: Cadiz CFO Timothy J Shaheen awarded 30,000 shares (Award of Stock Options). Cadiz Share Price opens $6.40, closes $6.65

May 22, 2009: Cadiz CEO Keith Brackpool awarded 60,000 shares (Award of Stock Options). Cadiz Share Price opens $6.40, closes $6.65

June 1, 2009: Cadiz CFO Timothy J Shaheen awarded 4,000 shares (Award of Stock Options), Cadiz Share Price opens $7.66, closes $8.29

June 4, 2009: Cadiz Inc announces it has completed arrangements to amend its senior debt facility with LC Capital Master Fund Ltd. Cadiz Share Price opens $8.60, closes $8.60

June 5 2009: Cadiz claims to have signed Letters of Intent with five water providers, four of which are unnamed. Project endorsed by Governor Schwarzenegger, Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno) and San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt in Cadiz, Inc press release. 332,082 Cadiz shares traded, a nearly seven-fold jump, making it No. 4 on the NasDaq Biggest Percentage Gainers.  Cadiz shares open $12.06, close $12.50

This post has been updated at 9.23am, August 11, 2009. The trading timeline has been added.

Links for more from Chance of Rain and the Los Angeles Times on Cadiz:

Cadiz Inc boondoggle is back

The rich are different

Question time for Cadiz

Dear Governor

Comments

8 Responses to “The Governor’s bump”

  1. David Zetland
    August 11th, 2009 @ 11:34 am

    Where’s the press release? Please link!

  2. David Zetland
    August 11th, 2009 @ 11:35 am

    Whoops! found it in your older post

    https://chanceofrain.com/groundwater/dear-governor/

  3. admin
    August 11th, 2009 @ 12:10 pm

    Link installed. Thanks for the catch!

  4. Cadiz speaks | Chance of Rain
    August 14th, 2009 @ 4:53 pm

    […] awarded only weeks earlier to two Cadiz directors, gained substantially in value. (See my own posting on this, Aguanomics and Los Angeles Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik). Yet no answers have […]

  5. Brackpool in the horse race | Chance of Rain
    September 24th, 2009 @ 6:44 pm

    […] more on the June run on Cadiz shares and the source of the governor’s endorsement, click here. Category: CadizTags: Arnold Schwarzenegger > chance of rain > Emily Green > Keith […]

  6. Squeezing water from a rock « L.A. Creek Freak
    September 25th, 2009 @ 11:54 am

    […] the Governor’s support.  His investors have kept him afloat for years but with this support his stock shot up.What’s more, LA Observed reports that he’s been vacationing with our mayor(who was his […]

  7. Friday clean up | Chance of Rain
    October 9th, 2009 @ 12:31 pm

    […] A friend with a wicked sense of humor informs me that another pet project favored by the Governor of California and Mayor of Los Angeles, the Cadiz groundwater mining scheme for the Mojave desert, is up 4.84 on […]

  8. The more Cadiz changes ... | Chance of Rain
    February 8th, 2010 @ 12:01 pm

    […] of you looking to get in on the ground floor of a sure thing, before you phone your broker, have a look at what happened last time Cadiz mounted a publicity drive claiming it had new water in a drought. […]

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