We are all here in search of the truth, which is hard to do alone. Just trying to do my part.
The bankruptcy judge reversed herself and cancelled her order dismissing the bankruptcy, on January 15, 2013. It is document 104 in the case docket. To get a copy you have to make an account on PACER but I think opinions are free to retrieve.
The attorney filed his motion to withdraw on January 25.Then refiled it again on January 28, apparently the first one was not done correctly.
He filed an affidavit that he was owed money by VitaminSpice and gave that as the reason for withdrawal. The attorney is Hillard Sterling, an intellectual property lawyer from Chicago.
The motion to withdraw was granted on January 28, in document 116 and VitaminSpice was granted until March 18 to answer the petition. "If VitaminSpice fails to file an answer by that date, the Court may enter appropriate relief against VitaminSpice." That means they will be in bankruptcy and all that entails unless an answer is filed. If an answer is filed, then a hearing will be scheduled.
Also on the docket it notes that the landlord has filed a claim with the court. I think the company was evicted from its office.
Now, as to the question as to Hand "defrauding" Stalt:
The shareholders sued Stalt in Northern California for the stop transfer. This was also in Federal court. Stalt settled out of court. Stalt never alleged in any of its papers that there was anything wrong with what Hand or the shareholders did. That would have been a defense. The first thing the SEC does in these cases is pull the transfer agent records. They would know if something was wrong. The SEC just went after an attorney who issued false opinions-check out the litigation page on the SEC's website. Nothing against Hand.
Now, Bukstel claims that Hand submitted false documents to free up shares. He does this by leaving out part of Rule 144 which is the basis for freeing up the shares, and not the shares held by other people. I will try to write another post later to explain.
The big flaw in VitaminSpice's allegations is that there are no damages. They allege that as a result of Hand's misdeeds the stock went down to a penny. They omit to mention that when Hand left and all the "Hand" shareholders were locked up, the stock was $.10 but then went up to $.41. There were about 60 million shares Ed issued for services to various stock promoters, and these were freed up by Ed and sold in the market to bring it down to a penny.
