So who do you get your stock tips from, these days? How about 23-year-old actor Shia Labeouf? Yes, in studying for his role in the upcoming film “Wall Street 2,” Labeouf spent time at John Thomas Financial. At John Thomas, InterOil (IOC) is their “favorite energy stock.”

So guess which stock LaBeouf is praising?

“IOC’s momentum is major, and it will surprise to the upside,” texted LaBeouf to a GQ writer.

That InterOil is beset with controversy, lawsuits, and a distinct inability to find proven reserves of oil or natural gas doesn’t seem to dissuade the young actor.

Of course, maybe he could have researched a little better. From Sam Antar’s White Collar Fraud:

When a company like InterOil starts on a corrupt foundation, everything that follows continues to be corrupt. In many ways, Phil Mulacek’s transgressions against investors remind me of me, back in my criminal days at Crazy Eddie. We both exploited the hopes of our investors with “spin and lies.” During its entire existence, InterOil has issued an endless string of press releases hyping its future prospects and selling hope to gullible investors. Yet, after almost a decade, InterOil has no proven commercially exploitable reserves to show for it.

Read Antar’s lengthy look at InterOil here for more, and see for yourself if John Thomas has found a willing patsy to pump InterOil stock.

As for LaBeouf, he may do best to study the words of Joshua Brown at Benzinga.com:

Kid, can you just talk about your movie and stop digging your credibility hole any deeper? You seem like a nice guy and no one is rooting against you. When you read this stuff you’re saying five years from now, you’re going to cringe in embarrassment like the rest of us are doing as we speak.

–WKW