Foreclosure King’s Public Company Will Delist

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


The day after foreclosure attorney David J. Stern announced the closure of his once-powerful law firm, the publicly traded foreclosure processing company he helped create announced plans to delist from the NASDAQ stock market a little over a year after debuting.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission today, DJSP Enterprises said it will voluntarily drop out of NASDAQ exchange trading by the middle of March. Last winter, the company received notice from NASDAQ that it would be forced to delist unless the company boosted its stock price and maintained a market value of at least $15 million. DJSP’s current market capitalization is a measly $2.6 million, and its stock is hovering around 12 cents a share.

A spin-off of all the foreclosure processing operations of Stern’s law firm, DJSP’s stock opened on the NASDAQ last January at $9.25 a share, with a market capitalization of $300 million. The company’s stock then began to climb, peaking at $13.50 a share in late April 2010. But it all went south a month later, when the company disclosed that it had lost a major chunk of business from a top mortgage company. That admission directly contradicted Stern’s cheery talk about DJSP, investors said. Feeling duped, multiple investors later sued Stern for securities fraud for misrepresenting DJSP’s prospects.

The company’s slide only continued throughout 2010, as media reports—including my investigation into Stern’s firm, published in August—and a Florida attorney general investigation raised serious questions about the allegedly illegal practices of David Stern’s law firm, which was DJSP’s primary source of business.

DJSP’s stock could still be traded but in off-market venues, according to today’s SEC filing. Nevertheless, with the announcement that DJSP is leaving the NASDAQ—presumably before the NASDAQ forcibly delisted the company—the second pillar of Stern’s business empire has crumbled. The downfall of DJSP and the Law Offices of David J. Stern, which will shutter by month’s end, stands in stark contrast with what Stern told prospective investors just one year ago describing the ongoing foreclosure crisis: “So, yeah, we’re in the 2nd inning, but guess what? When we get to the 9th inning, it’s going to be a doubleheader and we got a second game coming.” Turns out, it’s just about game over for Stern.

WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate