New Generation Consumer Group Inc (NGCG)

[Old Tymer]

No more Excuse(s)…
If there ever was any in the first place…

About 2 months ago I began researching Excuse Vodka. It was taking way too long to bring to the marketplace. I remember Calvin telling a shareholder that they were waiting for approval from the ‘ATF.’

There have been posts going back to 6-26-2015 speaking about the ATF and Excuse Vodka:

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=114938956&txt2find=ATF

Here is a portion of this post:
“Anyone ever think that they are ready for the liquor but need special clearances in order to sell it. Doesn't the ATF Bureau have to "bless"/release it to be able for them to sell ?? Or at least the state liquor authority or both ?”
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Both statements are 100% correct. A regular shareholder was aware of this. Calvin Ross, the self-proclaimed drink guru, didn’t have a clue (more on that later). All along, whenever a shareholder asked him the status of Excuse Vodka’s licensing, he would tell this person that they were still waiting for approval from the ‘ATF.’ Calvin couldn’t be further from the truth. The ‘ATF’ quit issuing liquor licenses back in 2003; 12 years ago! A new agency formed by Homeland Security took over that part of the job. I wasn’t the only one who knew this. Here is a post from 8-12-2015 by Pitts77h that proves this. I get the feeling this post went over almost everyone’s head:

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=116164808

Here is a portion of that post:

“According to the US Treasury's "Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau" - who actually DOES license these sorts of things - the average processing time for "distilled spirits" is only 27 days.”

http://www.ttb.gov/labeling/processing-times.shtml

For reference, NGCG announced that "New Generation Consumer Group's premium Vodka based liqueur is currently pending approval for importation" on APRIL 27TH!!

That was 107 days ago.”
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(Update: The shareholder update does indeed say April 27th, but Calvin said he actually submitted the application in March, which means it has now been about 150 days, and counting.)

If you want to search TTB’s sight, here’s the page to start on if you want to find out if NGCG has been approved for their license. I have been searching for 2 months, looking for the approval:

http://www.ttb.gov/foia/frl.shtml

I researched everything that I could; I called the TTB and the California ABC; I sent emails and got multiple confirmations.

After spending the past couple of months researching the Excuse Vodka ‘story,’ one of the last pieces of the puzzle for me was calling and talking to Calvin Ross, so I did.

When I called and spoke to Calvin Ross on 8-19-2015, I started off by asking him why the long wait for Excuse Vodka? I said, the last I heard, you told a shareholder that you were waiting for approval from the ‘ATF’. I then asked if he was still waiting for approval from the ‘ATF’. He said yes. I asked when he sent in the application to the ‘ATF.’ I said it was around February or March, right? He said yeah, around March. I asked why it was taking so long. He told me ‘they’ wanted some corrections done on the product, other than that, he didn’t know.

I asked him what the ‘ATF’ had told him the other times when he called. He said they just told him they were busy but working on it. He complained that this was the government and there was nothing he could do. He said he couldn’t force them to approve Excuse. He complained that there was nothing wrong with the drink. There was no hemp in it, or any other substance that would make it dangerous or illegal. It was just different flavors of fruit juice.

I then asked him why he sent his application to the ‘ATF.’ I told him that was the wrong place to send it. There was a couple of seconds pause, then he said, “Oh, the TTB.” Now, I personally got the feeling that he was stalling, trying to remember the initials of that ‘other’ agency. Up until just then, he had never mentioned the TTB. Always the ‘ATF’. I said ‘ATF’ plenty of times to give him a chance to correct me. In my opinion, either Calvin saw that post made above by Pitts77h, or someone else saw it and let Calvin know.

At this point he was starting to get a little annoyed with me because of the type of questions I was asking him. He knew where this was leading. At one point, he angrily said: “Oh go ahead, write this up if you want!”

Anyway, when I asked him why they hadn’t even sent in an application to the California Department of Alcohol Beverage Control (known as an ABC liquor license), reminding him that it takes a while to process, and if he was waiting for approval for their federal liquor license, why on earth would they not have already filed for their state license, he gave me what seemed like a bizarre answer. He said: ‘Look, we can’t do anything until we get approved!’

At that point, I wasn’t sure if he was back to the supposed TTB application, or if he was answering my question about the state license. If it was about the state license, that would be an absurd answer; you can't be waiting for approval if you haven’t even filed the application with the state yet.

I asked him a couple more times why they hadn't filed with the state. He was angrily mumbling something but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. When I told him again that the ABC says he has not sent in an application yet, he then barked at me that his lawyer has it and is taking care of everything, and that he didn’t know what the status was. I said, what’s he taking care of? The ABC has confirmed multiple times that NGCG hasn't filed the application for the State liquor license! This should have been done months ago. He was really getting agitated at this point because I kept pushing him for a reasonable answer. He would not give me a simple answer to a simple question. He finally told me to quit wasting his F-Bombing time and promptly hung up.

Here is the link to the California ABC site:
http://www.abc.ca.gov/trade/tradeenforcement.html

You can search multiple ways to find out if they have even filed an application. On the right side of the page, under “Popular Links,” click on “License Query System.” On the next page you can see all the different ways to search to find out if they have ever filed for their ABC license.

I have searched all fields, used all possible names I could come up with, including officers/directors, address, etc. I tried searching the word ‘Excuse’; New Generation Consumer Group; Monster Marketing; VIP Spirits (and ‘vipspirits). I could find no evidence that NGCG has ever filed for their state ABC license. I then sent an email to them. I gave her all the names that I had searched. Here are a couple of the responses:

Lewis, Suzanne@ABC
Jul 13
To k____ a______

Hi K_____, Our system doesn’t show any record under that address, nor any of those officers you listed. If they had an ABC license, it would’ve showed up in our system.

Thank you.

Here is another email reply from a different representative. I wanted to have a few people from ABC search, just to make sure there were no mistakes:

Tue 7/21/2015 2:08 PM
ABC Public Records <[e-mail]>
RE: ABC License...

To k__ a__ ___@k____a.com

Good Afternoon K___. I have ran both names backwards and forwards and have come up with nothing. Why don’t you check with our Trade Enforcement Unit as they are the ones that deal with these situations. Here is their direct dial number: 916/419-2507. If they applied for an importers license this unit would be aware of it.

Here is my honest opinion of what I have found out, along with my conversation with Calvin Ross:

Based on everything that I have found out, and the contact I've had with the State and Federal agencies, and based on my conversation with Calvin, until they provide absolute proof that they have applied for a State and Federal liquor license, I firmly believe they have done neither. We don’t know who the manufacturer or distributor of the vodka is. The company that will ‘supposedly’ be exporting Excuse into this country has a lot of paperwork to fill out for the TTB. I don’t believe they even have any of the flavors, except maybe a small test batch, if that. Do you realize that this entire Excuse Vodka story may be just a couple of fancy looking bottles backed up by nothing more than non-stop pr's? It’s possible. NGCG has handed out plenty of their food products. Have they ever let any of the shareholders sample some flavored vodka? Just a sip or two? Anyone? Maybe they have. I’m just asking. And then there’s Calvin's background…nuff said about that.

There are plenty of indications that we’re not being told the truth:

Calvin has a trademark for ‘Excuse Vodka’ dated 2008:
http://www.tmfile.com/owner/ro/ross,calvin11.php

2 Serial no. 77520852
Mark Text (Filing Date) EXCUSE (2008-07-13)
Goods & Services <Wines and Spirits>;
Status (Status Date) Registered (2009-05-19)
Registration no. (Date) 3624518 (2009-05-19)

The TTB had been in business 5 years before Calvin had even received a Trademark for Excuse Liquor (along with his partner). In other words, Calvin should never even have used the initials ‘ATF’ when talking to shareholders. If he actually submitted an application to get a liquor license, he would have submitted it to the TTB. This is the only agency who he should have been referencing, NOT the ATF. When he spoke to shareholders, he should have naturally said that they were waiting for approval from the TTB. The initials ‘ATF’ should never have entered the conversation.

As mentioned earlier, up until my conversation with him, he had never mentioned the TTB. Always the ‘ATF’. The first time he uttered ‘TTB’ was after Pitts77h’s post about the TTB.

Even if the TTB had asked for corrections, it would have been for the label (that’s their main job – approving labels). It doesn’t take 150 days and counting to make a change on their bottle label.

And I know for a fact that NGCG hasn’t even filed for their liquor license with the ABC. Without that, they aren’t going anywhere. And instead of getting a simple answer from Calvin, he F-Bombed me and hung up. Imagine the extra wait if now we have to wait for them to get their state license? What, another 150 days and counting? No, they haven’t filed with the state because they never planned to in the first place. The average time for label approval with the TTB varies from about 22 days to 27 days. That’s DAYS, NOT MONTHS!

What does all this tell you?

The next time any of you visit the office, ask to see the original applications they sent in to the TTB and the ABC. Shareholders have a ton of rights. We have the right to visit them during normal business hours and inspect just about anything you want to inspect; books, records, documents (which includes, but are not limited to: applications for a liquor license that were sent to the TTB and ABC; written authorization from the Coachella Corporation for the use of their 2014 video of the Coachella concert, that we now know was used without permission; contracts of all the previous ‘joint ventures’ and ‘partnerships’ that were announced, that seemed to have vanished, etc. etc.

One quick note about this picture which appears on their website:

http://www.vipspiritsusa.com/products/

See the 5 full glasses of colored liquids? Well, everything in this picture is supposed to be representative of Excuse Vodka, i.e. all the different delicious flavors. In fact, the picture of those 5 glasses could easily be interpreted as being ‘the’ actual glasses with the flavored vodka in it. After all, it is advertising, and this ad is about Excuse Vodka and is featured prominently on NGCG’s website. And Calvin says everything is ready to go - all flavors.

I copied the entire picture to my ‘paint’ program and saved it as a jpeg. I then uploaded the picture in the following program and let it search the world:

It searched over 12.461 billion images and came up with one ‘hit.’ Turns out those exact bottles come from a website in the United Kingdom. Here is their picture:

https://www.tineye.com/search/1213991bfb1283e2055ee47adad61c4394208283

Click on “Compare Match.” Then on the next page, click on the word “Switch.” You can quickly compare the two images. Just keep clicking on the word “Switch.” Back and forth. Back and forth.

Again, I really am sorry for the length of this post! I tried to make it shorter about 4 times, but it ended up like this. If you made it through, give yourself a big pat on the back. If you didn’t make it through, that’s okay. I understand.

The truth is out there! The trick is finding it.