TheStreetSweeper in the News
- The Wall Street Journal: Northern Oil & Gas Gets a Bear Raid
- The Motley Fool: Northern Oil and Gas Shares Plunged: What You Need to Know
- Barron's: Insider Selling Accelerates at Northern Oil & Gas
- Benzinga: Will Growth Spurt Last for Northern Oil & Gas?
- Benzinga: More Trouble for Northern Oil and Gas
Clean Up Crew
Behind the Scenes at The Street Sweeper
Melissa Davis, senior editor of The Street Sweeper and a member of The Street Sweeper/American Fraud Fighters expert advisory board, is an award-winning journalist who has displayed a keen eye for fraud during her long and decorated professional career. Davis spent the past seven years as one of the top investigative reporters at TheStreet.com, a premiere financial news site led by celebrity stock picker Jim Cramer. While there, she regularly uncovered “red flags” at publicly traded companies long before the stocks took a hit. She won the respect of both seasoned investors and fellow reporters along the way. The Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) ultimately recognized her accomplishments with a prestigious “Best in Business” award for online enterprise reporting. In the past, both the Society of Professional Journalists and the Associated Press have given her top honors for her business coverage as well. Davis can be reached by sending an email to editor@thestreetsweeper.org.
Hunter Adams, a member of the expert advisory board for The Street Sweeper/American Fraud Fighters, understands stock manipulation firsthand. Adams entered the securities industry 15 years ago with a focus on high-risk penny stocks. He quickly became an expert at establishing shell corporations, executing reverse mergers and selling both equity and convertible debt in speculative small-cap companies. His career ended in 2001, when government investigators accused him of manipulating worthless penny stocks. He pled guilty to two conspiracy charges -- for securities fraud and money laundering -- and served time in prison for his crimes. Years later, he pled guilty to racketeering charges, fully cooperated with the government and accepted full responsibility for his actions. Today, he has embraced a life of reform and now hopes to help protect the public by exposing others who tread in the same murky waters he once swam in. To contact him directly, please send an email to hunter@thestreetsweeper.org. Janice Shell, a well-known investigator of penny-stock fraud, joined The Street Sweeper in 2011 as the primary reporter assigned to cover risky companies in the microcap arena. Shell has previously written for StockWatch, where she arrived with a long record of exposing fraudulent companies and catching the attention of major news outlets – including The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Dow Jones Newswires, Money Magazine and Investor’s Business Daily – along the way. Shell spent more than 20 years working as an art historian in Milan, Italy, before applying her well-honed research skills to the financial markets. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. from the New York University Institute of Fine Arts.
James Welsh, a veteran journalist who joined TheStreetSweeper in 2010, is the key reporter charged with writing news summaries of fraud-related stories for the popular “Top 10” list featured in the “Street Patrol” section of this website. Welsh has enjoyed a long and decorated career – exposing everything from white-collar crime rings in Florida to public corruption in southern California – as an investigative reporter focused primarily on the business arena. He previously served as a bureau chief and financial columnist for the award-winning Times-Picayune of New Orleans and has written articles for several other publications, including Investor’s Business Daily, as well. Over the years, his work has garnered numerous awards from the likes of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association, the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, the Alliance for Good Government and the California Bar Association.
Rebecca L. McClay, an experienced business journalist who joined The Street Sweeper in 2011, helps summarize fraud-related stories for the daily “Top 10” list featured in the “Street Patrol” section of this website. Prior to joining TheStreetSweeper, McClay wrote articles for such noteworthy publications as Bloomberg, MarketWatch and The Wall Street Journal. She previously worked for the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism while attending graduate school. Before that, she served as a business reporter for the Gazette newspapers in the Washington, D.C., area. McClay earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland and her master’s degree in business journalism from Arizona State University.
Aaron Wise, a freelance reporter for The Street Sweeper, works as both a financial journalist and a professional stock researcher. He covers microcap and small-cap companies for The Street Sweeper, focusing heavily on stock promotions, corporate filings and signs of possible fraud. Wise also works for another financial news company, where he manages a team of investigative reporters, as well as a “channel-checking” firm that seeks out independent verification of the numbers reported by publicly traded companies. In the past, he has developed and tested proprietary news systems for a New York trading firm and remains focused on that specialty to this day. Wise graduated summa cum laude from the University of Akron in Ohio. He can be reached by sending an email to aaron@solear.org.
Warren M. Flagg, a member of the expert advisory board for The Street Sweeper/American Fraud Fighters, is a retired FBI special agent who worked in New York City’s criminal division during his 27-year law-enforcement career. He investigated white-collar crimes – including bankruptcy, fraud and copyright infringement – as well as counterfeiting, racketeering and public corruption in some of the most high-profile cases of the past two decades. His notable targets have included boxing promoter Don King (insurance fraud), professional wrestler Hulk Hogan and the WWF (steroid violations) and the Sam Goody retail chain (copyright infringement). Better known as “The Flaggman,” Flagg has spent the past 10 years working as a New York-licensed private investigator and currently runs his own private investigation/security firm, known as Flaggman, Inc. As an expert in his field, Flagg is a sought-after media commentator who regularly shares his views on criminal and terrorist activity with major newspapers and television networks. He also serves as a technical consultant for television and film, most recently providing expert guidance for the Showtime original series “Sleeper Cell” and the Woody Harrelson film “After the Sunset.”Robert J. Hantman, (www.hantmanlaw.com), media counsel for The Street Sweeper and American Fraud Fighters, has made a name for himself representing major clients involved in the entertainment industry. His New York-based law firm, Hantman & Associates, has successfully handled lawsuits or resolved cases involving (among others): the New York Yankees, Steven Seagal, Danny DeVito, Al Pacino, Anna Nicole Smith, Pro Elite, Fabio, Montel Williams, the New York City Business Integrity Commission, and The Los Angeles Times. His firm also won the largest private defamation verdict ever recorded in New Jersey history.
