Yesterday, Berkshire Hathaway issued a press release:
WARNING – On-Line Article Regarding Warren Buffett, BREXIT and Anderson Cooper is a Fraud
OMAHA, Neb.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A; BRK.B) —
It has come to Berkshire’s attention that there is an article on-line concerning Warren Buffett and BREXIT with respect to a conversation that Mr. Buffett allegedly had with Anderson Cooper. The article is headlined as follows – “Warren Buffett Warns “BREXIT” Chaos is going to cost Millions of Americans Jobs.” For the record, Mr. Buffett has not spoken with Anderson Cooper for about five years and never about BREXIT.
The article among other fraudulent claims states that Mr. Buffett spoke with Mr. Cooper and indicated that Mr. Buffett was recommending something called “The Global Cash Code.” Allegedly, per the on-line article, Mr. Buffett indicated that Sandra Barnes, the party who allegedly created “The Global Cash Code,” has been teaching people how to successfully use “The Global Cash Code.” Prior to learning of this fraudulent article, Mr. Buffett has never spoken with or even heard of Sandra Barnes.
Contacts
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Marc D. Hamburg, 402-346-1400
There is no end of those that want to cash in on Warren Buffett. But those that know Buffett know that he doesn’t give investment advice aside from what he has written publicly himself. But to the uninformed, the pitch mentioned looks real enough.
I was curious, so I went looking for it, and I found a version of it here. It came up number one on my Google search. It looks like a fake CNN site, which fits the shtick of using Anderson Cooper interviewing Buffett. I decided to do a WHOIS search on the domain name “com-politics.us” to see if there was anything interesting. There was.
The domain was registered on June 28th, 2016. Here’s the data I found at the WHOIS site:
Name: Devin Karapoulos
Organization: Devin Karapoulos
Address: 1348 high bluff cir
City: Park City
State / Province: UT
Postal Code: 84060
Country: United States
Phone: 1-435-214-1857
Email: [email protected]
Now, that might not be the main site — the Global Cash Code site has hidden its owner, so you can’t tell, but who knows? That said, I can’t find another one. Maybe Mr. Karapoulos knows something about this misuse of Mr. Buffett’s name, likeness, and reputation.
Full disclosure: my clients and I own shares of BRK/B
