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Agreed, let's take a careful look at the article and examine some of the strings of innuendo and unbalanced focus. A few other things to consider, both articles have come out on a Friday after market hours. The first article precipitated a huge selloff in the stock. I would think it's the fiduciary responsibility of the paper to do some honest investigative reporting. Yet, what we have today is nothing more than tabloid journalism, specifically designed to cast a negative light on Petar.
Let's begin....
Penny stock king denies $100,000 lease debt
Why refer to him as a "penny stock King"? He has one penny stock. Have their been factual documentation of his involvement with other penny stocks? The title more accurately should have said something like "CEO of Suljabrothers under the spotlight".
BY GARY RENNIE STAR STAFF REPORTER
A local businessman who has created a sensation on North America’s penny stock market with plans to develop a US$645-million hotel complex in the Middle East has been accused of stiffing his landlord for the rent on his former corporate offices in Windsor.
The lead paragraph is focused around a he said she said innuendo with absolutely no factual information to back it up. Yet, Mr. Rennie, appears intent on casting clouds of innuendo such as "a penny king can't pay rent", instead of factually reporting the information. Did he ask to look at the rental document? Did he ask to see the court papers claiming the right to this 100 grand? No, yet, he uses it as the opening template to his hit piece. Is this balanced? Of course not. It's wreaks of unprofessional reporting.
“They did a midnight run on me,” said Joe Mikhail, a major commercial property owner in Windsor and Essex County.
Petar Vucicevich and his small staff bolted in the night about eight months ago owing $100,000 for a yearand-a-half of rent, the unpaid portion of the five-year lease and cost of renovations for the offices, said Mikhail, who recognized his former tenant’s picture in Thursday’s Windsor Star.
Next paragraph starts with "they did a midnight run" on me. Any witnesses? Any neighbors hear anything? Unless the place of business is out in the country, you would think someone would have heard something to substantiate this accusation. Yet, we don't know whether Mr. Rennie asked. We can assume based on the tone he did not bother. Guilty until proven innocent by not kissing his behind is what I figure.
Interviewed at his Colchester residence later Thursday, Vucicevich, the CEO of Sulja Brothers Building Materials, denied owing Mikhail any money. He insisted he paid a few extra months of rent just to get out of the lease. “I don’t owe Joe anything,” said Vucicevich.
Now that you have opened with guilt, go ahead and give him a little defensive response here.
According to a news release issued by one of his companies, Vucicevich — as director general of Consultech Construction Management Inc. — was in the United Arab Emirates in April to buy land and launch construction of a $US645-million luxury hotel on Al Reem Island in Abu Dhabi. He showed The Star his passport to prove he was in the UAE in mid-April.
Now we shift to an entirely different topic. 8 months ago wasn't April. Does the landlord not remember what month he supposedly ran out on him? If not, how did he come up with the precise value of 100 grand. Nice round number wouldn't you say? I also can't help but wonder what the going rate is in the area for comp rentals of that nature. 100 grand seems awfully high for 18 months of rent. Did the reporter do a comp check of the area for duh validation?
The hotel project is the largest of a number of multimillion-dollar deals — including a $20-million commercial development in Colchester Village — that Vucicevich and his companies have promoted to investors.
Are we now talking about a rental issue with a landlord, or something else entirely?
Sulja Brothers is one of North America’s hottest-trading penny stocks. On Thursday, more than 171 million shares of Sulja stock were traded, with the price per share dropping from nine cents to four. About 67 million shares traded Friday with the price closing at three cents a share.
Until the website for Vucicevich’s Consultech company was taken down “temporarily” earlier this week it still showed the Mikhail property as its Canadian headquarters. The Star paid a visit recently only to find an empty suite with workers painting it for the next tenant.
No mention of how they impacted this trading volume and the subsequent movement in the stock price.
Mikhail said he heard Vucicevich describe deals that were in the works when he tried to collect the rent, including the big hotel project in the Middle East. “He lost all credibility with me with that story,” he said. The Consultech office appeared to be used mostly at night, Mikhail said. “Nothing made sense.”
Mikhail said he didn’t pursue Vucicevich with a collection agency or lawyer because he didn’t think he had any money at the time.
Another single source report, this time with the added element of "tried to collect the rent". Was their ever a missing rent issue he could corroborate with paperwork? In other words, any notices reviewed by our sleuth reporter? Don't know. Assumption, probably didn't ask.
But Vucicevich now has a choice of a Range Rover, BMW or Maserati to drive, all leased, he says. And between June and September this year he and his wife purchased four parcels of land in Colchester Village for $609,000, according to land registry records.
[b This paragraph dentes jealously and innuendo. Who cares what kind of car he leased, except to pain him in an ugly light. So they purchased land, did he ask anyone for what purpose? And on and on with the same theme. Totally unprofessional hit tabloid piece. Go back to journalism school Mr. Ranny, we want a real reporter on the story.
Vucicevich said Consultech doesn’t do business any longer in Ontario or Michigan, but is active in Middle East projects. He insisted the hotel project was still in the works with the land — worth about $29 million according to a company news release — already purchased. Construction will start next year, he said. “We’re looking to expand into Lebanon.”
Vucicevich gave The Star a tour of the Sulja Brothers’ Harrow construction materials yard to prove that it was a bustling business with 28 employees. “This is not a fraud; this is a serious enterprise,” he said.
Asked where were the employees of Consultech and Kore International — another of his companies — Vucicevich said some work out of their homes, but the majority of about 40 were stationed in overseas offices. He said the reason no employee was in the Kore office on Pelissier Street when The Star dropped by was that renovations were being done.
Vucicevich complained that while the facts in The Star’s story about him and his company in Thursday’s paper were “absolutely true” the picture painted was misleading by not pointing out the busy lumber business. While close friends do call him “Black Pete” because of his fondness for all- black clothing, Vucicevich said the story appeared to give that a sinister tone.
Asked if the audited financial statements for Sulja thousands of shareholders have been promised for months are done, Vucicevich said: “You’ll get them when everyone else gets them.”
Vucicevich said he doesn’t own any Sulja stock and doesn’t benefit or lose when the price goes up or down. “It’s not like I’m selling off lots of stock and making money off it,” he said.
Because the volume of shares traded was so high Thursday — more than 10 times the average volume for the stock — Vucicevich said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission would probably take a look at the reasons, but he wasn’t concerned that anything was amiss.
mx, I have explained it to you in pm. Did you not receive my pm. Here, I'll do so publicly so everyone can see.
Asus asked me to remove his posts. Your post was nothing more than a copy and past of his posts. So I also removed them. We remove posts from board members who request it all the time. Nothing unusual at all about it. If another persons post is nothing more than a copy and paste of their post, then we remove them too.
There is no nefarious intent involved. I can understand your sensitivity and all, but, I would have done the same thing for you or anyone else on the board. There is a selection all moderators have to remove posts it's called "member requested removal" or something like that.
Hope this helps.
By the way, do you receive pm's?
I'll put this link in the IBOX for future reference. It's just under his picture.
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg_ig.asp?message_id=14914311
Good post smart. I remember that pr a few months back. We need some of our smart Arab readers to see if they can locate those articles.
I don't think we had any translators then. I remember I tried using the Google translator, but you couldn't look inside two of those websites with an online translator.
By the way, allinone has emailed me one picture and is trying to send more. I'll put them on the web shortly and post a link.
Party, is this article the same one we've seen from Gulf News or a different one. If different, can you post the article?
Exactly! We want the truth! Not innuendo, conjecture and spin related negativism. Do some dang real investigative journalism or write nothing.
Good post, I send one in just now.
The dang picture is not working. I'll work on it and see if I can fix the problem.
Another interesting angle is why the reporter focused on what cars he drives. How many people have seen that before when reading a legitimate news article?
Does he wear Gucci sunglasses too?
Legitimate questions and answers were left out of the article and supplanted with imagery and innuendo. Very unprofessional.
Can't you see it below?
The picture below is from Google Earth. Not as nice as my beautiful trees! How you guys live in the frozen tundra amazes me.
So why didn't the reporter say anything about it in his hatchet job articles?
Here is what you see when you plug the address into Google Earth. Looks like a warehouse of some sort to me.
walt, shares have not been increased. Nevada corporations have a lot of baggage associated with their name, but one thing the state does is update the share structure very quickly on their website.
https://esos.state.nv.us/SOSServices/AnonymousAccess/CorpSearch/CorpSearch.aspx
Here are a few questions that make very little sense given the sentiment now.
1. Why did the OS reduce from 850 million to 800 million?
2. Why set a date for the audit to be released, most CEO's just say "hopefully next quarter" or something similar?
3. Why buy Sam's? Is Sam's legit?
4. Why tell people via phone calls Canadian authorities came to ask questions before the newspaper article?
5. Why meet with shareholders in Canada and have dinner with them?
6. Why keep telling people "buy the stock if you want to"? In other words, never really encouraging penny traders to purchase?
7. Why begin a large construction project in Colchestor?
8. Why allow interviews and encourage a second one?
9. Why take over as CEO from Steve Sulja if he did not own stock?
bin, good logic in this post. It could be true, we'll have to see how it shakes out.
Nice to see some thought put into a negative post besides the typical idiotic "this is a scam" spam posts which some refer to as DD.
What new DD has been posted? The only thing I've seen new is his picture.
Great story mike, I've read quite a few articles about Sam Walton. I think he kept that truck until the day he died (or one very similar). Also read he used to rent small planes and fly around areas he was interested to put a store. Then he would land in the cornfield or something and walk up to the owner and offer to buy the farm.
A really unique thinker!
Thanks, in other words you really don't know either. That's a sharp turn from your previous post of certainty.
Doubt it Gary is a reporter and has ethics and a code of conduct, unlike Petar :) The town of Colchester is lucky to have Gary. Are they lucky to have Petar? LOL
Do you know Gary? Know anything about his background? Spoken to him?
Serious questions...
Of course the fault regarding financial statement delays lays at the feet of Petar. But, can you deny the articles have hightened the issue extremely? Do you really think the stock would have shot down to .01 cents if not for the having the original article published? I don't. It probably would have hung out around 6-9 cents as we digested the latest excuse.
I was with the paper on the original article. They smelled something and wrote about it. But when you do a follow up report after seeing the tremendous attention and fallout that has occurred, the report should be professional, detailed and honest. None of that has happened with this latest article.
So much is missing it can lead to only two conclusions. Either the reporter is an unprofessional rookie, or someone wants to see SLJB and Petar fail.
Would you post an article with that headline based on a he said she said report? C'mon, get real.
No, it's the responsibility of the reporter to ask the questions and then report the answers. He is not on trial?
I'll tell you what. I'm beginning to thing some real shananigans are going on with that reporter and or paper. Why on earth would an editor publish an accusation as the headline without one shred of coroberating evidence? He said she said, shouldn't be the focus of the article.
I'm going to start digging into the background of the reporter. What is he doing in "retirement"? Perhaps trading pennies short through Canada? Outrageous perhaps, but, since the reporter went after him with a headline with such limited evidence is suspect in my eyes.
If he has friends or family shorting this stock or owning any of it when this all washes out. There will be calls to authorities going in an entirely different direction.
Unfortunately, what looked to be a great opportunity for some serious reporting, turned into another headline fluff piece.
How difficult would it have been for the reporter to interview Steve Sulja? Interview a few customers of Sulja regarding delivery or payments of goods and services? Got some background information on Sam's? Interview the previous owner of SAMS? Verified whether Petar bought Sams' recently? Checked on their customers and material providers?
Would it really have been that difficult of him to interview Sulja friends, family members or neighbors in the area? Wrote some background information on where Petar grew up, where he came from, what got him into the building business?
Would it have been difficult to ask Petar about contracts pr'd. Asked to be shown a few, since the lawyer lives in the same town. Asked the lawyer about those contracts. And reported either positive, negative results or obfuscation?
Bush league hit piece again. Not serious journalism. And this guy probably has in his grasp one of the most important stories the paper has worked on this year.
I'm tempted to hire a private detective.
Thanks, yes I read it. Hope he is feeling better and taking care of himself. One thing this episode has demonstrated very clearly to me is what people on these boards have class and who has none. Those members of IHUB who seem to take great joy in the financial pain of others, will one day have to answer to their own conscience (if they ever develop one).
The way I see things shaping up it could be one of two things.
I'll start with the negative one first...
Petar has inflated the financial performance of Sulja and is now in an a catch twenty-two situation, unable to post them for fear of being legally held accountable due to so much public exposure, and unable to say anything that would alter the outcome of these events.
On the positive side, he could have the audit and was willing to publish it as it stood, but, now fears any errors in the report will be exacerbated to the extreme due to the publicity, so he is struggling with lawyers and accountants to find a fast solution. Perhaps hoping Middle Eastern based accountants who work on Saturday, will fix whatever problems exists.
That's about all I can figure at this point...
Not sure, I haven't checked either one in a few weeks.
Here they all are. Notice the KORE site. Haven't check it in a while, but it used to have a pretty lame picture on the home page.
http://www.suljabros.com
http://www.loftwerks.com
http://www.loftwise.com
http://consultechconstruction.com
http://www.ibp-usa.com
http://koreintl.com
http://www.vgic.biz
I just checked. It's still 800 million.
https://esos.state.nv.us/SOSServices/AnonymousAccess/CorpSearch/CorpSearch.aspx
That's very odd. There has been no change to that website for months before now.
Board, remember Uncle from today?
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/profile.asp?User=87186
Good to see we still have full support of IHUB management. Stay on topic. No foul language and don't bait other posters with overt sarcasm of a personal attack nature.
We have one more on the recommended to be banned list from this afternoon. I sincerely hope he will be the last.
No matter what happens with this stock, I will not allow this board to turn into a playground of the nasty without a fight. Those who have come here from all over IHUB to have ugly entertainment have been warned.
Board: Those who have decided to show up from other boards of IHUB to invade this board and post useless dribble unrelated to the stock will have their posts deleted.
Repeat OT offenders will be reported to Matt for possible banning.
I think I have it figured out. Matt made a deal with PV to drive up traffic on the IHUB website and make a killing in advertisement dollars.
That's why we all just keep looking at the screen!
Nothing else makes sense!
Let me rephrase a bit. References both pro and con and anything in between related to religion will be deleted.
Only way to deal with the situation, too many people don't understand how to balance the issue and it doesn't really relate to SLJB.
Board: Apparently, previous message not being received. Therefore, overt religious references will be deleted and fall under the OT posting rule.
Board, Ok, can we agree using Bible verses over and over might offend some people?
Once in a while I can understand, but constant references is sort of like prostiltizing.
Thanks...
Got it, I was a little slow because I was yacking about stereotypes. Sorry!
Oh jeez! Ok, I'll delete myself if that will make you happy...
Uncle and board, I've requested Matt ban you. This is just the kind of post that gets people banned here.
And some call it censorship of negative opinions!
True, but unless you see the fire, a professional reporter gives himself a little doubt regarding the character in a piece.
I think he was pissed because Petar was evasive and probably flippant in the interview, so he paid the price. Some small town reporters have a sort of God complex, and expect everyone to bend over backward for them. Petar was probably sharp, in a hurry and irritable with him instead of dealing with him professionally.
It's open question still whether his irritation on someone digging was because he had something significant to hide, or whether it was another reason.
I lived most of the time in Sardegna. But travelled quit a bit around all of Italy and Europe.
When I saw the photo the first thing I thought was a European guy. Anybody been to the Frankfurt airport lately. Take a look around and you will see hundreds of PV dressed men.