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Comment by justinmk | Hacker News Reader

The private company I work for issues stock "promises" on fancy certificates. Each certificate claims to be worth X shares for an estimated value of Y.

Clearly they are not stock options, nor RSUs nor anything fancy or official like that. They are just fancy certificates with unverifiable claims. Is there any legal or financial value to these things? Is there a name for these types of pseudo-stocks? Where in the linked article is this discussed?

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LOL. I have a coffee mug that says "World's Best Dad" at home (it looks very fancy). Does that mean I am really the best?

Reminds me of Will Ferrell in Elf:

> You did it! Congratulations! World's best cup of coffee! Great job, everybody! It's great to meet you.

"You think you're better than me?" - Izzy Mandelbaum

"Is there a name for these types of pseudo-stocks?"

Fraud?

You need to talk to your own lawyer right away. That sounds extremely fishy to me.

Are they signed by both parties? It could be considered a contract, or at least proof of a verbal contract. It isn't talked about in the linked article because that is some weird made up thing that sounds kind of fishy.

The guide should cover more on this, yes.

Added an issue to track. Please comment there if you have more details. https://github.com/jlevy/og-equity-compensation/issues/31

As long as there's a contract behind it, it's just like any performance-based bonus.

I've heard it called shadow-equity or phantom-equity. Note that if it ever paid out, you would pay income tax (not capital gains).

My genuine stock certificates look like someone printed them out in MS Publisher, so don't assume the production values invalidate them. But as others have said, talk to your lawyer.

Not an expert, but have you asked your boss?

Monopoly money stocks

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