SUBJ:  PETITION FOR CONGRESSIONAL ACTION REGARDING MMTLP

To: United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs 

PREFACE:  While the below petition mainly focuses on issues relating to the stock ticker MMTLP, the circumstances and underlying root causes of these issues are widespread within our financial markets.  The SEC and “self-regulators” such as FINRA are simply NOT regulating our markets in a manner that promotes a fair and level “playing field” for all investors.  Abusive short-selling, collusion, market maker loopholes, “dark pool” trading, order spoofing, trade “washing”, and massive failure-to-deliver settlements go unchecked on a daily basis.  Stock share counterfeiting (a.k.a. “Naked Short-Selling) alone accounts for billions in theft annually.  These issues have significantly eroded confidence and trust in our country’s equities markets, and ultimately poise an even greater threat to our nation security.  The MMTLP issue provides an excellent opportunity for Congress to review events that likely will result in identifying and correcting lapses in regulatory policies, oversight, and enforcement.

BACKGROUND:  Over 65,000 people continue to have their financial investments frozen as a result of a surprise trading halt by FINRA for stock ticker MMTLP.  This halt is only one of a series of very questionable regulatory events concerning the merger of companies Torchlight Energy and Metamaterials Inc. (stock tickers TRCH, MMATF, MMAT, and MMTLP), and the subsequent spin-off of the MMTLP “placeholder shares” into the private company Next Bridge Hydrocarbons (NBH).  This saga is complex, and was years in the making, but the focal point is the highly questionable trading halt of MMTLP, which provides a unique opportunity to examine the events for regulatory violations and loopholes.  FINRA and the SEC have only provided vague and questionable information regarding this situation, and although several members of Congress have made inquiries, neither organization has been willing to be transparent about specific or detailed trading information.  Trading positions remain open, shareholders are stuck, and the private “spin-off” company, Next Bridge Hydrocarbons (NBH), cannot fully move forward with business.

SPECIFIC REQUESTS:  Senators, evidence exists that leads many to believe that the MMTLP halt was unwarranted, and was influenced by interests that prioritize large financial institutions and hedge funds over the interests of individual investors.  Over the last 11 months, numerous attempts by the affected investors and companies have been made to find a resolution, but FINRA and the SEC have repeatedly declined to participate.  We now call on you to push for the following Congressional actions:

  1.  Subpoena the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), and/or the Options Clearing Corporation for:

      a.  All trading records (e.g. Electronic Blue Sheet data, Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) data, etc.) of stock tickers TRCH, MMATF, MMAT, and MMTLP.  This data should include all Long, Short, IOU, and Options transactions for each ticker

      b.  All documentation which authorized tickers MMATF and MMTLP to publicly trade on the OTC market. If no documentation exists, require FINRA to cite specific processes and rules used to allow these tickers to trade without company authorization or desire

      c.  All regulatory filings (SEC Edgar, etc.) pertaining to the merger of Torchlight Energy and Metamaterials

      d.  All regulatory filings (SEC Edgar, etc.) pertaining to the spin-off of the Metamaterials Series A Preferred Shares (MMTLP) into the private company Nextbridge Hydrocarbons

  2.  Commission a 3rd party audit of all trading data, ticker authorizations, regulatory filings, etc., culminating in a report that:

      a.  Provides a full accounting of all trade transactions for stock tickers TRCH, MMATF, MMAT, and MMTLP

      b.  Provides a summary of all currently open MMTLP/NBH trading positions

      c.  Provides a timeline of events, and explanations of each event

  3.  As applicable, hold congressional hearings / meetings with stakeholders  in order to:

      a.  Identify root causes

      b.  Generate corrective actions

      c.  Identify an acceptable stakeholder resolution

CONCLUSION:  As of the creation of this petition, over 50,000 letters and complaints concerning MMTLP have previously been submitted to Congress, the SEC, FINRA, the DOJ, the IRS, the FBI and others, yet no investigation has been announced, nor has any resolution been reached.  The lack of regulatory transparency in this matter is baffling, and raises very serious questions about the effectiveness of our market’s regulatory oversight.  Quite simply, there has been a huge injustice in this situation, and we are calling on our elected representatives in Congress to take action as detailed above.

Further details regarding this issue can be found at:
www.mmtlpresources.com
www.fairmarketsnow.org/mmtlp
www.let-it-trade.com