A.  In 1993.  According to an SEC document, it was formerly Morganthal Weiss & Company.  Asensio began as a subsidiary of Morganthal in 1993 and proceeded from there.

Q.  How large a business is it?

A.  Very small.  Asensio had two employees when we went online in 2002, and as far as we know, still has only two.   They are Lorena Llivichuzca, his assistant of several years, and Tara Kelly, a recent college graduate who is newly registered with NASD. Charles Stewart, who worked with Asensio for about a decade, left for another brokerage in March 2005.  Asensio's cousin, Owen Hernandez, left in March 2006.

Update, December 2007.  Asensio apparently fired Tara Kelly early this year. 

Q.  How many companies does Asensio currently have and why does he keep changing the names? 

A.  Asensio originally conducted both his brokerage and publishing activities under the Asensio & Company name.  In 2002, he put the trading under the name Asensio Brokerage Services (ABS).  He admits this was an effort to free his publishing activities from NASD oversight. Despite claims to the contrary, he still owns Asensio & Company. Call it Company #1.

In 2003, ABS changed its name to Integral Securities. The change was part of a corrupt arrangement worked out with NASD District 10 in response to a complaint that Asensio had fraudulently obtained his broker-dealer license. Asensio now claims that he has nothing to do with Integral. Aside from owning it and working there, it's the truth.  Integral is Company #2.

In 2005, Asensio founded Capital Management and Administration (CMA), which operates from the same address as the other two. We assume he transacts his "private equity" work under this name.  CMA is Company #3.

This brings us to his dirty secret.  He claims that new owners took over the asensio.com website late in 2003. The site even requires users to agree to terms that say so.  This is baloney—if not outright fraud.  Company #4 produces asensio.com.  Asensio owns or has a strong hand in it.  

Update, December 2007.  Company #2, Integral Securities is now history.  Both Asensio and his brokerage have been expelled from the securities industry.

Q. Why do you say that Asensio owns Asensio & Company and asensio.com?  He's made clear that he's no longer with either one.

As this site hopefully makes clear, we consider Asensio one of Wall Street's more notable liars. He says all sorts of things that are not true—right down to his date of birth.  During his various run-ins with police, he's given three different birth dates.  Only a fool believes his claims without independent confirmation.     

The evidence is clear that he still owns Asensio & Company and owns and/or controls asensio.com.  For details, see Welcome to Asensio.CoN.

Q.  Asensio doesn't charge for his website.  So who funds it?

Good question.  By separating his publishing and trading into two firms several years ago, Asensio made clear that the publishing activities generate income. He doesn't have to disclose the source(s) because his businesses are private.

We have no direct knowledge of who funds the website.  But we'll make an educated guess that he funds it with the support he receives from his hedge fund clients.  Which would be fine were it not for his failure to disclose this.  His clients obviously write some of the reports.  He's obligated to disclose this, their financial support, and their positions in the stocks that he attacks on their behalf.   

Can you imagine Asensio's reaction if a company hired a PR firm but did not disclose it?  Yet when he does the same for hedge funds with a pre-existing interest in driving down prices, he feels free to make no disclosure.  This is not only called hypocrisy; we doubt the law allows it.     

Q.  Doesn't Asensio's track record speak for itself?

A. Only if you are naive enough to believe him.  He has a history of lying about his performance. That definitely speaks for itself.

Asensio says a portfolio manager who followed his advice would have realized an annual return of 46.6%.  He once claimed an annualized return of 71.125%!

Please! If anyone has such a record (which we doubt), you can be sure he is not sitting in a one-room office with two twenty-something assistants.  He is collecting a salary in the double-digit millions at a brokerage or hedge fund.  There he is surrounded by a cadre of MBAs and PhDs, themselves quite accomplished, who are surrounded by their own battery of up and comers.   

Every one of those professionals would see right through Asensio.  They would  know his claimed returns can't be real.  They'd also look at the fine print and be appalled that he does not present actual performance, but cooked books.   

For most stocks, he uses as his cover price the lowest price where the stock ever traded after his sell recommendation—even when he did not cover there! For example, his return assumes that he covered GNC at $14.25—the low reached before the $25/share buyout.  But in his book, he admits covering at $19.  What could be more dishonest than calculating your return based on a price where you did not sell?     

When not using the lowest possible number as his cover price, he uses one derived from "specifically generated criteria." (Naturally he does not disclose these criteria).  Reputable people don't use such contrivances. They use the actual cover price.  That he doesn't tells you all you need to know.  

He also claims that his record has been audited.  So why is the audit missing from his website?  

Q.  Does Asensio's website show all of his short picks?

A.  No it doesn't.  Telling the whole story has never been Asensio's strong suit.  He's been quoted in the press as favoring the shorting of Action Performance, Shared Medical Systems, and U.S. Office Products, to name a few of his missing picks.  But they are nowhere to be found on his website, nor are they factored into his claimed return. (Little wonder that he doesn't want to show Shared Medical; it was acquired by Siemens.)

Q.  Where did Asensio work before he went out on his own?

A.  In 2002, he told a jury that he's always been independent, except for a year at Bear Stearns in the mid-80s. He said the same in his book, alleging that the stuffy ole bluebloods of Wall Street wouldn't hire him.  But Equities  says:

between 1983 when he first became licensed as a broker and 1993 when he went out on his own, Asensio was licensed by 11 different brokerage firms including disgraced, mob-related First Hanover, shut down for fraudulent securities dealings.  So was another Asensio employer Viceroy International.  [Actually, according Florida's Secretary of State, Asensio owned Viceroy.]

NASD records list Gilford Securities, Capital Management, Ladenburg Thalman, Laidlaw Global, and Marquette De Bary as former employers.  He must have worked at Steinberg & Lyman also, since a former client of the firm sued him. 

So was the total number of former employers 11 as Equities reported?  Or just one as Asensio claims?  Actually, a  NASD Hearing Panel says it was fifteen (15). Asensio had "forgotten" 14 former employers while on the witness stand.  

Q.  Was Asensio was sued by his former lawyers?

A.  Yes.  The law firm of Dilworth Paxson filed suit against him in October 2002.  The suit was for non-payment of fees. It came on the heels of a lien filed two months earlier by New York state for $1140 in unpaid taxes. 

On May 5, 2003, the court in Pennsylvania ruled in favor of Dilworth.  It ordered Asensio to honor his agreement with Dilworth to arbitrate all disputes and dismissed his counter-claims against the firm.  See the Reading Room for key documents in the case, listed under The Second Pennsylvania Lawsuit.
 

Page Created 11/30/02 • Updated 12/09/02 • Updated 3/18/06 • Updated 7/07/06  • Updated 12/28/07