Earthport accused of stock market trickery

NEWS Internet group Earthport may have misled investors about its funding in an attempt to create a false market in its shares. According to the Sunday Telegraph, the company's lawyers, DLA, prepared a report last month warning management that it may have misled the market in January when it announced £1.5m worth of new funding, even though just £875,000 had actually been raised. According to the newspaper, the report reads: "The implication is that at 4 January those sums were available to the company. There is... a risk (not a certainty) that a false market may have been created in the company's shares." Earthport denies the allegations.