[jwh_Denver]

"At no point in any of the 80 posts did Armstrong disclose he was paid for the service"

There are tons of these people working the message boards who don't disclose anything. I don't believe there is a law against doing this.

[bpjam]

Actually, yes there are. If you have an interest in a company and are acting on its behalf, your statements are subject to SEC rules regardless public utterances and forward looking statements. Look at any 10Q and you see an entire paragraph at the bottom of boilerplate legalese trying to exonerate the issuers of mistakenly making a 'forward looking statement'. These message board stock pumpers routinely make false claims which are legally claims made BY the company who is regulated by the SEC.

And you can do time for it. Oh Yeah. A few more people in jail would shut up a whole bunch of other ones.