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Here is Kevin West touting ADOT http://ragingbull.quote.com/mboard/memalias.cgi?board=ADOT&member=kevinw777
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"OK, now one might ask why would the SEC not want to help this company get back on its feet and produce a valuation that would make its shareholder base happy and their investment portfolios grow? It is obvious that CMKX is not a fraud, but possibly a victim of poor past management because those involved didn t know how to run a public company. Is this a crime? No it s not a crime, and co-CEO and original founder of CMKX, Urban Casavant is an extremely good man with a heart of gold. This world could use many more men like him, in this writer s opinion! "
From April 2005
By: kevinw777
17 Apr 2005, 08:52 PM EDT
Msg. 745 of 1142
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America needs to Know: What game is being played with CMKM Diamonds, Inc.?
By: Kevin M. West
The Los Angeles office of the SEC is taking CMKX (CMKM Diamonds) to an Administrative hearing on May 10th to try and revoke their listing as a public company. We know they want to revoke CMKX as evidenced by the Disposition of Summary that the SEC asked for in the phone conference held last week between the Administrative Judge and attorneys involved in this case.
In the story of this mining and exploration company from Las Vegas, Nevada, it appears that the SEC is either taking some unjustifiable sort of revenge, protecting the rich of Wall Street from a destructive blow or the company is a complete fraud that has been allowed to sell hundreds of billions of shares to investors. It will be up to you to decide and, in a moment, we will lay out the time table of events that have put CMKM Diamonds in this predicament, but let s first try to reason as to what is really going on here.
CMKM Diamonds is a diamond exploration and mining company based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. The company owns 951,968.54 acres (385,248 hectares) of mineral rights consisting of 1,038 separate claims in the mineral rich territory of Saskatchewan, Canada. The adjacent and surrounding claims of DeBeers that have boasted tens of billion of dollars in valuation on around 58,000 acres or about 1/16th the total size of the land mass of known mineral rights belonging to CMKX. The company also owns at least one gold mine (the American Gold Mine) in Ecuador and mineral claims (and possible mines) with zinc, uranium among other minerals in Canada and elsewhere.
With all the apparent valuation of CMKX, why would the SEC take to stripping money from tens of thousands of investors, rather than just help this company get back on it s feet and make money for it s investors like it has been trying too? If the company is revoked, the shares become worthless in the market. If the company continues and becomes fully reporting again, the investors may become very wealthy due to the company s potential valuation.
Also, as listed in one ongoing count of very concerned investors, why is there over 87 billion shares held by less than 1,000 shareholders when it is rumored that there are as many as 40,000-72,000 CMXK shareholders and only 800 billion shares authorized? It would appear we have not billions, but trillions of shares on the market. Could the company have put them there, it s not even possible. Are they counterfeit shares? They would HAVE to be! Who would be responsible for that you ask, it would be the market place along with NON-Regulation by the SEC.
This January, the SEC enacted Regulation SHO to put an end to the counterfeit shares (also called Naked Short Shares) being transacted into the market. However, the SEC grandfathered in all of the felonious crimes of counterfeiting shares previous to the day Regulation SHO was enacted. WHY?
Now let s get back to the story of CMKM Diamonds and how all this talk of counterfeited shares possibly relates to the reason the SEC wants them gone.
(*1)On July 22, 2003, upon the advice of counsel, a Form 15 pursuant to Rule 12g-4(a)(1)(i) was filed as certification and notice of termination of registration under Section 12(j) of the Act, stating that at the time of filing the Form 15 CMKX had approximately 300 stockholders of record.
(*2)On June 4, 2004, the Company retained the services of Roger Glenn, Esq. from the New York law firm Edwards & Angel LLP to assist in preparing the required SEC reports.
The Company continued its efforts to bring its filings up to date by engaging Neil Levine, of the Firm of Bagell, Josephs & Company, LLC, as independent auditor.
In July of 2004, Mr. Casavant suffered a stroke which left him with no alternative but to rely upon the professionals he had retained to oversee the Company operations.
(*3)During the 3rd or 4th quarter of 2004, the Enforcement Division launched an investigation in the Matter of U.S. Canadian Minerals, Inc. LA-2937. Under the umbrella of the LA-2937 investigation, the Enforcement Division caused the issuance of subpoenas, deposed and interrogated CMKM Diamonds consultants and management. inclusive of the Company s new auditor, the Company s financial consultant, and Edwards & Angel LLP. In addition, a subpoena was issued directly to CMKM Diamonds, where under the Company supplied significant information to the Commission, including substantial information regarding the Company s mining claims.
(*4)CMKX appointed Mr. Robert Maheu to the Board of Directors in order to oversee the necessary regulatory requirements. Bob Maheu is not just any co-CEO, Mr. Maheu was the main man Howard Hughes used to run the mob out of Las Vegas among a huge list of many other outstanding achievements . He has never lost a regulatory battle. Mr. Maheu, on behalf of the Company, immediately retained the service of Stoecklein Law Group on February 7, 2005 for the primary purpose of coordinating the preparation of all reports due under the Act for the respective missing periods. Upon its initial due diligence of the Company, Stoecklein Law Group realized that at the time of filing the initial Form 15. The Company had 698 stockholders of record and that the filing of a Form 15 was not available to the Company as of July of 2003.
Upon its initial due diligence of the Company, Stoecklein Law Group realized that at the time of filing the initial Form 15. The Company had 698 stockholders of record and that the filing of a Form 15 was not available to the Company as of July of 2003.
(*5)On February 17, 2005, Stoecklein Law Group advised the Company to file a Form 15/A which resulted in the Company being subject to the reporting requirements of Section 12(g) of the Act.
During March 2005 a financial consulting firm was retained to assist the Company in its financial statements and logistical coordination was commenced between management, the financial consulting firm, the audit firm, Stoecklein Law Group, and the transfer agent.
(*6)The Company believes that as a result of the Enforcement Division investigation in LA-2937, the Enforcement Division caused the issuance of a temporary trading suspension on March 3, 2005 and the issuance of the Order Instituting Administrative Proceeding on March 16, 2005. While the actions by the Enforcement Division are designed to be remedial, they may in fact be causing a punitive effect on the Company s stockholders by further perpetuating a growing naked short (counterfeit shares) position in the Company s stock, as alleged by numerous stockholders.
OK, now one might ask why would the SEC not want to help this company get back on its feet and produce a valuation that would make its shareholder base happy and their investment portfolios grow? It is obvious that CMKX is not a fraud, but possibly a victim of poor past management because those involved didn t know how to run a public company. Is this a crime? No it s not a crime, and co-CEO and original founder of CMKX, Urban Casavant is an extremely good man with a heart of gold. This world could use many more men like him, in this writer s opinion!
Is it better to PUNISH CURRENT INVESTORS, strip away 100% of their investments perhaps destroying the savings and college funds of thousands of American families than to fine the company and take a hands-on approach into getting them current in their filings?
Let s look at what could possibly happen if there are even just 800 billion naked short shares on this stock, and not trillions as is suspected. DeBeers has already boasted a conservative 40-80 billion dollar valuation on approximately 58,000 acres. Using 1/10th the lowest possible valuation (for safety) of $40 Billion, or $4 Billion on 58,000 acres and CMKX owning 16 times the land mass, the math would look like this.
$4 Billion x 16 = $64 Billion valuation (at only 1/10th lowest possible DeBeers valuation)
$64 Billion divided by 800 Billion shares = .08 per share (worst possible scenario)
800 Billion counterfeit shares x .08 per share = $64, 000,000,000 (Billion) owed to share holders by the market place! (Keep in mind, the current trading price of CMKX is less than 1/100th of a penny per share). Now multiply that by a possible 10-20 times the valuation and 2-3 times the number of counterfeit shares and there is some SERIOUS trouble involved here!
What could be done to solve this problem, reward long enduring shareholders, let the company focus on its mining and exploration programs and save the market from a messy situation at the same time?
The SEC could do its job and PROTECT shareholders, first off. Tens of thousands of CMKX shareholders are NOT going to stand by and let the SEC use that old line that they are looking out for the potential new investors of this stock . That s garbage and all CMKX investors and the SEC know it is! Those responsible for creating and helping this fraud to perpetuate (possible violators include but are not limited to the DTCC, Brokers, Market Makers and Hedge Funds) need to come to the table and make an offer to all shareholders and the criminals responsible for this unjustifiable crime need to go to jail.
America needs to know; What is the SEC going to do to protect the CURRENT shareholders that have millions and millions of dollars invested in CMKX?
Stand up America , and TAKE YOUR COUNTRY BACK!
Sincerely,
Kevin M. West
http://www.ahandup.us/america_needs_to_know.htm
References
(1)http://www.noboxtrading.com/cmkx/press_releases/041105CMKM%20Response%20TO%20SEC.asp
(2) http://www.noboxtrading.com/cmkx/press_releases/060404b.asp
(3)
http://www.uscanadian.net/news.asp?news_id=70
(4)http://www.noboxtrading.com/cmkx/press_releases/013105.asp
(5)
http://knobias.10kwizard.com/filing.php?repo=tenk&ipage=3279945&doc=1&total=&back=2&g=&attach=on
(6)http://www.noboxtrading.com/cmkx/press_releases/031605secorder.asp
** The views and opinions written in this article belong to the writer and are not sponsored or approved by anyone but the writer. This article is in no way affiliated with CMKX, the CMKX owner s group or any other groups or organizations. The article is in no way intended to be used as investment advice.
It will take many of us helping others become wealthy to help UC reach his goal of a million millionaires.
By: kevinw777
26 Nov 2004, 07:37 AM EST
Msg. 123456 of 340397
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Nice post Sterling, and I agree 100%. Many of us, if not all of us have learned lessons from this investment and the family of investors that has developed.
I believe that many people have been drawn closer to their families and friends as a result of CMKX. It is also true, that some have grown apart and maybe that was for the best or it might just be a tribulation that those that are going through it, need to go through to learn something.
I know that this investment has taught me many lessons and even given me new friends (such as yourself)and new understandings. It has taught me lessons in faith, patience, brought my brothers and myself closer, and so many other lessons I can't begin to write them all.
So many of the people involved in this investment are truly good people and are, for the most part, planning to do goodwill for others and for our planet with their money. It will take many of us helping others become wealthy to help UC reach his goal of a million millionaires.
These are just my thoughts, hope everyone is having a good Thanksgiving week.
God Bless Everyone,
KW
Remember to thank God and the power envolved in people helping people for the blessings you are about to receive via CMKX!
By: kevinw777
07 Jun 2004, 10:20 AM EDT
Msg. 14719 of 340398
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Remember to thank God and the power envolved in people helping people for the blessings you are about to receive via CMKX!
Only one way to return this great country to the way it used to be, and that is by the above.
Please give a moment to remember......
God Bless
KW
UC will not partner with DeBeers and here is why:
By: kevinw777
13 Jul 2004, 11:29 AM EDT
Msg. 40085 of 340398
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UC will not partner with DeBeers and here is why:
UC has determined that one of his goals in life is to make a re-distribution of wealth in this world and one of those ways is by creating a million millionaires, can't be done by partnering with DeBeers IMO.
Also, DeBeers is somewhat of a mob organization by the way they have controlled and forced their way around all over the world. I would say that many of their acts have been nothing short of criminal. UC is not the type to sell out to this kind of organization.
And lastly, if someone else does the mining and has control over the diamonds coming out of the ground, then the "Casavant Diamonds" name and purpose is lost.
UC has been chasing this dream for over 15 years and if you have ever chased something that long and finally see the "True Light" at the end of the tunnel, you know that he won't sell out just to rush the process. Everything happens for a reason.... and if you truly believe that, then you know why we are waiting for this to fully unfold.
EVERYTHING is happening in the order in which it must happen, patience is more than a virtue here. I believe that all will unfold and when it does, those that wait, will be rewarded.
All IMHO, of course.
God Bless,
KW
"UC is a man of his word and his foremost thought is/has always been the shareholders of this company. His ultimate goal of creating a million millionaires now rests on the shoulders of those of us who have been given this opportunity to believe and share in the great wealth that God is providing for us through this loving man. "
By: kevinw777
19 Sep 2004, 04:16 PM EDT
Msg. 83251 of 340398
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Good work Chris and thank you for sharing your DD with us. I know there have been so many thoughts as to what is happening, but the end result is the same. UC is a man of his word and his foremost thought is/has always been the shareholders of this company. His ultimate goal of creating a million millionaires now rests on the shoulders of those of us who have been given this opportunity to believe and share in the great wealth that God is providing for us through this loving man.
"We the people" that become the first millionaires must do the right thing with our wealth and create more opportunities for many more people to become millionaires. UC is only one man, his goal is real! But, it will take those of us so inclined to see his vision, to finish accomplishing his goal.
If everyone would stop and realize what we truly have here, they would not have to panic and doubt any longer. If you only can believe with faith the size of a mustard seed.... as a united "people", we can move mountains. The destruction to this great country that the greedy and power hungry wealth of past and present generations can be changed to good. I believe God is in the process of creating a re-distribution of wealth in this country that will impact the entire world. America is the land of the free, we have to make sure it stays that way! (and re-form the freedoms that have already been taken away)
Those that bash, naked short or in anyway try to disrupt God's plan in even the slightest way will reap what they have sown.. IMO
God bless all,
KW
Please help give someone a "Hand UP" today.
Kevin West used to tout FuelNation http://ragingbull.quote.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=FLNT
He sure can pick scams: FUELNATION, INC.
(Registrant)
Dated: April 06, 2005
/s/ CHRIS R SALMONSON
-------------------------------------
Name: CHRIS R SALMONSON
Title: Acting Chief Financial Officer
===========================================
Church files suit in land scheme
By Christy McKerney and Sallie James
Sun-Sentinel
Posted August 17 2002
Christopher Salmonson was an upstanding citizen, one of the flock, entrusted with brokering the land deal that would enable their growing church to take flight.
But Salmonson had an agenda, one that swindled Abundant Life Christian Centre out of $1.67 million, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said.
“The church’s dream was to purchase the property free and clear,” said Broward Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright. “They stepped out on faith and believed Salmonson was the man to make their dream come true.”
Salmonson, 36, of Parkland, was being held in lieu of $1.67 million bond in the Broward County Jail on Friday. He faces 13 counts of grand theft in connection with the alleged con and could face life in jail if found guilty on all counts.
Deputies arrested him Thursday outside the headquarters of Fuel Nation, 4121 SW 47th Ave., in Davie, where Salmonson is chief executive officer.
Deputies think Salmonson never intended to sell the property to the church and never disclosed that the real owner of the 10 acres the church wanted to buy next door was actually Banks Coco Inc., not Salmonson’s company, Margate Corner Inc. The church is at 1490 Banks Road in Margate.
Salmonson approached church leaders in 1998 with an idea that would allow the church to buy the property in payments over two years. The church delivered the first check in July 1998, more than two months after Banks Coco Inc. had started foreclose proceedings on Margate Corner.
After making one payment on the property through Margate Corner Inc., which had a contract to buy the land, Salmonson defaulted on the loan and pocketed the money, converting the church’s checks into cashiers’ checks made out to his various corporations, deputies said.
Property records show Salmonson and his wife bought a 4,148-square-foot home in Parkland in 1998. The home is valued at $600,000.
Church leaders discovered the ploy in October 2001, eight months after they delivered their final payment to Salmonson. Banks Coco Inc. sent them a letter saying they’d foreclosed on the land.
“They believed in his ability and believed he could deliver on himself,” Coleman-Wright said of the church’s trust in Salmonson. “And that could be the reason they never researched the title for themselves and realized Banks Coco owned the property.”
Churchgoers had been instructed not to talk about Salmonson or the land deal Friday.
Holland & Knight attorney Robert E. Ferris Jr. represents the church and declined to comment about the case Friday, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.
The church filed a civil suit against Salmonson; Salmonson’s now-defunct company, Margate Corner Inc.; Fuel America LLC, which Salmonson managed; Commercebank, which cashed the checks and converted them to cashiers’ checks; and Hollywood attorney Barton S. Strock, who was supposed to help close. The suit was filed in Broward County Circuit Court in May.
At Abundant Life Christian Centre, a receptionist sat behind a mahogany desk at the end of the chapel’s rose-colored reception room, directing reporters to the church’s attorney.
A Bible placed on a reception table was open to a passage the church alludes to on its sign outside.
The receptionist acknowledged the irony of the passage, which begins, “The thief cometh not, but to steal…” but wouldn’t comment on the case or give her name.
“We’re very saddened,” she said.
With the civil suit ongoing, it’s unclear whether or when the church will get its money back.
“That question still remains: What did he do with the money?” Coleman-Wright said.
Christy McKerney can be reached at cmckerney@sun-sentinel.com or 954-572-2008.
Christopher Salmonson
See larger image
(Broward Sherrif's Office)
Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-church081702.story
RUSSELL Godwin
WWA Group, Inc. HOME ABOUT US NEWS STOCK QUOTE WWAUCTIONS.COM WWA ... WWA holds fully unreserved auctions at five facilities in the UAE, Holland, ... please contact RUSSELL Godwin at RGM COMMUNICATIONS Inc., 800-774-5133, ...
www.wwauctions.com/wwagroup/ index.cfm?fa=news.readMore&thisArtNum=61 - 13k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages
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http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/BoilerRooms/franklin_asset.htm
Simon Cheyne of Franklin Asset Management offered unrestricted shares in World Wide Auctioneers WWA ( currently trading under the symbol NOMD, with the website www.wwauctions.com ) for $1.35, and kept pointing me to the latest dealings on the OTC market - $1.80, $1.90, $2.10 … said I was lucky to have reserved them while they were still at a low price.
He rang me on the day my ‘reservation’ was due to expire. I told him that I needed another 24 hours. He said that would be OK!
I could almost believe that a legitimate company would grit its teeth and stick to the agreed price after the share value had soared. I could even see how they would ring up to remind me that I was risking losing this superb offer if I didn’t move fast.
But to keep to the agreement – to sell $2.10 shares for $1.35 – after it had expired … well, I gave up believing in Santa Claus 40+ years ago.
He's telling me that there are a lot of people out there who would be willing to buy my shares at $2.10 or more, yet he's eager to sell them to me at $1.35. Come on!
Franklin Asset Management have also contacted me selling WWA. I have been speaking with a Anthony Francis.
If you are looking for further proof that all is not legit, then take a look at: www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/lr17654.htm below which details a criminal complaint about James R Harrold who is the big cheese at Franklin Asset Management.
09/01 - The SEC got an Order of Permanent Injunction against James R. Harrold, a resident of Indiana and the Entity Defendants alleging that they raised approximately $2 million in a fraudulent prime bank scheme. The defendants consented to the order without admitting or denying the allegations.
Even after the FBI warned Harrold in October 1999 that prime trading programs do not exist, since October 1999 through at least February 2001, they raised at least $2 million by selling investments in the Rubix Program, a purported "prime bank trading program" and are currently soliciting investors to invest in at least two other fraudulent investment programs.
In the Rubix Program, they made false claims that the money raised would be used to purchase prime bank debentures issued by top world banks; that their principal was never at risk and promised a 20% monthly rate of return; when actually the majority of funds raised were misappropriated and used for business and personal expenses.
UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C.
Litigation Release No. 17654 / August 2, 2002
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. James R. Harrold, Franklin Management and Consulting, LLC, Accipter, LLC, Franklin Asset Management and Consulting, LLC, Franklin Management and Consulting, Inc., and Concord Development Group, LLC., U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Cause No. IP 01-1318-C T/K (S.D. Indiana 2001)
Criminal Complaint and Arrest Warrant for James R. Harrold are Unsealed
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Indiana announced that on July 26, 2002, an order was issued, unsealing a criminal complaint and arrest warrant for James R. Harrold.
On September 7, 2001 the Commission filed a civil complaint alleging that James R. Harrold ("Harrold") and the Entity Defendants violated the registration and antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws by operating a prime-bank scheme. On the same day, the Honorable Judge David F. Hamilton of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana entered a Temporary Restraining Order freezing three accounts controlled by Harrold.
On September 10, 2001, Judge Hamilton entered a Temporary Restraining Order freezing all of Harrold and the Entity Defendants' assets. On September 14, 2001, Harrold and the Entity Defendants consented to the entry of an Order of Permanent Injunction, which continued the asset freeze and enjoined them from engaging in violations of Sections 5(a), 5(c) and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder.
The Order also requires Harrold and the Entity Defendants to disgorge their ill-gotten gains and pay civil penalties in an amount to be determined in a separate hearing by the Court. Harrold and the Entity Defendants consented to the entry of the permanent injunction, without admitting or denying the allegations of the complaint.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Indiana originally filed a criminal complaint, under seal, on November 29, 2001, and alleged that Harrold committed offenses of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1341, 1343 and 1956(a)(1)A)(i). On the same day, Magistrate Judge Kennard P. Foster issued an arrest warrant that was also under seal.
The Commission wishes to acknowledge and thank the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation for the Southern District of Indiana and the Indiana Division of Securities for their assistance in this matter.
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/lr17654.htm
James R. Harrold, et al. Victim claims info
Plus also the link to this story from the Independent: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=444552
From Simon Cheyne at Franklin Asset Management,
Further to our earlier telephone conversation, please find herewith the details of World Wide Auctioneers offering. It is also recommended that you go to the investor relations website at: www.wwauctions.com
From there you can access the full corporate profile, financial summary and management profiles.
Also for further information relating to our company, please visit our website at: www.franklinassetmanagement.com
I look forward to speaking to you again soon.
Best regards,
Simon Cheyne
Contacts:
43 1 99 460-6436 Tel
43 1 99 460-5000 Fax
Info@Franklinassetmanagement.com
Please find herewith the attached confirmation of your purchase of shares in World Wide Auctioneers, along with the payment instructions. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Best regards,
Simon Cheyne
-------------------------
Here are the details of the transfer forms:
Franklin Asset Management
18th Floor, One International Finance Centre,
1 Harbour View Street, Hong Kong
This is to confirm your purchase of shares in World Wide Auctioneers.
At: US$1.35
Shares Ordered: 10000 Amount Due: US$13,500.00
We have forwarded to World Wide Auctioneers all the details of your purchase.
In order to secure your shares please make your Telex Transfer as promptly as possible as outlined on the following page. Upon doing so would you kindly fax a copy of the transfer form to Franklin Asset Management's administration office so they can assist in the processing of your payment.
Franklin Asset Management Fax No. 632 400 0281
Contacts:
+43 1 99 460-6436 Tel
+43 1 99 460-5000 Fax
Info@franklinassetmanagement.com
Payment Instructions
For Franklin Asset Management Custodial Trust Account
Funds will be held with the escrow agent below until share certificates are prepared and available for release to subscriber(s).
The most secure and preferred form of payment is to send the amount due in U.S. Dollars by telex transfer to:
ACCOUNT NAME: Legacy Investments Ltd.
BANK: Standard Chartered Bank
1st Floor, Edinburgh Tower
Landmark, Hong Kong
ACCOUNT NUMBER: 447-1-066639-2
SWIFT CODE: SCBLUS33
* In order for our bank to verify your deposit, it is essential that YOUR NAME appear in the comments section of the transfer form.
* Please fax a copy of your telex transfer to: 00 632 400 0281.
All client funds will be acknowledged immediately with a receipt and the share certificates will be processed accordingly.
NOTE: Some online banks may require the Hong Kong swift code. This is SCBL HK HH
Interesting address for them as it has come up before..
See also EMC/ Bassettrent/ Prentace Gates etc.,
Basset Trent Ltd.,
18th Floor,
One International Finance Centre,
1, Harbour View Street,
Hong Kong.
Tel No. 852 2166 8038.
Since WWA is a traded company, as the target sucker I can actually see a share price. So, I'm offered 10,000 shares at $1.35, and I can see the price closing at $1.80, $1.90, $2.10 ... how can I lose?
A little more research shows that the volumes traded are very light - just a few hundred at a time, presumably to keep massaging the price up. 'Mr Cheyne' assured me that the shares had no restrictions and could be traded as soon as I had the certificate.
Maybe that's true, though a lot of people seem to have been assured that they were getting unrestricted shares, only to find out different later. And maybe my share certificate would arrive promptly, or maybe not. But to sell, I'd have to find a buyer. And that, I think, is where the real problems would start!
Simon Cheyne of FAM has been in touch again. This time, selling shares in Otis-Winston Ltd. They’re $4.25 per share. There’s a 2-for-1 share split about to happen, and after the split EACH SHARE will be worth $4.25! So, within days, I will have doubled my money! No restrictions on the shares, and I don’t even have to wait for my certificates. Franklin Asset Management won’t be charging commission on the deal, as it’s an introduction to their services.
I’m used to people ringing me up and offering me returns of 20-30% within three months. Too high, but almost believable. But 100% in a couple of days? Does anybody fall for a script like this?
I asked him about the WWA shares he had been pushing before. The ones he’d been selling for $1.35, with the quoted price about to go through the $2 barrier.
He didn’t really want to talk about them, but they are now apparently a ‘long-term hold’, whereas Otis-Winston is easy, fast money. I looked up WWA, and they’ve dropped back today from $1.50 to $1.40. No doubt they’ll start massaging the price back up again soon ready to call a new set of victims.
A lot of activity this week regarding Otis-Winston. Apparently, all I have to do is send them $4,250, and immediately (that is, 5 days later when the funds have cleared) I will be able to sell the shares for $8,500. I had two calls on Monday, SIX on Tuesday, three on Wednesday, one yesterday and one more today.
I said that I'm nervous about boiler room scams, and that a Google for "Franklin Asset Management" turns up a lot of criminal activity. They reply that it's not them - it's "Franklin Asset Management SA", based in Barcelona, whereas they are in Austria.
Their reply to 'The FSA tell me that it's against the law to cold-call people for share sales': they agreed, but pointed out that the law only applies to the UK. It's perfectly legitimate to cold-call from overseas.
I pointed out that the FSA (and many other people) say 'if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is'. They replied with a lot of guff about Microsoft and Harley-Davidson shares leaping in price. That isn't what I was talking about, I said. Those were possible gains in the future, whereas you're telling me that I can double my money virtually overnight, guaranteed. They said that yes, this is a very rare opportunity. Talked a lot about escrow accounts and security.
They were bloody convincing, and I've had to be strong-willed to resist the pressure. I'm sure they are having a lot more luck elsewhere. A tiny voice in the back of my head is saying 'you're a mug. If they're real, as they sound, you're missing out on a good thing.' A louder voice is saying 'Why on earth are they trying so hard to give you money. You've told them twice you're not interested; if there was nothing in it for them they'd have given up long ago.'
August 5, 2003, NovaMed, Inc., ("Company") entered into a Stock Exchange Agreement ("Agreement") with World Wide Auctioneers, Inc. ("WWA") wherein the Company agreed to issue to the shareholders of WWA 13,887,447 shares of its common stock in exchange for the 50,000 shares that constitute all the issued and outstanding shares of WWA's wholly owned subsidiary World Wide Auctioneers, Ltd. ("WWA Dubai"). The parties closed the Agreement on August 8, 2003 with the Company's acquisition of WWA Dubai.
NovaMed, Inc. 1403 East 900 South Salt Lake City, Utah 84105 Attention: Ruairidh Campbell, President Phone Number: (801) 582-9609 Fax Number: (801) 582-9629
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/030808/85567_1.html
Oct. 2, 2003--WWA Group Inc., ("WWA Group")(today announced that effective as of the commencement of trading Oct. 3, 2003, the OTC Bulletin Board will reflect the change in the company's name from "NovaMed Inc." to "WWA Group Inc.," which will trade under the new symbol of "WWAG
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031002/25753_1.html
Nevada
WWA GROUP, INC
File Number: C24259-1996
Incorporated On: November 26, 1996
President: RUAIRIDH CAMPBELL
===
NOVAMED MEDICAL SUPPLIES CORPORATION
NEVADA
Status: Revoked
President: RUAIRIDH CAMPBELL
====
ALEXANDRIA HOLDINGS, INC.
1403 East 900 South, Salt Lake City, Utah 84105
(801) 582-9609
/s/ Ruairidh Campbell
Ruairidh Campbell
Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer
July 15, 2003
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1104673/000078873803000152/alex10qsb.txt
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties have executed this Stock Purchase
Agreement as of the day and year first appearing herein.
Alexandria Holdings, Inc. Kelly's Coffee Group, Inc.
/s/ Ruairidh Campbell /s/ David Wolfson
---------------------------- ------------------------------
Ruairidh Campbell, President David Wolfson, Vice-President
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1104673/000078873801500097/alexholdings10q.txt
MONTANA MINING CORP.
(Formerly known as "Aswan Investments, Inc..")
403 East 900 South, Salt Lake City, Utah 84105
-----------------------------------------------
(Address of principal executive office) (Zip Code)
(801) 582-9609
/s/ Ruairidh Campbell
Ruairidh Campbell
Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer
July 15, 2003
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1104672/000078873803000151/mont10qsb.txt
Aswan Investments, Inc.
The Company's officers and directors have used the services of Hudson Consulting
Group, Inc. and/or Canton Financial Services Corporation, both of which are
subsidiary companies of CyberAmerica Corporation. CyberAmerica Corporation, and
its subsidiaries have used the services of A-Z Professional Consultants, Inc., a
beneficial shareholder of the CyberAmerica Corporation. A-Z Professional
Consultants, Inc. is a Utah corporation, which is owned 100% by Allen Z. Wolfson. Allen Z. Wolfson is also the uncle of Richard D. Surber. All of the
above mentioned entities and their personnel have been used by Richard Surber as
either advisors or consultants because of Richard Surber's position with
CyberAmerica Corporation as its president and a director and his relationship
with Allen Z. Wolfson. Irrespective of Mr. Surber's relationship or use of the
abovementioned entities, it is the Company's intention to rely solely on the
expertise of its officers as advisors. The Company may rely on the clerical and
accounting services of Hudson Consulting Group, Inc., but will not rely upon
Allen Wolfson, A-Z Professional Consultants, Inc., Hudson Consulting Group, Inc.
or Canton Financial Services Corporation to find a potential acquisition or
merger candidate for the Company. The probability that a fee will be paid to
Ruairidh Campbell or Richard Surber is greater than for any other person who may
solicit the Company for a merger, acquisition or business combination.
The following individuals constitute all of the Company's Executive Officers and
Directors as of April 3, 2000.
Name Age Position
---- --- --------
Ruairidh Campbell 37 President and Director
Richard D. Surber 27 Secretary, Treasurer and Director
Aswan Investments, Inc.
/s/ Ruairidh Campbell
---------------------------------
Name: Ruairidh Campbell
Title: President/CEO and Director
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1104672/000107054400000229/0001070544-00-000229-0001.txt
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties have executed this Stock Purchase
Agreement as of the day and year first appearing herein.
Aswan Investments, Inc. Kelly's Coffee Group, Inc.
/s/ Ruairidh Campbell /s/ David Wolfson
--------------------------------- ---------------------------------
Ruairidh Campbell, President David Wolfson, Vice-President
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1104672/000078873801500099/aswan10q.txt
STAR ENERGY CORPORATION
(Formerly known as "Cairo Acquisitions, Inc.")
403 East 900 South, Salt Lake City, Utah 84105
-----------------------------------------------
(Address of principal executive office) (Zip Code)
(801) 582-9609
/s/ Ruairidh Campbell
Ruairidh Campbell
Chief Financial Officer
July 15, 2003
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1104671/000078873803000150/star10qsb.txt
Cairo Acquisitions, Inc.
The Company's officers and directors have used the services of Hudson Consulting
Group, Inc. and/or Canton Financial Services Corporation, both of which are
subsidiary companies of CyberAmerica Corporation. CyberAmerica Corporation, and
its subsidiaries have used the services of A-Z Professional Consultants, Inc., a
beneficial shareholder of the CyberAmerica Corporation. A-Z Professional
Consultants, Inc. is a Utah corporation, which is owned 100% by Allen Z.
Wolfson. Allen Z. Wolfson is also the uncle of Richard D. Surber. All of the
above mentioned entities and their personnel have been used by Richard Surber as
either advisors or consultants because of Richard Surber's position with
CyberAmerica Corporation as its president and a director and his relationship
with Allen Z. Wolfson. Irrespective of Mr. Surber's relationship or use of the
abovementioned entities, it is the Company's intention to rely solely on the
expertise of its officers as advisors. The Company may rely on the clerical and
accounting services of Hudson Consulting Group, Inc., but will not rely upon
Allen Wolfson, A-Z Professional Consultants, Inc., Hudson Consulting Group, Inc.
or Canton Financial Services Corporation to find a potential acquisition or
merger candidate for the Company. The probability that a fee will be paid to
Ruairidh Campbell or Richard Surber is greater than for any other person who may
solicit the Company for a merger, acquisition or business combination.
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1104671/000107054400000231/0001070544-00-000231-0001.txt
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties have executed this Stock Purchase
Agreement as of the day and year first appearing herein.
Cairo Acquisitions, Inc. Kelly's Coffee Group, Inc.
/s/ Ruairidh Campbell /s/ David Wolfson
--------------------------------- ---------------------------------
Ruairidh Campbell, President David Wolfson, Vice-President
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1104671/000078873801500098/cairoacq10q.txt
ALLIED RESOURCES, INC.
1403 East 900 South, Salt Lake City, Utah 84105
(801) 582-9609
Date: June 4, 2003
/s/ Ruairidh Campbell
Ruairidh Campbell, President and Chief Financial Officer
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1211524/000078873803000136/allied10ka.txt
INVESTNET, INC.
1403 East 900 South, Salt Lake City, Utah 84105
(801) 582-9609
INVESTNET, INC.
/s/ Ruairidh Campbell
Ruairidh Campbell
President, Chief Financial Officer, and Director
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1017699/000078873803000110/investnet.txt
EnterNet Inc ( formerly Secured Data)
EnterNet, Inc.
403 East 900 South Salt Lake City, Utah 84105 (801) 582-9609
Ruairidh Campbell, President With Copy to: Richard Surber, Esq.
1403 East 900 South 268 West 400 South, Suite 300
Salt Lake City, Utah 84105 Salt Lake City, Utah 84101
(801) 582-9609 (801) 575-8073
So, there are links between WWA (the share that Franklin keeps pushing) and Surber and both the Wolfsons.
Who was it said that you can tell a man by the company he keeps? Clearly Ruairidh Campbell (President of WWA) isn't on the side of the angels!
www.crimes-of-persuasion.com © Crimes of Persuasion 2000 Legal Disclaimer
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"Mr. Frizzell obtained the data for delivery failures in CMKM for April of 2005. Setting aside the observation that not all delivery failures represent NAKED short sales, the information provided to Mr. Frizzell shows that the failures in CMKM were insignificant and transient."
"Indeed, the delivery failures topped out at approximately 186 million shares on April 22, 2005, a trifling amount for a company with 703.5 billion shares outstanding. Moreover, even that insignificant number of fails was settled a few days later. At the end of the month the delivery failures amounted to only approximately 3.1 million shares worth a picayune $300.
"In any event, the vaunted task force perpetuated the fantasy about a massive NAKED short position, to the evident delight of many of CMKM's loyal followers."
========================================================
CMKM Diamonds makes the big time in NYT article
2006-10-04 10:55 ET - Street Wire
by Lee M. WEBB
CMKM Diamonds Inc., Saskatchewan native Urban Casavant's revoked pink sheet woofer, has made the big time, if that can be measured by an unflattering article in The New York Times and an equally biting follow-up blog entry by chief financial correspondent Floyd Norris.
The hook for Mr. Norris's Sept. 29 New York Times column was a National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) enforcement action against Nevada-based NevWest Securities Corp. and its two senior officers, president Sergey Rumyantsev and vice-president Antony M. Santos.
As previously reported by STOCKWATCH, the NASD complaint alleges that the respondents violated anti-money laundering rules, failed to file suspicious activity reports with the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and basically looked the other way as a client with 32 accounts dumped a staggering 259 billion shares of CMKM for proceeds of $53-million. (All amounts are in U.S. dollars.)
The respondents have not yet filed a response to the complaint and no findings have been made regarding the allegations.
The NevWest client, identified only by the initials "JE" in the complaint is actually John Edwards, who is not a party to the NASD action.
As part of his column headlined "Selling Shares by the Billions to Racing Fans," Mr. Norris sketched some of the background of the wild CMKM sub-penny promotion.
The column
"Was this stock being traded by crooks?" Mr. Norris asks in his opening. "Should the brokers have noticed?
"How about the regulators, who now charge that the brokers missed 'red flags' but may have missed a few themselves."
According to Mr. Norris, who does not identify Mr. Edwards in his column, the NevWest client unloaded the vast majority of his 259 billion CMKM shares "before the company had bothered to let investors know so many shares existed."
In fact, while not mentioned by Mr. Norris, Mr. Casavant did what he could to keep investors in the dark about the massive dilution, including gagging the company's transfer agent.
Moreover, while he was peeling off hundreds of billions of shares that ended up in the hands of family, friends and business associates as well as his own, Mr. Casavant had his investor relations lackey Melvin O'Neil spread the word to the company's cult-like following that, far from diluting the company, he was retiring shares.
Much to the dismay and even continued disbelief among some of the CMKM fanatics, by the time the printing press was turned off there were an incredible 703.5 billion shares issued and outstanding.
Touching on CMKM's purported business, Mr. Norris goes on to say that CMKM claimed to be in the diamond business in Canada.
In fact, CMKM did scoop up some moose pasture in Saskatchewan and, along with a couple of Canadian joint venture partners, did manage to poke a few holes into the previously discovered and abandoned Smeaton kimberlite. That provided some promotional mileage.
CMKM's limited exploration also included drilling a hole at the Smeaton town dump, which at least provided a few laughs in the absence of any toutable results.
According to Mr. Norris, while the company could not come up with the money to work its claims, "it did spend $4 million to promote itself at 'funny car' races by sponsoring the CMKXtreme car, which had a drawing of a diamond and a miner on its side."
Given that CMKM has not filed any financial statements, the $4-million may be a best guess based on the letter of an auditor who was fired after reporting that he had uncovered possible criminal activities at the company.
Among other things, ousted auditor Brad Beckstead disclosed to CMKM and subsequently the SEC a possibly illegal transfer of $4-million to CMKXtreme Inc., a company controlled by Mr. Casavant.
In any event, CMKM at one time sponsored two funny cars, including one with a caricature of what appeared to be a construction worker wielding a jackhammer on some substance from which fully cut diamonds bounced into the air. CMKM also sponsored a speed truck and a motorcycle as part of its racy promotion.
As noted by Mr. Norris, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally pulled the plug on CMKM. However, the revocation did not become final until Oct. 28, 2005, more than seven months after the regulator filed its administration proceeding against Mr. Casavant's dog of dogs and long after hundreds of billions of shares had been dumped on gullible investors.
After sketching the NASD complaint against NevWest and its two officers, Mr. Norris offers some final thoughts.
"What does all this prove?" Mr. Norris asks nearing the end of his column. "It may indicate that the Patriot Act gives regulators an unexpected tool to force brokers to tell the government when they see funny business. It may also reflect the fact that regulators do not even look at many filings.
"And it shows that this can go on and on. CMKM has reached a deal to sell what assets it has to Entourage Mining, a penny stock company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, which will pay with shares that will be distributed to CMKM holders."
Indeed, in a peculiar deal announced last year as CMKM dropped its appeal of the SEC ruling, paving the way for the regulator to finalize the revocation order last October, Entourage issued 45 million shares to the pink sheet promotion for some Saskatchewan claims under the control of Mr. Casavant's business associate Emerson Koch.
Entourage, which changes hands for less than 30 cents per share in light trading on the OTC Bulletin Board, has seen the majority of the claims acquired in the deal with CMKM expire, many of them before the 45 million shares were even issued.
"Looks like a hot stock to me," Mr. Norris remarks at the end of his column.
It remains to be seen whether the 45 million shares of that "hot stock" are eventually distributed to CMKM's shareholders.
In a rare SEC filing on Oct. 24, 2005, CMKM disclosed that it was in default on all of its mineral property agreements, did not have the money to continue operations and would be winding up its affairs.
As part of the winding up, the company announced that the 45 million Entourage shares would be distributed to CMKM shareholders.
To effect the liquidating distribution, CMKM struck a "task force" consisting of the company's former trophy co-chairman, 87-year-old Robert Maheu, corporate counsel Donald Stoecklein and Texas lawyer Bill Frizzell.
As previously reported by STOCKWATCH, Mr. Frizzell, a CMKM shareholder, represented about 5,000 other shareholders who anted up $25 each for his services during the administrative proceeding against the company.
Mr. Frizzell was among the company's cult-like followers convinced that the massively diluted pink sheet woofer's woes could be largely attributed to NAKED short selling.
The vaunted CMKM task force insisted that shareholders take physical delivery of their shares and fax copies to Mr. Frizzell's office in order to qualify for the Entourage distribution.
While the certificate pull was ostensibly instituted as part of the "orderly and verifiable pro rata liquidating distribution" of Entourage shares, the cockamamie scheme was underpinned by the belief that it would disclose a huge short position in CMKM.
Indeed, the task force, effectively spearheaded by Mr. Frizzell, proclaimed on its website that it had "credible information" indicating that there was a potential short position of two trillion shares.
As previously reported by STOCKWATCH, a review of CMKM's trading data debunks the incredible claim of a potential short position of two trillion shares.
From the time Mr. Casavant took control of CMKM in November of 2002 until the SEC yanked the company's stock registration in October of 2005, approximately 1.77 trillion CMKM shares changed hands.
It should be clear to most people that it is impossible to have a short position of two trillion shares when only 1.77 trillion shares have traded.
Interestingly, the impossible notion of a possible NAKED short position of two trillion shares was also DEBUNKED by information regarding delivery failures that was provided to Mr. Frizzell by the SEC.
Mr. Frizzell obtained the data for delivery failures in CMKM for April of 2005. Setting aside the observation that not all delivery failures represent NAKED short sales, the information provided to Mr. Frizzell shows that the failures in CMKM were insignificant and transient.
Indeed, the delivery failures topped out at approximately 186 million shares on April 22, 2005, a trifling amount for a company with 703.5 billion shares outstanding. Moreover, even that insignificant number of fails was settled a few days later. At the end of the month the delivery failures amounted to only approximately 3.1 million shares worth a picayune $300.
In any event, the vaunted task force perpetuated the fantasy about a massive NAKED short position, to the evident delight of many of CMKM's loyal followers.
Alas, the "cert pull" further DEBUNKED the notion of a massive NAKED short position and, as the scheme was winding down, Mr. Frizzell removed the claim about a potential short position of two trillion shares from the task force website.
The cert pull kicked off in November of 2005 and officially ended on May 15 of this year. According to the task force website, 39,648 CMKM shareholders faxed copies of their share certificates.
While that it is certainly a remarkable achievement, those certificates represented only approximately 633.3 billion shares, according to the task force's tally. That is approximately 70 billion shares less than CMKM's 703.5 billion issued and outstanding shares.
The ballyhooed task force officially dissolved on June 6, but the liquidating distribution of Entourage shares still has not taken place.
Reportedly, the task force recommended that CMKM proceed with an interpleader action in a U.S. District Court. In effect, CMKM would hand the 45 million Entourage shares over to the court and let a judge decide who has a legitimate claim to them and how they should be divided up.
So far, CMKM has not taken up the task force's recommendation and the liquidating distribution remains in limbo.
Meanwhile, some of CMKM's shrinking band of cult-like followers still believe that there is a massive NAKED short position in the revoked pink sheet dog of dogs.
Apparently some of the CMKM fanatics decided to set Mr. Norris straight on the matter.
Mr. Norris responded with what was essentially another article on his New York Times blog.
The blog
Evidently a quick study, by the time Mr. Norris posted his blog article on the evening of Sept. 29, he had identified Mr. Edwards as the NevWest client who dumped 259 billion CMKM shares for proceeds of $53-million.
"According to the NASD, many of the shares sold by J.E. had been registered in the name of the stock transfer agent used by the company, a rather unusual procedure," Mr. Norris wrote.
In fact, the NASD alleges that from August of 2004 and continuing into 2005, Mr. Edwards began depositing CMKM certificates in the name of NevWest's clearing firm, not the company's stock transfer agent.
As it happens, during that period, NevWest used Computer Clearing Services Inc. as its clearing agent.
A review of information from the master shareholders list as of Dec. 31, 2004, reveals that approximately 165 billion shares were issued in the name of Computer Clearing Services.
Interestingly, Computer Clearing Services routed almost all of its non-directed trades through subsidiaries of Knight Trading Group Inc., now known as Knight Capital Group.
During CMKM's racy promotion as billions of shares regularly traded on a daily basis, many of the company's cultish followers were stridently claiming that Knight was one of the firms shorting the stock. Of course, there was no evidence to back up the shorting claims.
Some of CMKM's loyal fans took the purported shorting issue up with Mr. Norris, who was clearly surprised at the choice of concerns.
In his blog article, Mr. Norris notes that Mr. Casavant invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself and refused to testify at the SEC administrative hearing in May of 2005.
He also notes that Mr. Maheu, then the company's touted co-chairman, knew nothing about CMKM's financial condition and had never even visited the company's office.
"So who are shareholders mad at?" Mr. Norris asks. "The management? The man who sold more than a third of the shares outstanding without ever filing a form saying he owned more than 5 percent, and who may have been an insider?
"The S.E.C. for letting this go on for a couple of years before revoking the company's registration, or for having not yet brought any charges against J.E. for selling them shares that may well be worthless?
"No, not any of them.
"A few shareholders who contacted me today were furious about my column because it failed to identify the real villains, as they saw it -- the NAKED short sellers who they say sold the shares without borrowing them."
Rounding out his blog entry, Mr. Norris reproduced a bit of correspondence from one of the CMKM "get shorty" fanatics.
"What possibly could be the reason you wrote about a worthless little pennystock CMKM Diamonds..and placed it on the first page of the NY Times business section," the writer wanted to know.
"Could it possibly be that the company has just about implicated every major brokerage firms in the country in the systematic rape of the American people due to the insidious practice of NAKED SHORT SELLING...COUNTERFEITING," the fantasizing correspondent continued.
"Your boss's (sic) on Wall Street will have to do some heavy spin on this one Floyd," the writer added.
Mr. Norris's blog response clearly did not satisfy some of the company's faithful followers.
"I will guilt this SOB into action!" an Internet poster identified as Jim Farn declared, pasting a copy of another message to Mr. Norris.
"You might be interested to know that Harvey Pitt would be disappointed that you have chosen to focus your efforts on 259 billion shares and John Edwards," Mr. Farn wrote.
It is not clear why the posited disappointment of Mr. Pitt, who was essentially forced out as SEC chairman in November of 2002 after only a 15-month stint, might be of any interest at all to Mr. Norris.
"IMO this is a NAKED short selling sting led by Mr. Bob Maheu," Mr. Farn continued. "You focussed on some questionable aspects of this story. I respectfully ask you to do some digging with regards to Maheu and 'forced communication'. You might find some similarity with Hughes planes and Casavants cars.
"You are grossly underestimating what you are discussing.
"As a Times subscriber and avid fan, I expect more and I simply do not understand your simplistic analysis and angle."
Ah, yes; welcome to the wild and woolly world of CMKM and its remaining gullible cult-like followers, Mr. Norris.
Meanwhile, CMKM has a new "interim" chief executive officer, Kevin West, who was appointed on Sept. 19. Mr. West, who has been a CMKM shareholder for a long time, worked on the certificate pull scheme initiated by the vaunted CMKM task force.
Mr. West also served as vice-president of The Owners Group Inc., a budding stock touting service that grew out of Mr. Frizzell's representation of CMKM shareholders during the SEC administrative proceeding against the company.
CMKM's new interim chief executive officer has been an ardent crusader against NAKED short selling, as he understands it.
Among other things, Mr. West circulated a letter written to U.S. President George Bush, SEC chairman William Donaldson and others in which he natters about collusion between the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. and the SEC regarding short selling and suggests that journalists are paid to deceive people "into believing that there is no corruption."
"There are literally tens of thousands of average Americans who are now aware of the SEC's complicity in the sordid tale of abusive and illegal NAKED shorting," Mr. West wrote. "The DTCC 'earns' hundreds of millions of dollars annually by facilitating this violation of the small investor, and moreover we know the SEC gets a 'commission' on every violation."
Mr. West, who did a fair amount of Internet touting of CMKM, also once served up a "conservative" valuation of the company, pegging it at a modest $64-billion and suggesting that it could realistically be worth many times that amount.
CMKM's new leader also offered a rather interesting assessment of Mr. Casavant in a message to so-called bashers as the promotion was stumbling in October of 2004.
"No matter what you believe, Urban Casavant is a Godly man and God is using him to re-distribute the wealth on this earth," Mr. West wrote. "If you are one that try (sic) to mess with this plan, may God have mercy on your soul."
Since his appointment as interim chief executive officer, Mr. West has asked CMKM shareholders to help out with prayers.
The silly saga continues.
Comments regarding this article may be sent to lWEBB@STOCKWATCH.com.
(Further information regarding CMKM Diamonds and associated companies can be found in STOCKWATCH articles dated Oct. 21, 2003; June 22; Sept. 16 and 24; Oct. 1, 15 and 20, 2004; Feb. 11, 14, 18, 22 and 23; March 1, 3, 4, 7, 14, 15, 16 and 21; June 6, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 29 and 30; July 1, 4, 6, 12 and 13; Aug. 2, 5 and 9; Sept. 7, 12, 27 and 30; Oct. 24, 26 and 31; Nov. 7, 11, 22 and 25; Dec. 1, 6, 9, 15 and 22, 2005; Jan. 3; and Sept. 29, 2006.)
Bud Burrell never disclosed during his pumps of USXP that he was being compensated by the company.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Regulation 17(b) states:
“It shall be unlawful for any person, by the use of any means or instruments of transportation or communication in interstate commerce or by the use of the mails, to publish, give publicity to, or circulate any notice, circular, advertisement, newspaper, article, letter, investment service, or communication which, though not purporting to offer a security for sale, describes such security for a consideration received or to be received, directly or indirectly, from an issuer, underwriter, or dealer, without fully disclosing the receipt, whether past or prospective, of such consideration and the amount thereof.”
"The first company that I am aware of that actually made a documented complaint on naked short selling in its stock was a company called UNIVERSAL Express. And it has been roundly slandered by the SEC. It's been sued. They have actually been the only company to actually sue the SEC in federal court. And the bottom line is, they're now going to 11th Circuit. And could I tell you something? "
"BB: Dr. Jim is very knowledgeable. And he's very commercial. He's not really interested in doing this unless he gets paid for it. I've, bluntly I have to take the same approach. At age 59 I don't have a lot of pro bono time to give anybody"
http://www.ncans.net/files/bud3.rtf
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CFRN Investigates: Interview with Bud Burrell, Part 3
Dwayne: . . . Radio Network. And my special guest this morning is industry expert Mr. Bud Burrell. Mr. Burrell is an expert in the area of naked short selling counterfeit shares on Wall Street. We've had several interesting discussions so far this week. And it is a pleasure and an honor to welcome you back to the show again this morning. Good morning Bud. You're live on CFRN.
Bud Burrell: Thank you Dwayne.
D: How are you today?
BB: Very good.
D: Great. I've got your e-mails. I'm gonna get, that's some good stuff there. I'm gonna get it posted on the website.
BB: I'd be happy to have you do that. I could give you a lot more too.
D: Okay. You send them over and I'll post them.
BB: Very good.
D: Tell me where you want to go this morning?
BB: Well first of all, one topic that I would like to get forward to your CMKX related listeners is where they're going after CMKX. That's one point. And the other thing I'd like to talk about is I would like to try to address some of the questions, I know, you've gotten online directly. Not just related to CMKX, but about some of the technical issues involved in the shorting scandal. Uh, C -
D: Now, I've got that same question. I've been asking that question for quite some time.
BB: Uh-huh.
D: What, is there life after CMKX? Because so many people seem to be, they have this tunnel vision for CMKX as being the only way they're ever going to prosper. And I don't want to, I don't want to rain on anybody's parade, but I have to. I'm in a position where I have to ask, well what if it doesn't happen? Then what?
BB: Can I tell you, whether it happens or not. What CMKX has caused to be created is the largest and most active and cohesive group of shareholders behind a single stock in this cause. If not, it may be a more cohesive group than all shareholders in all these causes. And if they've acquired a standing, a platform for comment and a position, then I bluntly think it would be a tragic waste if all they did was focus on CMKX. And then after its settlement, allow themselves to be dissolved. Bluntly, the cause needs the CMKX group to remain cohesive for its own leaders to emerge from the cause and to continue on. Because bluntly, for CMKX short position, while I'm certain it's the largest one at depository trust, is hardly the only one. And there are literally millions of shareholders who've seen their assets stripped from them by this group of criminal manipulators. Which is highly, highly interlinked. And the bottom line is that at this particular point, CMKX really has the potential, irrespective of what comes out of this, you know, rumored settlement, to be a force. And I'd like to encourage all of the CMKX shareholders, their activists and their followers, to stay together as a unit. I would not let the CMKX name disappear. I would keep it in the face of the regulators and the market. You know, not for months or not for weeks or months, but for years after this is, you know, comes to some resolution, good or bad. That's the first point I would like to make.
D: Okay. Well let me, let's expound on that.
BB: Yeah.
D: Now, I provide a forum, Christian Traders Online forum, and I've asked the question, hey once the CMKX issue is over, are you all going to leave? Are you gonna stick around? And of course everybody says well we're gonna stick around. But you know, people will need a central meeting place, a point of connectivity, a point of contact if we are going to continue in this effort beyond CMKX to effectively correct the wrongs on Wall Street. So I encourage, or I'll just make this statement. Christian Traders, the online forum, will be around for, till Jesus comes back. And I'll leave it at that.
BB: Well I think it's a very, very important issue. Again, I don't think anyone has the perspective on all of the cases, both nationally and internationally. And I could tell you, there is no other unit like the CMKX community group. And maybe become CMKX shareholders opposing counterfeiting.
D: I have never seen a body of investors come together the way the CMKX shareholders have. It really boggles my mind. It does.
BB: Well it's very interesting. Irrespective of whether or not, you know, Irvin Casanvant is good, bad or indifferent, a criminal or not. Irrespective of his taste in some of his professional associates previously and currently. This community, the shareholder community, is again, there's nothing like it in the industry right now. And bluntly, 65,000 shareholders have traction. And that doesn't even note, can count how many shareholders are offshore that we don't, that no one even knows about. Or people who bought their stock through X clearing and no one knows about. I've got to tell you, that many people. If just a, if just 5,000 of the CMKX shareholders would file pro se, meaning self-represented lawsuits, in federal district court over the counterfeiting issue and naked short selling, bluntly it would break the back of the U.S. federal court system entirely. 5,000 lawsuits. The SEC told Sedona directly that they could not handle 50 Sedona type cases. 50. Try to imagine what would happen if 500 CMKX shareholders filed or groups totaling 500 filed 500 lawsuits in every district court in America over the issue of counterfeiting. It would create a fire storm. And [indiscernible] right now.
D: Tell me this Bud. Let's say I want to start a movement today. And you've got me thinking. And perhaps I will. I've got several attorneys on retainer. If I wanted to file such an action as you're speaking of, how would I go about it? When I call up my attorney, what would I say to him?
BB: Say you're, the attorney can't represent the person pro se. They can't even be involved in the drafting of the thing. But he might be able to give them model complaints.
D: Uh-hmm.
BB: Bluntly they're ou there.
D: Okay.
BB: Eagle Tech Communications is one example. Represented itself pro se when the SEC moved to deregister Eagle Tech.
D: What would be the basis of my case?
BB: Your basis is that you were defrauded a value. Remember you have to specify how much money you lost specifically because of the misconduct.
D: Misconduct by who?
BB: The, you could name one of the brokers. The broker dealer that put you into CMKX or one of the parties you know have been guilty of manipulating CMKX.
D: Okay.
BB: And then at that point, put a, list 100 John Does after the first, you know, real names you have. At that particular point, you've opened a Pandora's Box. Because believe me, the CMKX manipulation has to include the rating hedge funds, their supporting broker dealers, the clearing houses, the brokerage firms, depository trusts, the SEC itself. And the bottom line is at this particular point, again, there's nothing like the CMKX shareholder group out there. And it would be a tragedy if that group came together. And bluntly I tell you too, the reason there's even a rumor of a prospective settlement is the fear that is within the CMKX company itself that these shareholders are gonna rise up and figuratively lynch them. Illegally or criminally, you know, civilly, if they don't do the right thing to take care of those shareholders. And you know, something that, that fear is the only reason anyone's gonna get, if they get anything. The only reason they will ever have gotten it is because they acted in a unified manner for a specific objective.
D: Okay. Now Debbie, I just saw your comment pop up on my screen. I would like to ask you, Noah, Van, Sandera if he's willing to get together this afternoon, once we adjourn from this broadcast and put your heads together. Let's get our, let's get our ducks lined up. And let's do exactly what Bud is encouraging us to do. Because the problem is folks, there's too many Americans sitting back and doing absolutely nothing. Or they're going to chat rooms or message boards and they're whining all day. Okay, it's time to stop whining. It's time to get up and do something. So I challenge you guys. I don't challenge you. I encourage you. I ask you to support me in this. Help me put it together. And let's move forward.
BB: I'm gonna do one more thing today too. I supported several authors, one of whom has written a book that is looking for a publisher right now. It's called Assassins on Wall Street. And the bottom line is at this particular juncture, I provided him with an enormous amount of historical communications on these topics. And Dwayne, I'm gonna give these to you to be put up on your website.
D: Okay.
BB: These are literally hundreds of articles.
D: Okay. You're gonna e-mail those to me?
BB: I am. They include not just my work, but everything that I've seen that was appropriate in the space for some three plus odd years that I supported the Wes Christian and John O'Quinn team.
D: You know, a question keeps popping up on my screen. Are you still a consultant to Wes Christian?
BB: Only indirectly. They've had some budget issues. And the point that I look at my particular contribution to the cause, I told him that, you know, I would not [indiscernible] a direct supporter unless, especially after some other issues that came up. But um, I am friendly with Wes. And I don't think he is the core of what's going on with some of the legal issues here. He's clearly been instrumental. He's the only game in town. I'll say this to you that way. Until some other law firm, an attorney, emerge who put their real money on the table and produce real results. Um, I'm not gonna be supporting any specific counsel. Now I would say to you one point. See a lot has been made of the fact that they've been slapped down a number of times in their legal actions. They won't be slapped down on Sedona Corporation. I can tell you Rod Young is not going to be slapped down whether Wes Christian and his guys are still supporting him or now. They are now currently. But they did not in the delisting, deregistration actions. What I would say to you is that this is exactly what happened to all of the plaintiffs' lawyers in the silicone breast implant cases and the tobacco cases. They went through years of being defeated, you know, facing motions to dismiss. Motions to change venue. Motions against standing. Being forced into discovery finally and then having the parties refuse to provide discovery. Having those parties in turn be forced to go into court to get a motion to compel discovery. I mean, so the pattern you've seen and the responses of the defendants here are exactly what's happened in every major plaintiffs' action in history. And too much has been made of the fact that these guys have not been successfully generally in court, except on the. They have gotten production of discovery on Eagle Tech Communications. And I won't talk about this here, but I will tell you that that discovery produced in, for Eagle Tech included accounts that no one even knew the importance of at the depository trust.
D: Now, Bud, you're obviously not a newcomer to this whole issue. You've been onto this for some time. Tell us exactly what you said to the president of the American Stock Exchange back in July of 2000?
BB: I happened to be the number two person in a small dot com. I had very specific IT credentials. You'll see that in my CV which I'll send to you.
D: Okay.
BB: A company CEO was under investigation by the SEC for beginning in `96. This was never disclosed to me. I only found it out as a result of litigation some three years later. It's the only litigation I've ever been in related to my work. And it was not for anything related to the company. I had a dispute with him over an employment agreement. But I did it specifically to gain discovery. Cause what they had purportedly done was to destroy the books and records of the corporation inadvertently by discard. The real issue was several of the officers and directors of the company had taken out, ripped the books and records of the company. They provided them to me. They had previously provided them to the SEC. The SEC refused to act. I provided it to the SEC, again stonewalled, no action. And it was clear to me that in watching how the company developed that not only was there insider selling, which was proven by the transfer agent later. You know, two, three years later. But there also was a partnership between the pump and dump sellers and the short sellers. The short sellers control the access of the pump and dump players to the market. And what they basically had done, they acted like they were adversaries when in fact they were, they were right and left hands of the same problem.
D: Partners in crime so to speak?
BB: As they are today. Every deal out there. Now the bottom line is I was very, I caught the NASD lying to me about a spamming allegations they had made against the company.
D: Uh-hmm.
BB: We had done a corporate strategic partnership with a major telecommunications company. We had the gold standard of, you know, of vendors to Sun, Cisco, Quest, Oracle, EMC. We were the first Cisco and EMC corporate strategic partnerships with a non-venture backed company. And the result was the company eventually bankrupted some five months after I left. But in mid-July 2000, it became apparent to me the NASD was blocking the American Stock Exchange from getting access to the best or, you know, credentialed technology listings. When I caught the NASD in the lie to me, which I documented in the form of an affidavit I provided to my counsel and which has been sent to the White House, among many others. I called the head of, the then head of listings with the American Stock Exchange and asked for a meeting with Peter Quick who was then the AMEX President. I knew most of the people on the exchange from the years I spent in New York and the trading I had done on that floor. I came up and I told them about the issue of the NASD obstructing my listing application to go to the AMEX. And I wanted the AMEX not NASDAQ. Because I'd seen the NASDAQ manipulations. And I told Peter Quick that DTC was dirty on the shorting issue. I did not know when I told him this that he was on the board of DTC. He subsequently resigned from that board. I can't say I'm the only reason that happened. But I can promise you that that was on the back of his mind in terms of it being a contributing element to his resignation. As a result, when the first lawsuits came down against DTC, he wasn't named. All the other directors were, but not him. Now I say this to you because, because it's some, if this kind of corruption is pervasive at that level, and if industry officials know that they can't even say something about it when they are running a major exchange, then you and I as individual shareholders or small individual operators have no chance. The only way we can have a chance is to act in a unified manner and to raise our voices basically. Civilized behavior is meaningless to these people. They're sociopathic in their conduct. They're arrogance is without boundary. In fact I can only attribute their arrogance to one, one issue. Someone in the regulatory, some group of people in the regulatory processes have told them that they've got a pass for this kind of behavior. That's got to stop. And as I've said yesterday, in my first conversation with you Dwayne.
D: Uh-hmm.
BB: This cat is out of the bag.
D: What was the president's response to you?
BB: He blushed and then he left the office.
D: And that's it?
BB: Yeah. After that, the head of listings who's been, since left the exchange, told me. He said, well you probably embarrassed him. And I said, I didn't, it wasn't my intention. It was just to make him aware of the fact that there's people out there. I wasn't surely the only one, who knew that there was a manipulation of the markets going on at that point in time. This was July 2000. And one of the things I'll give you to put up on your website is the affidavit I prepared for my counsel in which I articulated the catching, the specific market regulation person at the NASD I caught lying to me. And it was unnecessary. All they had to do was tell me they had a problem with my CEO, which I think was the underlying issue. And instead they left me hanging out. If they'd told me that they had him under investigation, I would've removed him as CEO. Put him on the sidelines. Instead they allowed, you know, a $350 million company to be destroyed. You know what? They don't care. 155 people put out of work. Now magnify the 155 people, it was an average number, which is not unrepresentative, times the six or seven thousand dot coms that were bankrupted by the short raiding related to the crash. Which was really a raid. And you have some real, you know. Susan Trimbath, the woman who was the DTC speaker on the podium said, well you know, $6 billion a day in fails. Pretty soon you're up to some real money. So that's my particular format on that.
D: Well, uh, you're really opening our eyes to so many things. And I've got some questions for you.
BB: Uh-huh.
D: That have come across. And I'm not going to pick and choose. The list is not too terribly long. So I'm just gonna start at the top and give them to you exactly the way they came in. What is the likelihood that the DTC will be successful in removing paper certificates from the market? Furthermore what can we do to stop this?
BB: Eventually in order, the grand long term goal of all the settlement entities and the brokers clearing houses [indiscernible] is to go to a complete electronic paperless system. With the ultimate goal of reaching a point where we have a thing called straight through processing. Sometimes know by the initial STP. Which is effectively instantaneous delivery versus payment. What the custodians have shown themselves to be is irresponsible. And the reason a lot of this hasn't happened already is because too much money is being made off of the electronic manipulation of these positions in the various depositories. Not just in this country, but overseas. If you want, you know, support for that, Schroder, the German Prime Minister, removed the head of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange for criminal lending of securities.
D: Now can you define criminal lending of securities for us?
BB: It means he was lending securities under traditional margin rules were not lendable. He was lending stock from cash accounts. And from type 2 institutional safekeeping cash accounts. From excess margin positions. He was even lending restricted stocks before the restriction came off the stock. It wasn't just stocks he was lending too. What you have to know is that this shorting issue, this electronic counterfeiting is pervasive to the fixed income markets. Indeed, quietly it may be bigger in the fixed income markets which are, dwarf the equity markets. Than anyone has any idea of. So the point is that right now, this objective of straight through processing, there's nothing wrong with that. Bluntly I've been asked to run an exchange platform service provider from Switzerland which offers just that. But guess what? You can't short on that exchange.
D: Hmm.
BB: Why? Because if you're instantaneously settling, you can't sell something that's not in, that hasn't been dematerialized in the system. And if you sell it, it's out of your account instantly. And you pay for it instantly because you can only sell it, okay, if the buyer has real cash and the same custodian structure to buy the stock for cash.
D: So would that be, would that be an unhealthy thing for the markets if people were no longer able to short a stock?
BB: There's no one that knows the answer to that. The type of, a lot of the hypothetical arguments about short selling have come from academics.
D: Uh-hmm.
BB: Most of whom have, don't have any practical experience actually trading securities and are not aware of the manipulations that can occur in short selling. And the key is right now that no one's goal here is to see stocks trade on wider spread with less liquidity. But having said that, there's some price trade off point where creating artificial liquidity to narrow spreads, okay, increases volatility in the market generally. And one of the great canards of the SEC and NASD is they had to protect the short sellers against manipulative players on the long side. Well who's protecting the long players? Who's, why would a person who has bought a share for log term appreciation allow those shares to be loaned to someone who's betting against that very appreciation? It's illogical. There's a reason why we had the securities restrictions on short selling. To go back to the `33 and `34 acts. And it's because bluntly, nothing hypothetical, no objective opinion. There were short sale raiders operating in both the `29 and `37 crashes that operated in large pools holding hands conspiratorially. And those pools were so effective, they crashed the stock market 90% of its value. Okay, essentially without even owning the stock. Now this was where, you know, the 30, our great grandfathers and great grandmothers weren't idiots. And the rules in the `33 and `34 acts that prohibited short selling are there specifically for a reason. And that reason is that they cannot have it both ways. Short selling was prohibited and needed to be limited because they knew that it was subject to grotesque manipulation. It's just that simple. And for the chutzpah in the situation is that these new guys, these new lawyer regulators, again none of whom have had a real job in their lives. Okay, not one. Okay, those guys are sitting there making these arbitrary judgments about what's gonna be good for the market. Okay, just as right now they're experimenting with 1,000 of the most liquid stocks with no, eliminating short sale rules entirely.
D: Uh-hmm.
BB: Could I tell you something? That's gonna be a catastrophe. Why don't they let someone run a parallel test right to it, that allows no shorting of a stock? None.
D: Uh-hmm.
BB: You know why? Cause they're afraid of the result.
D: And what would that result be?
BB: It would mean that only real shareholders would be in the market.
D: Uh-hmm.
BB: Okay? And I'm not saying that's the optimal solution. But compare the results of the two markets if you pull the short sellers out of it.
D: Well in my opinion, only real shareholders should be in the market.
BB: Well it's a very interesting thing. The hedge funds have been created off of these academic constructs of market neutral strategies. Everyone's trying to get a return they don't deserve for risk, for less risk than they, than is being taken appropriately. I would tell you at this juncture, clearly, okay, these rule changes that have been made, have been made to accommodate a small part of the total investment community. It's the hedge funds. They're 7% or 8% of total assets in this country. And what they're gonna drive is a move from an American investment away from investment for long term return, which has been the backbone of small company structure. To what is called in Europe, an arbitrage economy. When I first came on Wall Street in 1973, there was no capital markets in Europe. There wasn't, there wasn't even long term fixed income paper. There was five year term notes and that was it. There was no such thing as an equity market or a long term bond market. And what the hedge funds are trying to drive is giving them control of the economic marketplace. And if it happens, there will never again be another Microsoft. Another Intel. Another Cisco. Another Oracle. Those are parallel underlying issue. And that is the venture capital community does not want small public companies to have, small public companies to exist, one. Or entrepreneurs to have capital structure, capital formation alternatives to them. Now the practical issue is, there isn't enough venture capital in this country to support the creative drive of Americans. You know, if all these companies fail, you bet. It's the old Babe Ruth analogy. If you want to hit home runs, you better be able to strike out a lot. They are trying to eliminate strike outs from the market. And it's economically impossible. Now a good example is, particularly one of the largest venture firms and extremely recognized and credible is a firm called Draper Fisher Jervitson out of Silicone Valley. They're a global firm.
D: Uh-hmm.
BB: Draper Fisher brags that they get 12,000 business plans submitted to them a year.
D: Wow.
BB: How many do they fund? Fifteen.
D: Hmm.
BB: Now does that mean that those other, of the other plans left that they didn't fund that there were no credible ideas, no creative force? You'd have to then remember what happened with Bill Gates when he founded Microsoft. I heard every slander he could have directed at him by the very people. There's no new slanders in the short selling arena. Dates with a college dropout. This guy's never gonna beat IBM. Yada, yada, yada. Okay? Larry Ellison, Larry Ellison's a lunatic. He can't be trusted to go to the bathroom by himself. Okay? He'll never build a company. Well let me tell you something, 60% of all the millionaires in this country didn't graduate from high school. 60% of all millionaires in this country have been bankrupt not once but twice.
D: Ben Franklin went bankrupt five times.
BB: Five times. Could I tell you something? If they tried to screw around with the fundamental economics of the American entrepreneurial architecture. And the entire, and to try to destroy the capital formation process as it's existed for, you know, a hundred years for small public companies. Okay. They're gonna destroy the small company job formation process. Now one statistic that they never like to hear be bandied about is the Fortune 1000 in the last four years has dematerialized 40 million jobs. Where do the jobs come from that, to replace the jobs liquidated by the major companies from the small public company arena? Any politician who ever has the nerve to say this to me is gonna get it shoved down his throat. It's economic illiteracy. And I say this to you because you know, this is a passionate issue. They want to, they want to screw around with this, they better be ready to take the personal, not institutional, but personal responsibility for the destruction of American capital markets for small public companies.
D: Hmm.
BB: So. This is a hot button for me so.
D: Well I understand. But I'm, I am, I'm such an incredible proponent for the small business, the small businessman. Not even so much into the public arena, but-
BB: All small public, all small companies, you bet.
D: Yeah, when a little restaurant opens up in my neighborhood and I go in and I meet the mom and pop, or the young couple that are starting it, I know how difficult it is to start a business and to be successful and to be profitable. So not only do I give them my business, but I tell my friends. I mean, that kind of, that's the way I was raised.
BB: Could I tell you something?
D: Sure.
BB: That's the story of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
D: Oh really?
BB: Harlan Sanders started Kentucky, was a twice bankrupt food product salesman. You know, this is a food processing product salesman. He came up with the concept of Kentucky Fried Chicken cooked in this, you know, pressurized steamer. He was on the US Highway 25, which was the main road from Chicago to Florida that people drove down every, you know, winter. He opened up his first store with his first social security check at age 65. The rest was rote.
D: He was 65 when he opened it?
BB: 65 when he opened the store that he finally got the equation right on.
D: Well I tell you what, after Greenspan's comments this morning a lot of 65 year old people are gonna have to start opening some kind of business.
BB: That's right.
D: Because the government is getty ready to rob everybody of their retirement. And I am, I was so upset this morning when I read those comments. I mean, you know, people have worked all of their lives. Lived the American Dream. Did the right things. You know, went to work, paid their taxes -
BB: Put their money away.
D: Put their money away. Yeah. All the things that good Americans should do. They finally reach the golden years, retirement. And the government snatches it out from under them. I'm up, now I've still got a ways to go to retirement. I'm only 47. I was one of the latter day baby boomers. But the first baby boomer retires next year.
BB: I could tell you right now that they're messing around with the found, causing a revolution in this country. You know, I look at what Greenspan did. What he did in loosening money out to the 2001 World Trade Center event was genius. It's the only reason we haven't been through a 30's style depression in this country. But having said that, the world elitist financiers do not believe that America should be allowed to be so dominant financially. This country's economy drives the world. You want a perspective on size? Our economy is ten times larger than the economy of Britain. Ten times. If this country were to stop consuming foreign product, the world would collapse financially.
D: I agree. And -
BB: It'd be worse than, it'd be a worse effect than what happened in `29, cause we weren't the principal consumer of the world's quality products and goods.
D: I mean, there's not a day that goes by on this radio network that I do not remind every listener why this country is as blessed as it is. And how if we're not careful, God can remove his hand and his covering from us just as quickly as he put it underneath us.
BB: Well as I said, you know, my concern is back in 1787 a man named Alexander Tyler wrote a book on the American democracy. And he said in that book, democracies have a lifespan of 200 years. And he's decided that from the Greek examples. And it's, you know, as another great commentator, P.J. O'Rourke said you know, democracy, the government of a democracy must be more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
D: I like that. Next question on the list and this may already be in the e-mail that you've sent me. Someone wants to know the link to the transcripts for the recent conference in D.C.?
BB: It is, it's on the nasa.org website. Go into www.nasaa.org.
D: Okay. And that'll give us a complete transcript?
BB: Yeah. The electronic transcript. So you can pull the link up right there. And eventually there will be, they'll make available written transcripts, I'm sure, for a fee.
D: Okay. Next question. Let's say company XYZ is trading on the OTC at 50 cents a share and has an outstanding share count of 50 million. One day Shorty starts running them into the ground until they are forced onto the pink sheets. This only makes Shorty continue his raid until the stock is .001. Can some insiders or the CEO step in and buy the outstanding shares? Then can XYZ PR they are paying $1 per share as a divident or buyout next week. What would happen and has it ever happened?
BB: To the best of my knowledge, it's never been allowed to happen. There's been repeated instances where companies that were subject to shorting had a potential buyer come to them. And when the buy, transaction was about to be coming through, the SEC would deregister the company, thereby killing the deal. There is an absolute concerted and orchestrated effort to protect the short sellers if things go against them.
D: Why? Why, why are we so determined to -
BB: Again, it's corruption. There's no other answer. I'm afraid that the Americans. You know, American society as a whole, Enron and WorldCom were. Could I tell you they were speed bumps compared to what has gone on in the short selling scandal.
D: Yeah. Are there still any active cases in process against the DTC?
BB: Yes, there are two.
D: Two?
BB: Yeah. And the bottom line is, there will be more. I believe at some point the states themselves will sue them. Because there's, here's the core question. Why should any company be denied the right to access and have knowledge of its investors by name? CD & Co and DTC would block that access. They do block that access. And there's a thing called the customer protection rule in the Securities Acts of `33 and `30. There's elements in `34 too. That say that a company must communicate with its shareholders on a timely basis as part of the regulation of fair disclosure that was implemented in 2000. The bottom line is at this point what has happened is, there's a concerted attack on the rights of shareholders as owners of an asset. They want to be able to give other people the right to counterfeit their shares. To vote shares that don't exist. To deny companies the right to access their shareholders on two corporate communications issues. And it is completely, you know, it stinks to high heaven. And the bottom line is at some point. You know, I stepped away from this on two separate occasions after receiving threats against myself. And I will tell you something. I'm not gonna be threatened again. And not by any nameless, faceless, gutless, you know, scum. This is not gonna happen. But I would tell you something. These people are behaving with this arrogance because someone in the regulatory structure has told them they're getting a pass. And you know what? Those regulators that have been guilty of this are aiding and abetting in the commission of Class B and Class A federal felonies. And they should be facing life in prison. Tricky part about it is you can't. If the American public knew how much money has been stolen from them by how small a group of people. How much money has been stolen from their retirement systems. We would be seeding a revolution in this country.
D: Well my call for a Deep Throat from inside the DTC still stands. I bring it up on the air quite often. And I've yet to have anyone take me up on that.
BB: I would say that you need to keep that call out there. One of the supporters, a former chairman of the DTC, has been a supporter of Wes Christian's. The woman who outed the 341 company survey where they found excess voting rights on all 341 companies of a survey, is a former director of Depository Trust.
D: Hmm.
BB: You got to keep those calls out there. I've talked to former Depository Trust officials who are appalled by what's going on at Depository Trust. They feel it's a, that their entire life's work has been humiliated by these people. And at some point, they can talk about the greater good, but you're dealing with socialist Stalinist analogies. To make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs. That was a Nazareth argument against the certificate only delivery. They had to stop that. They had 300 companies that had applied to go to certificate only delivery. Well you know, their goals of straight through processing and electronic paperless systems was gonna be shot in the head. Well guess what? Is that more important than the fundamental integrity of our system? Hardly. And she was basically making a very condescending, socialist argument. Okay? Which I consider to be un-Christian. And she can say what she wants. But the bottom line is she was saying, well if we have to see a few small public companies be bankrupted because they've been. You know, if that's for the, we may have to allow that to happen for the greater good of straight through processing. This is insanity. You know, and people must stand up on their hind legs. I will say this. I've come to the conclusion that there's enough information out there now that if someone isn't on board with this cause about stopping this abuse.
D: Uh-hmm.
BB: They're not part of the solution. They're part of the problem.
D: I agree.
BB: Open your mouths. The only way we're gonna fix this is through enough people to scream loudly enough, this must stop.
D: I agree. And the solution, or the quickest solution -
BB: God hates a coward. That's my old favorite line.
D: Well you know, it's true. Gideon, Gideon tried to take that route and God wouldn't hear of it. He says you're going to war. Now you made a comment the other day about urban, buying back 700 billion shares of CMKX. Was that a rumor and -
BB: Pure rumor. And he doesn't confirm it. But he says he's no longer the controlling shareholder. This was fed to me yesterday by a former IR person.
D: Okay.
BB: And, like I said, one of the problems CMKX has had is they should've gone reporting. That alone would've outed this entire crisis. But for whatever reason, I think that some of the parties involved in CMKX had managed to, you know, dirty their skirts. And it's a tragedy because the bottom line is, I do believe that eventually people will go to prison over CMKX.
D: Hmm.
BB: But I don't know who. And I sure as hell don't know when. Generally speaking.
D: Uh-hmm.
BB: The SEC and the government take small steps slowly. They're just now, I saw the indictment yesterday. Give you some perspective on timing. They indicted a pump and dump artist who ripped $43 million out of his own company. Dumping shares from offshore accounts he controlled. Somehow they got access to the offshore account information control positions.
D: Uh-hmm.
BB: And when he did it, he took out $43 million. Well they just indicted him for this conduct in `99, 2000.
D: Uh-hmm.
BB: Just indicted him. What's the date today guys? It's November 2005.
D: Wow.
BB: Six years.
D: Well the government is typically slow to move. But I can say this, once they do lock and load, uh, things can happen.
BB: Problem is that the government right now is taking a position that is intended to accomplish two objectives. One is to get the bad guy, great. But you know what they've also done is during that period of time when they conducted their, you know, very slow investigations, the civil rights of the abused shareholders have all expired. The statute of limitations has gone by. Why did they do that? Cause they don't want all the civil suits flooding the federal district courts. This has been a systematic pattern throughout all of these cases. The federal government, you know, typically. I've never seen a federal government investigation take less than two years, unless it's on something like Enron.
D: Uh-hmm.
BB: And like I say to you, all of you. And I say this to every person who listens in on the Christian Financial Radio Network. This is no accident. These things move like molasses because it's serving someone's interest. And the interest they're serving is the court system. Because they are terrified of 5,000 lawsuits coming in over the issue of naked shorting and counterfeiting. The SEC itself. I could break their back. If I had $10 million I'd break their back tomorrow. I'd file 5,000 actions in 400 courts nationally.
D: Uh-hmm.
BB: I'd start Appeals Court actions. You know, cause the Circuit Courts. And the bottom line is that, you know what? The whole system would lock up. These guys don't have the capacity or the technical skills to process that kind of paper. These guys aren't IBM. They're not Microsoft. Okay? Microsoft if, you know, look at the attack. More money by a factor of ten has been spent by the government for suing Microsoft than was spent pursuing Osama bin Laden.
D: Well now that is an interesting point.
BB: Okay? So where are their priorities? Well the only people, there's only one group of people who can change their priorities and that's the people who've been the victims of having their retirement accounts raped. And I say that with absolute focus.
D: So a two point plan. File the suits and request your certificates
BB: Correct. You have no choice. But if you don't get your certificate, you're playing into the hands of the scum.
D: Hmm. Now another question. I understand that the comment about CMKX trying to get a settlement for the shareholders is fear they will lynch Urban or something similar was your opinion. And the listener is asking the question, do you know Urban? If so, do you think that he would need this kind of prodding? He has a reputation with his shareholders of wanting to do the right thing. And since we don't ever get any news, people tend to hang on every word. And this listener just wanted to know if you could maybe clarify that?
BB: I do not know Urban. I have never spoken to anyone connected to him, except the former IR for the company. When I was at, he got my number. He was given my number actually by Dr. Jim DeCosta.
D: Oh, Dr. D. Yes. I've have him on the show before.
BB: Dr. Jim is very knowledgeable. And he's very commercial. He's not really interested in doing this unless he gets paid for it. I've, bluntly I have to take the same approach. At age 59 I don't have a lot of pro bono time to give anybody.
D: Yeah. Cause they're getting ready to steal your retirement from you.
BB: Yeah, exactly. And the point I'm trying to make to you all is that, you know, there's an old line. If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck and it looks like a duck, it's probably a duck. Okay? I say to all of you. Okay, you have to be not only skeptical, but demanding. I'm not saying that CMKX doesn't have assets. I don't think Roger Glenn was sent into the company by Citi Group to determine whether or not there were assets. He just wanted to know how big the assets were. But I could be wrong. You know what? There's been so many lies told by so many people here. That there are people including me, you know, just say step away. And that doesn't mean I don't believe in the CMKX shareholders and the community. But, you know, you guys have got to be looking at life after CMKX. I mean, to allow yourselves to be diasporaed out to the rest of the world and stop talking to one another would be a bigger tragedy than CMKX, you know, whether it lives or dies.
D: Well I had a listener this morning, or someone in our live trading room. They uh, they said because of what's transpired, they're never gonna put another dime into the markets.
BB: Yeah, could I tell you that I've heard that hundreds of times. American investor confidence has been decimated. And the tragedy is, many of the, you know, you don't know this. But the friends and family round, first round when you weren't, the companies weren't even eligible for venture capital is what has caused all these companies you depend upon today to be formed. Bill Gates got his original money. My God, you know, his original funding was 25 grand. It came from friends and family.
D: What a wonderful story that is.
BB: It is. That's not even the greatest part of the Microsoft story. It's how many millions of people he made millionaires.
D: He did. He really did.
BB: Try to imagine. He's made ten people billionaires. He's made ten, he's made hundred people centi millionaires. That's $100 million.
D: Uh-hmm.
BB: He's made, I don't even know how many peoples he's turned into, made $10 million for. And I know that the number of millionaires is a million.
D: That's, that -
BB: I mean these are staggering numbers. You know, this is the whole issue.
D: And this came out of a garage. This was, this was the American Dream as it was meant to be.
BB: That's correct. Well guess what? That'll never happen again in our system.
D: Hmm.
BB: Not without the venture. If you go to a venture capital guy today for $3 million with a start up idea, he'll want 80% of the company, anti-dilution provisions, dual liquidity event priorities. My God. Might as well be dealing with armed robbery.
D: Uh, a Shylock I think -
BB: That's right. They are finding ways to try to circumvent. They think because of the 70's and 80's which they've benefited from, but didn't have a great deal to do with. That they're entitled to a 35% return on their capital per annum. And they're gonna get it, no matter what it costs anybody else.
D: If they have to steal it.
BB: Yeah, that's right.
D: Okay. Another listener asks can you elaborate a little bit more on the 5th Amendment concerning naked shorting?
BB: I have given you some articles on the 5th Amendment. The 5th Amendment is the particular part of the Constitution that protects property rights. I've talked to this point directly. A stock is actually, a stock certificate is actually a grant of rights to the holder, the owner.
D: Correct.
BB: And the bottom line is, there's an orchestrated attack on property rights in this country. You've seen it in the eminent domain suits in New London, Connecticut. Now also in Riviera Beach, Florida. But that's not where it stops. There's been a, they want to be able to parse your rights to the right to have, the meaning of title. A share is a, is a form of title. And believe me, if they say that they have the right to take owners take control of title without your knowledge or understanding. And to lend that title to other people as an asset without your approval. To create counterfeit longs and allow people to vote shares they own no, in companies they have no legitimate interest in. Believe me, the 5th Amendment is what this whole thing can come down to. And there are, there is one Circuit Court appeal that's gonna be structured off of that issue, pertaining to one company. The first company that I am aware of that actually made a documented complaint on naked short selling in its stock was a company called UNIVERSAL Express. And it has been roundly slandered by the SEC. It's been sued. They have actually been the only company to actually sue the SEC in federal court. And the bottom line is, they're now going to 11th Circuit. And could I tell you something?
D: You bet.
BB: These guys have a case. I've seen their statistical evidence. They asked the SEC for help. The SEC told them to pound sand. Work it out with the market makers. Well the market maker had no intention of allowing them to work it out. None.
D: Hmm.
BB: I say this to you because at some particular point in time, people are not going to put up with this anymore. And the bottom line is, you know, the entire Bill of Rights is under assault. Every day.
D: I agree.
BB: And the key is right now, somebody's got to stop that.
D: Someone commented that the Federal Reserve itself has become unconstitutional. Now also let me clear this up. I made a mistake. When I mentioned that Dr. D had been on the radio show before, you were referring to a gentleman by the name of DeCosta, correct?
BB: Right. I think he's an oral surgeon in either Portland now? Portland, Oregon.
D: Okay. The gentleman who was on my show who goes by Dr. D on the message boards is Frank Hudson out of Kentucky.
BB: Yeah. I don't know him.
D: Okay. Yeah, he has been on the show. And apparently he has done a tremendous amount of due diligence. And he's a bit of a go to guy I think for a lot of CMKX shareholders. I haven't spoken with him personally in probably a year now. Okay. Now here's a question from Debbie. And I'm at the end of my list -
BB: Well -
D: Today. But I love this question, Debbie. Do you think the recent turnover at the SEC is going to truly clean house? Or have we simply put new lipstick on the same pig?
BB: That's a horrible thing to say. But I'm afraid you're right, Debbie. Bluntly I think that you're seeing an exit of a lot of senior, 11 or 12 senior officials have left just in the last six months. And I think part of it is they're getting out of Dodge before the lynch mob shows up. And bluntly, it began with Steve Cutler, but and Nazareth now of course is an SEC Commissioner which appalls everyone I know.
D: Let me ask you this. If I were, if I were willing to -
BB: Well I have to tell you what. Nazareth is well married. She's married to the Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank.
D: Hmm.
BB: Little fact a lot of people are not aware of.
D: I didn't know that.
BB: Or seemed to ignore.
D: If I were to arrange a conference, possibly here in the Phoenix area with some people like yourself and Dave PATCH, possibly Mark Faulk. Fly those guys in. Would you be willing to sit down and, and do a meeting?
BB: In a minute. In a minute.
D: Okay. And then we could video that.
BB: You know, bluntly I'll tell you, when I found out you were located here locally, forgive me, but I didn't know that you were local.
D: Uh-hmm.
BB: I've been in Phoenix Scottsdale residence since `92.
D: Oh okay. I've been here since `86.
BB: Well I had many, many friends here going back to the 70's. And I would be happy to, by the way, I know every person you just mentioned.
D: Do you?
BB: Yeah. Dave PATCH and I are good friends.
D: Okay then.
BB: Mark Faulk and I have had plentiful communications so.
D: Yeah, when you, it's when you Google my name on, I think one of the first things that comes up and it kind of freaked me out one day. Because I wasn't familiar with it. I was quoted I guess on the Faulking Truth. Which by the way is F-A-U-L-K-I-N-G. And somehow that got ranked real high in Google when you put my name in there.
BB: Uh-huh. Well Mark is a good man. You know, his family and professional background comes from, you know, I would call it entertainment production. I think that, you know, he is bluntly working with at least two different people to produce scripts for movies and made for TV event, documentaries. I have great respect for Mark. David PATCH is the most important communicator outside of possibly myself to come into this issue. He does the stock aid today pieces. I have been a close supporter of Dave from the beginning. I'm the person that wrote, I sent you a piece in which I'm, I first communicated with him back in April of 2003. At which point in time he was talking about a billion dollar fraud. I said, well I said you've got the fraud right. But it's a trillion dollars. And [indiscernible] actually I said it could be as much as three and a half to four trillion. And I explained why. And that piece is something that should get some traction on your website. You'll see it.
D: Okay. Well I'm gonna ask Noah or Van or Debbie or someone to organize all those articles you sent me on the message board and get those up today. And you know Bud, you've been very kind to come on the radio. But our listeners love it. Will you come back again next week?
BB: Yes, absolutely.
D: Okay.
BB: Especially after you get some of the articles up and they can see it. You know, bluntly I will tell everyone, I stepped away from this for awhile, not for my security, but for that of my family. And I've realized now the best security I can have is to have a group like the people who listen into your show know I'm here and know that if anything happens to me, they can raise bloody hell with the people who are supposed to be responsible.
D: Alright Bud.
BB: Fair enough.
D: We're gonna keep you in our prayers brother, because you are making some statements that, that could well as you said, there have been threats so. Lot of good praying folks listening to this radio show today. And I encourage each and every one of you to keep Bud in your prayers. And keep the future of our nation, our economy, keep it in your prayers. God did indeed create the greatest nation on the face of the Earth. And folks, if we don't get up off of our couch and start doing something about it, we're gonna all be speaking Chinese.
BB: Let me give you a tip real quickly.
D: Sure.
BB: I did my concentrations when I was at West Point, as a cadet. And one of them was China. And I'll tell you right now that the Chinese are coming on like a freight train. And we either clean up the corruption in this country or they're gonna absolutely decapitate us within 20 years. That means your children are going to be speaking Mandarin. I bluntly have told all of my relatives kids to learn how to speak Mandarin. Cause the juncture I see right now, I see no leadership in this country. And I would give you one last talking point about the cohesion and the unity of the CMKX shareholder group. Whether you know how to write formally or not.
D: Uh-hmm.
BB: If each CMKX shareholder and each listener on this show were to simply write a one paragraph letter to their congressman and senators. One paragraph. Doesn't have to be technically sophisticated. But say this is, this corruption must stop. And send it to the press, send it to their, you know, just get on the fax machine and spend five minutes sending a one paragraph protest to every person in this country that has any authority. You know what would happen? In a year these guys' offices, they wouldn't be able to hold the paper in their offices. It doesn't take a lot of work. I've done radically more than that. But I've got traction now. And this issue has traction. It isn't going to go away. But you can make a difference about how fast somebody does something about it by you know, quietly screaming. What's a quiet scream? Don't talk. Put it in writing. If you can write a question to Dwayne about what's going on here, write a one paragraph. That's five sentences. Five sentences. Opening, three sentences of body and a closing. And say stop the crap. Okay?
D: Yeah.
BB: Cause if you don't do that, we're all, we're all done.
D: Hey Bud on behalf of all the listeners of CFRN and all the members of Christian Traders and every American investor that has been ripped off and robbed, we owe you an incredible debt of gratitude for taking the time to come on the air, share your knowledge, your experience with us. And together, and listen to me folks. If we work together, we can make a difference. And Bud I will talk to you Monday morning at 8:00 a.m. Arizona time, 10:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
BB: Alright. Take care everyone.
D: God bless. Thanks so much Bud.
BB: Bye.
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Naked short sellers don't bother borrowing shares. As a result, more shares of a company's stock can trade than actually exist. In effect, the naked short sellers are counterfeiting shares, says Bud BURRELL, Altomare's LITIGATION consultant. The overload puts downward pressure on the stock price, sometimes turning into a rout. UNIVERSAL is just one of many companies victimized by naked short sellers and the SEC has done nothing about it, BURRELL says.
"It's the biggest financial scandal of my lifetime," he says. "I think his [Altomare's] problem with them is that he's embarrassed them over the short-selling issue."
HEARD OFF THE STREET
BUSINESS
THIS CASE MAY PROVE SEC'S CALL FOR PSYCHOLOGIST IS JUSTIFIED
LEN BOSELOVIC
965 words
19 July 2004
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
SOONER
B-1
English
Copyright (c) 2004 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, overworked and under fire, wants to hire a psychologist to counsel its embattled employees and keep a lid on burnout and stress. But why pay someone when Richard Altomare will do the job for free?
Altomare is chairman, president and chief executive officer of UNIVERSAL Express, a penny stock concern with the balance sheet to prove it. New York City-based UNIVERSAL, which provides services to independently owned postal stores, has rung up losses of $46 million over the years, including a $6.1 million deficit for the nine months ended March 31.
Despite his responsibilities for staunching the red ink, Altomare volunteered to be the SEC's shrink in a July 9 press release. He may have some problems getting an interview, at least a job interview. But there are some questions the SEC would like to ask him about earlier press releases.
The SEC accuses UNIVERSAL of illegally issuing millions of shares of stock to associates who unloaded the shares after its stock price rose on the heels of what regulators maintain were four false press releases issued by the company. Among other sanctions, the SEC is seeking disgorged profits and civil fines, and barring Altomare from serving as an officer or director of a public company.
Altomare, who is Universal's only officer and director, could not be reached for comment. In court papers and press releases, he tells a different story, accusing the SEC of trying to suppress his First Amendment rights on the issue of naked short selling.
First, some background. Short sellers bet a stock's price is headed south. Usually, short sellers borrow shares and sell them at today's prices. When the stock drops, they repay the loan by purchasing the shares at the lower price, pocketing the difference as profit.
Naked short sellers don't bother borrowing shares. As a result, more shares of a company's stock can trade than actually exist. In effect, the naked short sellers are counterfeiting shares, says Bud BURRELL, Altomare's LITIGATION consultant. The overload puts downward pressure on the stock price, sometimes turning into a rout. UNIVERSAL is just one of many companies victimized by naked short sellers and the SEC has done nothing about it, BURRELL says.
"It's the biggest financial scandal of my lifetime," he says. "I think his [Altomare's] problem with them is that he's embarrassed them over the short-selling issue."
A few weeks before the SEC sued him, Altomare struck in federal court in Miami. His lawsuit, which at one point identifies SEC Chairman William Donaldson as "Wayne," accuses the agency of harassing UNIVERSAL because of his outspoken criticism of its failure to police naked short sellers.
"The SEC actually threatened people who were offering funding to the company," BURRELL says, adding that the SEC's allegations are unsubstantiated.
According to the SEC, UNIVERSAL issued more than 500 million shares since April 2001 by selling them at a discount to a small group of buyers who regulators refer to as "the resellers." The group quickly sold the discounted shares for a risk-free profit and used the proceeds to purchase more discounted shares.
The resellers were particularly active each time press releases announced the company had obtained funding commitments that totalled $885 million, commitments the SEC says weren't made. One potential lender told UNIVERSAL to set the record straight, which the company never did, according to the SEC.
The last of the announcements involved Universal's offer last fall to purchase an air charter company called North American Airlines. The deal required UNIVERSAL to make a $1 million deposit. The money was provided by one of the resellers, race car driver Mark Neuhaus. In return, UNIVERSAL gave Neuhaus 20 million of its shares as well as 20 million restricted shares. UNIVERSAL announced the pending acquisition in an Oct. 12 press release.
The next day, Universal's shares traded as high as 13.1 cents, more than double their previous close. According to the SEC, Neuhaus sold more than 1 million shares that day and continued selling an average of 1 million shares daily for several weeks. He recouped his $1 million payment by Oct. 22 and pocketed another $1 million by Nov. 6, the SEC says.
In addition to lying about financing, falsifying records and deceiving auditors, the SEC says, Altomare diverted about $1 million the resellers paid for their discounted shares to family members and personal accounts.
UNIVERSAL made only a passing reference to its SEC problems in a quarterly report filed in May. It said it was selling Subcontracting Concepts, a company it purchased in January, back to its former owners because of "concern and apprehension" voiced by Subcontracting's insurers, financial institutions and clients over the SEC's complaint.
The quarterly report details Universal's $14.7 million in assets, including $7.9 million in goodwill -- an accounting definition for intangible, hard-to-measure assets that can end up worthless -- as well as a $906,000 advance to Altomare's wife and a $793,831 balance on a company loan to Altomare.
Meanwhile, Universal's multiplying shares -- the company disclosed it issued 189.8 million more shares in the nine months ended March 31 -- trade for a fraction north of a penny. Whether naked short sellers, a SEC conspiracy or chronic losses and a debilitated balance sheet are to blame for Universal's depressed stock is a matter for the judiciary to resolve. By the time they sort through the mess, judges may need a psychologist of their own.
Len Boselovic can be reached at lboselovic@post-gazette.com or 412- 263-1941
"According to Mr. Bud Burrell, a securities expert and long-time whistle-blower of the SEC’s inaction and ineptitude on the subject of naked shorting, one who worked closely with the company’s general counsel in later years, nearly 183 million $ were located and frozen in European banks during that same time frame. Later, some stumbling blocks were placed by Select Capital Advisers that made it difficult to liquidate and take possession of these funds.
http://www.proseresource.com/summary.pdf
Universal Express Inc., The Most Naked Shorted Stock in U.S. History
- A Shareholder’s Perspective
October 18, 2007
Universal Express Inc. (USXP) is an OTC BB company that is currently in the hands of a court-appointed “receiver”. The receiver has essentially sold off all valuable assets of the company and is expected to file for bankruptcy or cause it to be de-listed, thereby decimating the investment of thousands of shareholders around the globe. Once again, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would have succeeded in cooperating with wall street hedge funds and brokers who would walk away with hundreds of millions of $ of illegal and “non-taxable” gains, thanks to their relentless efforts in “naked shorting” USXP.OB over the past ten or so years. The SEC has refused to open its books to put to rest the repeated allegations by this company of rampant “naked shorting” in its equity, even after the company had already proven such shorting existed in the past by winning two very large, RICO non-appealable judgments in two separate jury trials in Florida (in 2001 and 2003), the only company to have done so in recent history. The following is a summary of relevant events in this “David vs Goliath” story covering the past 6 years from a shareholder’s perspective. A great deal of information about the company can be gleaned from the over 500 press releases (PRs), dozens of interviews and webcasts, etc. that are accessible on its website www.usxp.com. In July of 2001, the company won a historic 389 million $ non-appealable, RICO judgment against Select Capital Advisers, a company whose actions were later characterized as “naked shorting” once this term came into common parlance. Shorting of a stock is legal. It involves selling shares you do not own with the intention of buying them back at some point in the future, after locating a source from where to buy them. Naked shorting, very simply, is shorting, but without ever locating the source to buy back from at a later time, and with never any intention to do the same. This practice has clearly been deemed illegal by the SEC, but unfortunately, it has never enforced its own rules. The recent revoking of the “Grandfather Clause” (effective October 15, 2007) under Regulation SHO appears to be its first attempt to curb naked shorting, although this appears to have the effect of “closing the stable door after the horse has bolted”.
In July of 2001, the company had only about 60 million shares outstanding (vs ~40 billion currently). After the initial judgment it won in July 2001, the company put out a series of press releases (PRs) between then and December 2001 stating the judgment was imminently collectible in substantial amounts. According to Mr. Bud Burrell, a securities expert and long-time whistle-blower of the SEC’s inaction and ineptitude on the subject of naked shorting, one who worked closely with the company’s general counsel in later years, nearly 183 million $ were located and frozen in European banks during that same time frame. Later, some stumbling blocks were placed by Select Capital Advisers that made it difficult to liquidate and take possession of these funds. A second similar judgment was awarded by another Fl jury and another Fl judge against a second group of “naked shorts” in 2003 for 137 million $. The basic premise of both jury trial judgments was that the company and its stock were manipulated by what we now call "naked shorting". Trading records were produced for a period in 1999 that showed this quite
clearly and a jury of ordinary citizens was more than convinced. The company has put out a series of PRs since July 2001 stating its intent to buy large, mostly unnamed (some named) companies, most much larger than itself, and this trend continued till the last moments of Mr. Altomare as CEO. All we, the shareholders, could surmise from these sometimes mind-boggling PRs was that Mr. Altomare was attempting to trap the naked shorts with these huge acquisitions whose sole purpose appeared to be to catapult the company from the OTCBB exchange to one of the bigger exchanges (AMEX, NYSE), thus effecting a “short squeeze”. In late 2003 or early 2004, the company complained about intense harassment from SEC officials every time they were about to close an acquisition. On March 2, 2004 the company filed a lawsuit in the Florida courts against the SEC alleging prolonged interference and harassment. On March 22, 2004, just three weeks later, the Denver office of the SEC filed a retaliatory suit, but in New York’s Southern District Court (highly unusual) alleging over a hundred violations. It is rumored that a young man professing to be an attorney flew in the dead of night all the way from the SEC’s Denver office (which was supposedly doing all the harassing) to NYC in order to file this retaliatory suit in the NY courts. Later, on being deposed by Mr. Tifford, USXP’s litigation counsel, it was learned that this person was not even an attorney and was posing as one. The person is alleged to have sadly taken his own life after that.
The USXP lawsuit against the SEC was essentially rejected by the Florida judge in late 2005, with the judge stating that the ongoing NY litigation would be sufficient for USXP to prove some of its allegations and also the lack of any specific wrongdoings or wrongdoers identified in USXP’s complaint. An appeal of this ruling to the 11th circuit court was also later rejected (in mid 2006). Meanwhile, the SEC lawsuit vs USXP et al. was interrupted several times in 2004 by a parallel criminal investigation by the Department of Justice, with no evidence of criminality ever forthcoming. Recent evidence in a filing by Mr. Tifford points to how these criminal investigations continue to this day parallel with the civil case, apparently in stark violation of legal norms which would require that Giglio rules apply and disclosures in civil cases cannot be applied to criminal cases on the same subject. Depositions in the civil suit began to be taken in right earnest in early 2005. Both the SEC and USXP agreed to a summary judgment by the courts, although there was a technical glitch in this. In previous conversations, Mr. Tifford had insisted to the SEC lawyers that USXP does not waive its right to a jury trial regardless of the outcome of the summary judgment, but for reasons partly related to his wife's recent demise, he had accidentally signed a case plan for the summary judgment that did not include this objection. Later, the SEC lawyer indicated quite clearly in a separate email to Mr. Tifford that the SEC would not have any objection to USXP's insistence for a jury trial regardless of the outcome of the summary judgment, but this was apparently not first known to the Judge. The Honorable Judge Lynch of the NY district courts (southern district) wrote an opinion on his summary judgment in February of 07, and finalized it in early April of 07. Colonel Tifford's filings for a stay based on the jury trial request were later totally ignored by Judge Lynch who stated that the parties have decided to appeal, thus a jury trial can be had in case of a favorable response to the appeal. The summary judgment contained scathing comments for Richard Altomare
(USXP CEO) and Chris Gunderson (USXP General Counsel) and levied very stiff fines against both and an even stiffer fine for disgorgement of illegal proceeds against the company. The SEC complained that Altomare was flaunting the court’s summary judgment by making brash and bold statements, staying on as CEO and recklessly issuing billions of shares, all against the court’s explicit orders and needed to be held in contempt or incarcerated. Before the USXP legal team could mount an appeal in the 2nd circuit court, the Judge appointed a receiver without conducting a hearing on August 31, 2007. This has been alleged by some as being highly unusual. The company won the initial two large judgments in jury trials proving that irregular trading of USXP shares took place in a time period around 1998. Ever since, Mr. Altomare has been extremely vocal about the persistent naked shorting in the company's shares, giving an endless number of interviews, webcasts, prepared video presentations, etc. and releasing a number of press releases on this subject (see www.usxp.com). He took the SEC to task in rather strong language every single time. The SEC always claimed there was no proof of naked shorting in USXP and that Altomare was issuing illegal shares without proper authority from itself. Altomare claimed (via attorney Tifford) that the bankruptcy judge who handed over the previous bankrupt company (Packaging Plus) to him in 1991 also gave him “carte blanche” authority to issue shares for whatever reason “in order to maintain the capitalization" of the company, and since the company was being severely naked shorted, the shares issued offset the negative capitalization effected by the practice of massive naked shorting. Thus, these shares were legally issued, and moreover, necessary to keep the company afloat. From nearly 500 million outstanding shares when the SEC sued the company in March of 2004, a time when the SEC claimed hundreds of millions of shares were already illegally issued and resold by Altomare and certain of his “funder/resellers”, Mr. Altomare had issued nearly 80 times as many shares (almost 40 billion) as of last count in August of 2007, when the SEC appointed a receiver to take over the company. The receiver took over on September 5, 2007, promptly fired all employees, and is in the process of getting rid of all company businesses (nearly complete). Judge Lynch held a recent “contempt” hearing in NY (Oct. 2) where Altomare officially resigned and offered some sort of a plan for payment of the fines levied against him. The contempt citation was thrown out. The hearing for Mr. Gunderson was postponed to a later date. So Where Do We Shareholders Stand ?
Real evidence of naked shorting post July 2001 from reputed experts in the field has not been forthcoming in spite the company’s repeated allegations of the same. However, from observing and analyzing the trading records in this stock over the past six odd years, a casual observer can reach that conclusion quite readily. There were several times in the period between July 2001 and December 2005 when the company would make an announcement of some "enormous acquisition" worth hundreds of millions of $. The stock would usually begin to rise after such an announcement and then would hit a wall and then start to fall precipitously soon thereafter, often with tremendous volume on the way up but very little volume on the way down. Of course, it was later found out that in the period between July 2001 and March 2004 this was at least partly caused by the many
so-called "funders" at that time who the SEC alleged to have promptly sold most of their discounted shares they purchased into the short-lived rallies. But to anybody who has observed normal stock trading patterns, there was clearly more to it than that. The volume of shares traded during these times was clearly enormous, even assuming these re-sellers were dumping. Then an all-important event or series of events happened.
The Comet That Blazed - The Statistical Proof of Naked Shorting in USXP
In December of 2005, the stock was in the doldrums (0.03 to 0.05c/share). Folks had essentially given up, in spite of Altomare's repeated claims of having struck up these fantastic relationships with Princes and Monarchs in Saudi Arabia and absurdly rich folks in Dubai. He even made a "broad daylight" buyout offer in November of 2005 with what appeared to be a bona fide offer letter in January 2006 for a NYSE-listed (later AMEX) company, Air Net Systems (ANS). However, there was no reaction in the market to all these "forward-looking" PRs, and curiously, neither did the folks at ANS issue any press releases whatsoever about such an offer. In the past, the stock had traded billions of shares on certain days, especially after certain announcements were made (such as the ANS purchase), but with absolutely no movement. It was clear on those days that many ordinary investors were buying, with very few selling, yet there was no movement at all in the stock price.
Then, suddenly in late January or early February of 06, almost like a bolt from the blue, the volume started to spike up and the stock began to rise. In February of 06, for no explicable reason, the stock began to rise steadily with heavy volume, till it rose nearly 10,000 % in just a month to 4.4 c/share. In the first three months of 06, close to 40 billion shares were "recorded" as being traded, this with only 6 billion in the total float at that time. Of course, much less than the 6 billion in the float would have been available for trading, possibly as little as 1 billion. Additionally, the theory behind naked shorting is that many times the amount of traded shares recorded on the tape (what an outsider sees) could have been "naked shorted" by say hiding such illegal short sales in “ex-clearing” (trenches) between brokers. Senator Bennett's simple, yet effective speech on the senate floor (http://www.faulkingtruth.com/Articles/Investing101/1078.html) on this subject is an eye opener for most novices in the field. The rumor going around was that the rich Saudis were buying as Altomare had promised repeatedly, and that this was causing a minor "short squeeze". The company's market cap had at one point in time in March of 06 reached an astronomical 400 million $, this for a company with a meager 1 million $ or less in total revenues, in mostly money-losing businesses, a clear sign that the stock was being severely manipulated.
On March 13, 2006, Mr. Altomare delivered his famous "Ides of March" speech to the shareholders in a webcast (he is an excellent orator), claiming victory synonymous to the conquering Romans. In succeeding months, most shareholders waited for the other shoe to drop, but the Saudis never really showed up and their involvement was never ever confirmed, except allegorically. The stock started to come down quite fast, but still held itself to over a penny (100 million $ cap) for a month or two. It was the trading in this period, more than anything else, that convinced shareholders and others that allegations
of the stock in this company being severely manipulated had to be true, and one could only assume from one’s vantage point that it was the dreaded “naked shorts”. Whether the NSS were wall street thugs as shown in the Eagletech vs Bryn Mawr complaint (http://www.billgroover.com/rico/rico.pdf, http://www.billgroover.com/rico/1ac.pdf, http://www.billgroover.com/rico/1ac2.pdf, http://www.billgroover.com/rico/ml.pdf) or whether they were working in conjunction with Altomare, the sincere hope of shareholders was that since the regulating authorities were firmly in charge and breathing down the necks of this company, the common shareholders would be protected, otherwise the authorities would have acted preventing any further damage to the shareholders. There were many other similar events that have played out since December of 06, albeit none so dramatic as the ones that unfolded in the February/March 06 period. A most striking thing was that SEC filings in the New York court around June of 07 showed there were ten major investors who plunked nearly 10 million $ early this year in exchange for close to 20 billion shares, THIS MOSTLY AFTER THE COMPANY HAD BEEN HIT BY A DEVASTATING SUMMARY JUDGMENT by Judge Lynch in February 2007. Where was the SEC and why did this happen ? The company spent enormous amounts of funds on expensive advertising in various premier sporting events including race car driving, ice hockey, and baseball. It hosted a Saudi-U.S. Friendship Golf Tournament in April 07, where supposedly several top Saudi government officials spoke about nearly 300 billion $ worth of business opportunities in that kingdom.
The Bottom Line
It is said the SEC can very easily open the books for USXP and shed light once and for all on the alleged rampant naked shorting in its shares. As to why they would not do this and pacify thousands of common shareholders is absolutely mind-boggling to most ordinary folks, considering the centrality of this issue in the six plus year old battle of “David vs Goliath”. An unbiased observer has to agree that the Eagletech vs Bryn Mawr complaint is quite devastating to the SEC. A small developing company, like Universal Express, was decimated while the SEC and others fiddled like Nero and furthermore, even assisted the plunderers and looters to fill their booty with reckless abandon by going after the whistle-blowers.
In the summary judgment of the SEC’s case against USXP et al, the judge ignored the SEC's acceptance of a jury trial regardless of the outcome of the summary judgment. Without a jury trial here in the United States, discovery of the SEC's records cannot be granted, thus the mystery remains to this day. There are several large Saudi shareholders believed to be part of this company, including the current ruler of the kingdom, King Abdullah. There is also a large group of European and Asian investors. And then there is of course a large group of U.S. and Canadian shareholders, nearly 70 of whom took the time to add their names to a petition to the Receiver and Judge Lynch recently to ensure the company maintains its OTCBB status by making all the necessary filings, etc. and the company is not hastily sent into bankruptcy or de-listed.
Fifteen thousand shareholders, and possibly much more, are anxiously waiting for justice, mainly from our government officials who were not supposed to allow this to happen, yet again. A preliminary count of shares held by 50, mostly U.S., shareholders showed an average holding of 16 million shares per person. Applying this to 15,000 shareholders, this unscientific analysis would result in 240 billion shares being in the hands of common shareholders, or about 6 times the legally outstanding float. Unless responsible elected government and appointed legislative officials get to the bottom of this and provide a clear explanation to all USXP shareholders, the protection afforded to common investors here in the United States will be a sham and a great injustice. Justice Delayed is Already Justice Denied.
GOD SAVE THIS GREAT NATION
Nobody ever said that Naked short selling does not exist. There are many reasons for a naked short. Just do a search on Edgars. There also is the option MM exemption which alows an option maked to hedge his position using naked short selling Here is 8000 reasons:
Search For Text: "naked short" http://searchwww.sec.gov/EDGARFSClient/jsp/EDGAR_MainAccess.jsp#topAnchor
1 - 10 of approximately 8000+ results
Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Date Filed Title
05/09/2008 424B5 for TTM TECHNOLOGIES INC
COMPANY NAME(s) - [TTM TECHNOLOGIES INC (CIK - 1116942 /SIC - 3672)]
A naked short position is more likely to be created if the underwriters are concerned that there could be downward pressure on the price of our securities in the open market after the pricing of any offering that could adversely affect investors who purchase in that offering.
05/09/2008 424A for AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP INC
COMPANY NAME(s) - [AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP INC (CIK - 5272 /SIC - 6331)]
The short position may be either a covered short position or a naked short position. In a naked short position, the number of Equity Units involved is greater than the number of Equity Units in the over-allotment option.
05/09/2008 S-1/A for ZOGENIX INC
COMPANY NAME(s) - [ZOGENIX INC (CIK - 1375151 /SIC - 2834)]
To the extent that the underwriters create a naked short position, they will purchase shares in the open market to cover the position.
Exhibits List-> | 1
05/09/2008 424A for AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP INC
COMPANY NAME(s) - [AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP INC (CIK - 5272 /SIC - 6331)]
The short position may be either a covered short position or a naked short position. In a naked short position, the number of shares involved is greater than the number of shares in the overallotment option.
05/09/2008 424B2 for PRIVATEBANCORP INC
COMPANY NAME(s) - [PRIVATEBANCORP INC (CIK - 889936 /SIC - 6022), PRIVATEBANCORP CAPITAL TRUST IV (CIK - 1434228 /SIC - Unspecified)]
This creates a syndicate short position that may be either a covered short position or a naked short position. In a naked short position, the number of Trust Preferred Securities involved is greater than the number of Trust Preferred Securities in the over-allotment option.
05/09/2008 424B1 for Western Gas Partners LP
COMPANY NAME(s) - [Western Gas Partners LP (CIK - 1414475 /SIC - 4922)]
Naked short sales are in excess of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional common units. The underwriters must close out any naked short position by purchasing common units in the open market.
05/09/2008 424B5 for TTM TECHNOLOGIES INC
COMPANY NAME(s) - [TTM TECHNOLOGIES INC (CIK - 1116942 /SIC - 3672)]
The short position may be either a covered short position or a naked short position. In a naked short position, the number of securities involved is greater than the number of securities in the over-allotment option.
05/08/2008 S-1 for Polypore International Inc
COMPANY NAME(s) - [Polypore International Inc (CIK - 1292556 /SIC - 2890)]
To the extent that the underwriters create a naked short position, they will purchase shares in the open market to cover the position.
Exhibits List-> | 1
05/08/2008 10QSB for INTERGROUP CORP
COMPANY NAME(s) - [INTERGROUP CORP (CIK - 69422 /SIC - 6513)]
As part of the investment strategies, the Company may assume short positions against its long positions in marketable securities. As of March 31, 2008, the Company had obligations for securities sold (equities short) of $33, 000.
Exhibits List-> | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
05/08/2008 424B1 for Real Goods Solar Inc
COMPANY NAME(s) - [Real Goods Solar Inc (CIK - 1425565 /SIC - 3433)]
The underwriters may also make “naked” short sales of shares in excess of the over-allotment option. The underwriters must close out any naked short position by purchasing shares of our Class A common stock in the open market.
1 - 10 of approximately 8000+ results
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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 SCHEDULE 13G Under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
(Amendment No. ________________)* UNIVERSAL EXPRESS, INC. Name of Issuer) Date October 22, 2001
Signature: /s/ ALFRED PEEPER
-----------------
Name/Title: Alfred Peeper, Authorized Representative ORIENTAL NEW INVESTMENT,
LTD.
==============================================================
Final Judgments by Default Entered Against Alfred Peeper, Oriental New Investments, Ltd., and Orienstar Finance, Ltd. in Market Manipulation Cases
U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 20560 / May 8, 2008
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Absolutefuture.com, et al., (United States District Court, Southern District of New York, C.A. No. 01-CV-9058 (DAB))
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Wamex Holdings, Inc., et al., (United States District Court, Southern District of New York, C.A. No. 01-CV-9056 (DAB))
Final Judgments by Default Entered Against Alfred Peeper, Oriental New Investments, Ltd., and Orienstar Finance, Ltd. in Market Manipulation Cases
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that a federal district court in New York recently entered final judgments by default against three parties, each of which was involved in two related stock manipulation schemes. On April 15, 2008, and March 11, 2008, the court entered the judgments against defendant Alfred Peeper and relief defendants Oriental New Investments, Ltd. (ONI), and Orienstar Finance, Ltd. (OFL) in two civil enforcement actions brought by the Commission. In its complaints, the Commission charged that Peeper, ONI, and OFL were involved in complex schemes to manipulate the common stocks of AbsoluteFuture.com (AFTI) and Wamex Holdings, Inc. (WAMX), respectively. According to the complaints, the manipulation schemes occurred from July 1999 through June 2000 and employed false and misleading press releases and manipulative trading techniques. Among other things, the judgments ordered Peeper, ONI, and OFL to disgorge trading profits totaling $12,869,543 and to pay prejudgment interest totaling $8,017,919.48.
The complaint in SEC v. Wamex Holdings, Inc., et al. was filed on October 11, 2001, and named 22 defendants, including Peeper, and four relief defendants, including ONI and OFL. The April 15, 2008 judgment against Peeper permanently enjoins him from violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws - namely, Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 (Securities Act) and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act) and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The court also ordered that Peeper, ONI, and OFL are jointly and severally liable to pay disgorgement totaling $9,096,298, representing their trading profits in the WAMX scheme, plus prejudgment interest of $5,667,130.92, for a total of $14,763,428.92. In addition, Peeper was ordered to a pay civil money penalty of $110,000 and was permanently barred from participating in an offering of penny stock, including engaging in activities with a broker, dealer, or issuer for purposes of issuing, trading, or inducing or attempting to induce the purchase or sale of any penny stock. Previously, in October 2002, July 2004, and March 2007, the Commission obtained default judgments in the WAMX litigation against 20 of the 21 other defendants and both of the other relief defendants. The litigation is continuing as to the remaining party, defendant Eugene Geiger.
The complaint in SEC v. Absolutefuture.com, et al. also was filed on October 11, 2001, and named 12 defendants, including Peeper, and four relief defendants, including ONI and OFL. The March 11, 2008 judgment against Peeper permanently enjoins him from violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act and Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The court also ordered that Peeper, ONI, and OFL are jointly and severally liable to pay disgorgement totaling $3,773,245, representing their trading profits in the AFTI scheme, plus prejudgment interest of $2,350,788.56, for a total of $6,124,033.48. In addition, Peeper was ordered to pay a civil money penalty of $110,000. Previously, in January 2003, February 2003, and October 2004, the Commission obtained default judgments in the AFTI litigation against 10 of the 11 other defendants and one of the two other relief defendants. The litigation is continuing as to the remaining parties, defendant Eugene Geiger and relief defendant VJV, Inc.
The Commission alleged in its complaints that Peeper, a financier residing in Spain, participated in the schemes by purchasing large blocks of AFTI and WAMX stock at undisclosed discounts through trades prearranged with co-defendant Edward A. Durante. According to the complaints, relief defendants ONI and OFL, which are Hong Kong corporations with offices in Switzerland and Spain, were unjustly enriched by Peeper's illegal trading of AFTI and WAMX stock in their brokerage accounts, which he controlled. The complaints alleged that the transactions were manipulative in nature because they were misleadingly reported to the market and created a false impression of the trading volume and the demand for AFTI and WAMX shares. Overall, the manipulation schemes increased AFTI's stock price from a low of $0.21 per share in December 1999 to a high of $6.00 per share in March 2000, and increased WAMX's stock price from a low of $1.375 per share in December 1999 to a high of $19.50 per share in February 2000.
For additional information, see Litigation Release Numbers 17177 (October 11, 2001), 17178 (October 11, 2001), 17180 (October 11, 2001), 17602 (July 9, 2002), and 18004 (February 27, 2003).
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2008/lr20560.htm
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Home | Previous Page Modified: 05/08/2008
http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/secarticle.asp?&sid=114237&symb=USXP&guid=166218...
SEC Filings for Universal Express Inc
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
SCHEDULE 13G
Under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
(Amendment No. ________________)*
UNIVERSAL EXPRESS, INC.
(Name of Issuer)
COMMON
(Title of Class of Securities)
91349P 10 3
(CUSIP Number)
DENNIS BROVARONE, 18 Mountain Laurel Dr., Littleton, CO 80127,
telephone 303 466 4092
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Name, Address and Telephone Number of Person Authorized to
Receive Notices and Communications)
August 21, 2001
(Date of Event Which Required Filing of This Statement)
*The remainder of this cover page shall be filled out for a reporting person's initial filing on this form with respect to the subject class of securities, and for any subsequent amendment containing information which would alter disclosures provided in a prior cover page.
The information required on the remainder of this cover page shall not be deemed to be "filed" for the purpose of section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("Act") or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section of the Act but shall be subject to all other provisions of the Act (however, see the Notes).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CUSIP NO. 91349P 10 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Names of reporting persons....................|Oriental New Investment, Ltd.
S.S. or I.R.S. Identification Nos. of above |
persons.......................................|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(2) Check the appropriate box of a member of a |
group |(a)
(see instructions) |(b) X
--------------------------=-----------------------------------------------------
(3) SEC use only..................................|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(4) Citizenship or place of organization..........|Hong Kong
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of shares beneficially owned by each |
reporting person with: |
(5) Sole voting power........................|16,313,118
|-----------------------------
(6) Shared voting power......................|
|-----------------------------
(7) Sole dispositive power...................|16,313,118
|-----------------------------
(8) Shared dispositive power.................|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(9) Aggregate amount beneficially owned by each |
reporting person. |16,313,118
|-----------------------------
(10) Check if the aggregate amount in Row (9) |
excludes certain shares (see instructions). |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(11) Percent of class represented by amount in Row|
(9). ........................................|11.25%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(12) Type of reporting person (see instructions)..|CO
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(14) Check the appropraite box to designate the rule pursuant to which this
Schedule is filed:
| | Rule 13d-1(b)
|X| Rule 13d-1(c)
| | Rule 13d-1(d)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Item 1. Security and Issuer.
Item 1(a) Name of Issuer: Universal Express, Inc.
Title of Equity Securities: Common Stock $.005 par value
Item 1(b) Address of Issuer's
Principal Executive Offices: 1230 Avenue of the Americas Suite 771 - Rockefeller Center New York, NY 10020
Item 2.
Item 2(a) Name of Person Filing: Oriental New Investment, Ltd.,
Item 2(b) Address: Route des Acacias 54,
1227 Carouge, Switzerland
Item 2(c) Citizenship: a Hong Kong Corporation
Item 3. Not Applicable
Item 4. Ownership
Provide the following information regarding the aggregate number and percentage of the class of securities of the issuer identified in Item 1.
Amount Beneficially Owned: 16,313,118
Percent of class: 11.25%
Number of shares as to which such person has:
Sole power to vote or to direct the vote: 16,313,118
Shared power to vote or to direct the vote: 0
Sole power to dispose or to direct the disposition of: 16,313,118
Shared power to dispose or to direct the disposition of : 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Item 5.
Ownership of 5 Percent or Less of a Class.
Not Applicable
Item 6. Ownership of More than 5 Percent on Behalf of Another Person
Not Applicable
Item 7. Identification and Classification of the Subsidiary Which Acquired the Security Being Reported on By the Parent Holding Company or Control Person.
Not Applicable
Item 8. Identification and Classification of Members of the Group
Not Applicable
Item 9. Notice of Dissolution of Group
Not Applicable
Item 10. Certifications
By signing below I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the securities referred to above were not acquired and are not held for the purpose of or with the effect of changing or influencing the control of the issuer of the securities and were not acquired and are not held in connection with or as a participant in any transaction having that purpose or effect.
Signature
After reasonable inquiry and to the best of my knowledge and belief, I certify that the information set forth in this statement is true, complete and correct.
Date October 22, 2001
Signature: /s/ ALFRED PEEPER
-----------------
Name/Title: Alfred Peeper, Authorized Representative ORIENTAL NEW INVESTMENT,
LTD.
Ahahah so now you blame the SEC for not following crooked CEOS around to make sure they dont issue unregsitered stock..cute
Story is evolving now that its clear it was a scam
Posted by: HndtoHnd
In reply to: None Date:2/15/2007 3:34:49 PM
Post #of 250678
Mr Casavant wins one finally! Court case goes to the good guys at last!
Case 05-A-502114-C Status ACTIVE
Plaintiff Four Vegas Properties LLC Attorney Allison, Noah G.
Defendant Valley View I LLC Attorney ## Unknown ##
Judge Bixler, James Dept. 24
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total of 95 entries, presently displaying 1 through 10.
Entries are displayed most recent first.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Filed Date Description Performed
02/13/2007 JUDGMENT PLUS INTEREST 02/15/2007
For Smith, Philip C
Filed By Casavant, Urban
02/13/2007 JUDGMENT PLUS INTEREST 02/15/2007
For Procyon I And II LLC
Filed By Casavant, Urban
02/13/2007 JUDGMENT PLUS INTEREST 02/15/2007
For Valley View Hacienda Business Park II
Filed By Casavant, Urban
02/13/2007 JUDGMENT PLUS INTEREST 02/15/2007
For Valley View I LLC
Filed By Casavant, Urban
02/13/2007 JUDGMENT PLUS INTEREST 02/15/2007
For Smith, Philip C
Filed By Four Vegas Properties LLC
02/13/2007 JUDGMENT PLUS INTEREST 02/15/2007
For Procyon I And II LLC
Filed By Four Vegas Properties LLC
02/13/2007 JUDGMENT PLUS INTEREST 02/15/2007
For Valley View Hacienda Business Park II
Filed By Four Vegas Properties LLC
02/13/2007 JUDGMENT PLUS INTEREST 02/15/2007
For Valley View I LLC
Filed By Four Vegas Properties LLC 3 pages
02/07/2007 CANCELLATION AND RELEASE OF NOTICE OF PENDENCY OF ACTION 02/07/2007
For All Parties
Filed By All Plaintiffs 2 pages
01/22/2007 ASSIGNMENT OF CHOSE IN ACTION 01/22/2007
For All Parties 5 pages
Posted by: HndtoHnd
In reply to: 20yearinvestor who wrote msg# 224459 Date:12/27/2006 2:35:03 PM
Post #of 250677
20yearinvestor.....
Yes I do have all my certs. And I have my CIM, GEMM and USCA in cert form. I don't use Ameritrade or any of the discount brokers because as that old saying goes, you get what you pay for.
I use BestVest Investment Brokerage Services
http://www.membersvest.com/
I pay a little more per trade but I don't have any of the problems that so many have had in dealing with the cert issues. And I paid $0 for any of my certificates through them. They have been excellent for me. They waived the per share fee being I am playing the pinks so a flat price is perfect for me whether I buy 50K or 50 million shares of any securities.
And no, I do not work for them and I am not compensated by them. lol. Although I should be after this endorsement! lol
Lawsuit on Prison Conditions Dismissed
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 6, 2006
A federal judge has dismissed an 11-year-old lawsuit over conditions in New York State prisons, state officials said. The lawsuit, first filed in 1995, claimed that the state's policy of assigning two inmates to cells originally designed for one person violated the prisoners' constitutional rights. In a decision dated May 26, Judge Gerard Lynch of Federal District Court in Manhattan said the policy was not unconstitutional. The state's prison population, which peaked at 71,472 inmates in 1999, has declined during the past several years. There are now 63,000 inmates in the state's 69 prisons.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/06/nyregion/06mbrfs-brief-005.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
SEC has HOPE of CMKX investors. Check could be in the mail someday or delivered by DHL.
"In December 2006, the Distribution Agent completed the first round of distributions by mailing checks totally approximately $13 million to eligible claimants who received full recovery. Mr. Ferrigno will petition the Court to release the remaining funds for a second distribution to eligible claimants who did not participate in the first distribution. As the SEC does not know how many people will be eligible for the second distribution, it is not known at this time what amount of recovery these claimants can expect or when the second distribution will take place."
http://www.sec.gov/divisions/enforce/claims/huttoe.htm
Systems of Excellence and Charles O. Huttoe
On November 7, 1996, the SEC obtained temporary restraining orders, asset freezes, and other emergency relief against Systems of Excellence (SOE), Charles Huttoe, SOE's Chairman and CEO, and a number of other defendants. The SEC alleged that Huttoe orchestrated a massive market manipulation in SOE stock by distributing millions of unregistered SOE shares, making false and misleading press releases to raise SOE stock price, and selling SOE shares at artificially inflated prices.
The SEC has posted numerous litigation releases about the SOE fraud. You can find them by visiting the SEC's website and inserting the words "Systems of Excellence" in its search engine.
The Court primarily responsible for the SOE enforcement actions appointed Thomas A. Ferrigno as Receiver to collect assets recovered in the cases resulting from this investigation. The SEC has collected approximately $15 million in assets. The Court also appointed Mr. Ferrigno as the Distribution Agent for the Receivership assets.
In December 2006, the Distribution Agent completed the first round of distributions by mailing checks totally approximately $13 million to eligible claimants who received full recovery. Mr. Ferrigno will petition the Court to release the remaining funds for a second distribution to eligible claimants who did not participate in the first distribution. As the SEC does not know how many people will be eligible for the second distribution, it is not known at this time what amount of recovery these claimants can expect or when the second distribution will take place.
If you have any questions about the Receivership, you can submit them by voicemail at (866) 357-9448 or by email at distagent@soedistributionplan.com.
http://www.sec.gov/divisions/enforce/claims/huttoe.htm
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Home | Previous Page Modified: 06/14/2007
Has Bud Burrell sent AR a cake with a file in it yet?
CMKX & CFRN DEBI on Gary Weiss blog http://garyweiss.blogspot.com/
If Ar goes to jail which jail he be sent to? http://www.dc.state.fl.us/FACILITIES/region2/205.html
Penny-Stock Fraud, From Both Sides Now
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES
February 16, 2003
HARTLEY T. BERNSTEIN spends his days exploring the piranha-infested shoals of the penny-stock market, where cheap, thinly traded stocks can be rigged to generate enormous profits for insiders.
In a spare bedroom of his eight-room Georgian-style apartment on Park Avenue in Manhattan, he searches the Internet for clusters of seemingly unrelated companies that use the same obscure accountants, lawyers and underwriters, and share the same mysterious offshore investors. He looks for flaws, fibs and fantasies in corporate documents like one company's plan to sell stock and use it to take over AOL Time Warner, AT&T, General Electric and, for good measure, General Motors. Then Mr. Bernstein posts his conclusions on StockPatrol.com, his Web site, to warn investors away.
Some of his most faithful readers are market regulators. Following his road maps, federal investigators have found and shut down frauds they might have missed. Occasionally, he tips regulators in advance, before his targets realize that he is on their trail. One prosecutor called his assistance "singular."
His cooperation has helped the government build criminal cases against at least 34 people.
Mr. Bernstein is so good at what he calls "connecting the dots" of complicated penny-stock frauds for one good reason: five years ago, he was a formidable dot himself.
Through his law firm, Bernstein & Wasserman, he worked for some of the most notorious penny-stock manipulators of the past two decades: Stratton Oakmont, Biltmore Securities and Sterling Foster. He also worked for a host of forgettable little companies whose stocks those firms manipulated.
But in reality, he worked for Randolph Pace a wily Wall Street veteran who, with Meyer Blinder and Robert E. Brennan, make up what one lawyer has called "the three tenors of the penny-stock world." (Mr. Blinder was jailed for securities fraud in 1992, after the collapse of his firm, Blinder, Robinson & Company. Mr. Brennan, the smiling force behind the equally infamous First Jersey Securities, is serving a nine-year prison term after being convicted of fraud in 2001.)
What makes Mr. Bernstein's apparent turnaround remarkable is its rarity. Recidivism is so common in the penny-stock world that some law enforcement experts are instinctively skeptical of anyone who claims to have left its temptations behind.
But several prosecutors and regulators have been persuaded by Mr. Bernstein, a small, dark, boyish-looking man of 51 who began to cooperate with the government in the fall of 1998. He spent hundreds of hours coaching investigators on how to decipher Mr. Pace's complex deals. He confirmed information from other sources and "gave the government sufficient confidence" to seek an indictment against Mr. Pace in November 1998, one prosecutor said.
The government later expanded its case to include two additional penny-stock firms and several new defendants. Mr. Bernstein also provided background information about Stratton Oakmont's deals with the shoe designer Steve Madden, who pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering in 2001 and was sentenced last spring to 41 months in prison.
In May 1999, Mr. Bernstein, too, pleaded guilty to securities fraud, conspiracy and perjury and agreed to forfeit $850,000 in illegal profits. He prepared to testify when Mr. Pace came to trial on charges of secretly controlling Sterling Foster and prospering from its roughly $200 million in fraudulent business. That did not become necessary. Mr. Pace pleaded guilty in 2000 and last April and was ordered to pay nearly $135 million in restitution to investors and was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison.
By the time Mr. Bernstein pleaded guilty, his career was in ruins. He had been disbarred. His law partners had walked out on him. He could not seek a new job while he faced prison, but he was desperate to keep busy.
In July 1999, after carefully sounding out his own lawyer and the government, he started StockPatrol, which he saw as a logical extension of the guidance he had been providing to investigators. He began by scanning hyberbolic chat groups and e-mail messages on the Internet for the latest hot penny-stock tip. Then he would scour the touted company's public paperwork, looking for red flags.
The found them and regulators paid swift attention. Following are a few examples:
On Jan. 31, 2000, he published the first of several articles questioning whether Wellness Universe, a small health services company, was really the target of a $1 billion takeover bid, as it claimed. Eleven days after the first article, regulators halted trading in the shares, and three months later, the company's founder, George Pappas, was indicted in Manhattan. In January 2001, Mr. Pappas pleaded guilty to charges that he concocted a phony takeover to drive up the stock price so he and his family could sell for a quick profit of $2.3 million. He is awaiting sentencing.
On March 4, 2001, Mr. Bernstein advised regulators that he would be running an article the next day about the Ives Health Company, a little Oklahoma concern that claimed to have a new AIDS drug. On the next day, regulators halted trading and, a month later, the company and its founder, M. Keith Ives, were indicted in Manhattan on federal conspiracy and wire fraud charges. Mr. Ives denies the charges and is scheduled for trial in June.
In September 2002, Mr. Bernstein questioned the growth prospects claimed by the Vector Holdings Corporation, whose primary business was a stuffed-potato booth at a Florida shopping mall. A month later, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused the company, its president and its transfer agent of violating securities laws in part for not disclosing that the president, Allen E. Weintraub, had a criminal record. Mr. Weintraub and the companies have settled the cases without admitting wrongdoing, but the penalties have yet to be determined..
When Mr. Bernstein came before Judge Loretta A. Preska in Federal District Court in Manhattan for sentencing in June, the many letters submitted on his behalf included one from Cameron K. Funkhouser, a vice president of the NASD's regulatory arm. Speaking only for himself, Mr. Funkhouser cited his "very positive relationship" with Mr. Bernstein, adding, "My office has opened several successful cases" based on his leads.
Richard D. Owens, the assistant United States attorney who prosecuted Mr. Bernstein, also cited StockPatrol at the hearing, but added that when Mr. Bernstein first came to the government, "we, of course, raised our eyebrows a bit."
And no wonder. Mr. Owens knew that operating a "fraud detection" site is hardly an untainted concept. One notable effort, StockDetective.com, foundered two years ago after its parent company was found by federal prosecutors to have been the target of a stock manipulation scheme. And in May, a stock adviser, Amr Ibrahim Elgindy whose Web sites, insidetruth.com and anthonypacific.com, promised to expose penny-stock schemes was indicted in Brooklyn on federal charges of operating a stock manipulation and extortion racket. He denies the charges and is scheduled for trial in June.
But Mr. Owens told Judge Preska that he was impressed by Mr. Bernstein's effort. "Whatever doubts we had about his motives or his purposes or his intents have quickly fallen away," he said.
Judge Preska added her own endorsement. "You have used your time and your talent in a way to help investors avoid just the sorts of things that you had previously used your time and talents to impose," she said. "I applaud you for your work." She sentenced him to two years' probation.
His quiet days running StockPatrol bear almost no resemblance to his life as an adviser to Mr. Pace's raucous empire. Like Mr. Blinder and Mr. Brennan, Mr. Pace was an intelligent, urbane, charming rogue. He survived many regulatory cases over the years and continued to prosper even after his firm, Rooney Pace, was expelled from the securities industry in 1988.
By then, Mr. Pace's business was thoroughly intertwined with Mr. Bernstein's law practice. After graduating from Columbia and the New York University Law School, Mr. Bernstein worked at two midsize firms in Manhattan and spent a few idealistic years on the city's special narcotics prosecution squad. But in 1982, at the age of 30 "just young enough not to be afraid," he said he set up on his own. A lawyer he knew had become general counsel for Rooney Pace and had tossed a bit of business to the eager Mr. Bernstein.
By the mid-1980's, Rooney Pace was nearly a quarter of his growing firm's business. Did Mr. Pace's reputation worry him? "I did not really see the penny-stock world as separate from the real world," he said. "I had customers who had problems with Shearson brokers or Merrill Lynch brokers that cost them far more money than some of my cases for Rooney Pace involved."
Even after Rooney Pace closed in late 1987, Mr. Pace's friends hired Mr. Bernstein. As the 1990's opened, Bernstein & Wasserman was growing like a weed.
Those were lavish, lunatic days. Mr. Pace and his friends "lived to party," Mr. Bernstein recalled.
"They had `boys' nights out' that would go on for weeks," he added.
There were binges at elegant restaurants, junkets to lush resorts, shopping sprees at Armani, recuperative weeks at some palm-studded spa.
Occasionally, Mr. Bernstein and his wife, Debra L. Cherney, were invited along. One New Year's Eve, they joined the Paces and three other couples for a Broadway show and dinner at Nobu, a top Manhattan restaurant. Another day, Mr. Bernstein was suddenly invited to join Mr. Pace's entourage for a private-jet excursion to Atlantic City.
Through it all, Mr. Bernstein said, he still thought of himself as an ethical person who just happened to represent "a bunch of people who were scoundrels." He concedes, "My business was so completely dependent on this group of clients I was blinded by that."
Joel M. Cohen, a former federal prosecutor who worked on cases involving Stratton Oakmont, recalls his frustration with Mr. Bernstein's myopia. "Hartley was described by insiders as a `player,' somebody who, in one way or another, understood the game, knew the rules and went along with them," he said. "He was living in denial; he really was."
Even when government pressure forced Sterling Foster to close in 1997, Mr. Bernstein still felt immune. "My impression, looking back, is that Randy Pace tried to keep me at arm's length from anything that was actually unlawful," he said, almost wistfully.
But closing one eye to Mr. Pace's unsavory past clearly affected Mr. Bernstein's depth perception. He invested in several fraudulent deals and lied about those deals to regulators. He had crossed the line.
One afternoon in September 1997, he learned that several of Mr. Pace's friends were striking deals with prosecutors and talking about him. Shocked and frightened, he hired a lawyer, Scott A. Edelman of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.
Looking back now, his days in the Pace empire seem to him to have occurred a lifetime ago one specific lifetime ago: that of his daughter, Raine. She was born on Dec. 17, 1997, shortly after her father came under investigation, and died on June 3, 2001, of what is believed to have been an asthma-related seizure.
"When all this happened with Hartley, we thought it was the end of the world," mused his wife, herself a lawyer, the family breadwinner and a loyal defender of her husband's essential decency. "But I remember thinking that day: I thought I had problems I didn't know what a real problem was."
They are both active in bereavement support groups and still hope for a family. Mr. Bernstein, meanwhile, says he is exploring ways to turn StockPatrol into a profitable, but still lawful, venture perhaps by expanding it into a radio program or a book.
His admirers among the enemies of penny-stock fraud say they are confident that Mr. Bernstein's redemption is genuine and that he will resist future temptations. But even they cannot explain why he can see so clearly now what he could not see for so long: the dots that add up to fraud.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company | Privacy Policy
On every standard Mortgage application it asks a question
From form 1003 mortgage application
"d. Are you a party to a lawsuit?"
Wonder how AR answered that one on his loan application for his second mortgage .
IX. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND AGREEMENT
If you answer “yes” to any questions a through i, please Borrower Co-Borrower
use continuation sheet for explanation. Yes No Yes No
a. Are there any outstanding judgments against you?
b. Have you been declared bankrupt within the last 7 years?
c. Have you had property foreclosed upon or given title or deed in lieu
thereof in the last 7 years?
d. Are you a party to a lawsuit?
e. Have you directly or indirectly been obligated on any loan which resulted in foreclosure , transfer of title in lieu of foreclosure,
or judgment? (This would include such loans as home mortgage loans. SBA loans, home improvement loans,
educational loans, manufactured (mobile) home loans, any mortgage, financial obligation, bond, or loan guarantee.
If “Yes,” provide details, including date, name and address of Lender, FHA or VA case
number, if any, and reasons for the action.)
f. Are you presently delinquent or in default on any Federal debt or any other loan,
mortgage, financial obligation, bond, or loan guarantee? If “Yes,” give details as
described in the preceding question.
g. Are you obligated to pay alimony, child support, or separate maintenance?
h. Is any part of the down payment borrowed?
i. Are you a co-maker or endorser on a note?
j. Are you a U.S. citizen?
k. Are you a permanent resident alien?
l. Do you intend to occupy the property as your primary residence?
If “Yes,” complete question m below.
m. Have you had an ownership interest in a property in the last three years?
(1) What type of property did you own-principal residence (PR),
second home (SH), or investment property (IP)?
(2) How did you hold title to the home-solely by yourself (S), jointly with
your spouse (SP), or jointly with another person (O)?
Each of the undersigned specifically represents to Lender and to Lender’s actual or potential agents, brokers, processors, attorneys, insurers, servicers, successors and assigns and agrees and acknowledges
that: (1) the information provided in this application is true and correct as of the date set forth opposite my signature and that any intentional or negligent misrepresentation of this information contained in this
application may result in civil liability, including monetary damages, to any person who may suffer any loss due to reliance upon any misrepresentation that I have made on this application, and/or in criminal
penalties including, but not limited to, fine or imprisonment or both under the provisions of Title 18, United States Code, Sec. 1001, et seq.; (2) the loan requested pursuant to this application (the “Loan”) will be
secured by a mortgage or deed of trust on the property described in this application; (3) the property will not be used for any illegal or prohibited purpose or use; (4) all statements made in this application are
made for the purpose of obtaining a residential mortgage loan; (5) the property will be occupied as indicated in this application; (6) the Lender, its servicers, successors or assigns may retain the original and/or
an electronic record of this application, whether or not the Loan is approved; (7) the Lender and its agents, brokers, insurers, servicers, successors, and assigns may continuously rely on the information contained
in the application, and I am obligated to amend and/or supplement the information provided in this application if any of the material facts that I have represented herein should change prior to closing of
the Loan; (8) in the event that my payments on the Loan become delinquent, the Lender, its servicers, successors or assigns may, in addition to any other rights and remedies that it may have relating to such
delinquency, report my name and account information to one or more consumer reporting agencies; (9) ownership of the Loan and/or administration of the Loan account may be transferred with such notice as
may be required by law; (10) neither Lender nor its agents, brokers, insurers, servicers, successors or assigns has made any representation or warranty, express or implied, to me regarding the property or the
condition or value of the property; and (11) my transmission of this application as an “electronic record” containing my “electronic signature,” as those terms are defined in applicable federal and/or state laws
(excluding audio and video recordings), or my facsimile transmission of this application containing a facsimile of my signature, shall be as effective, enforceable and valid as if a paper version of this application
were delivered containing my original written signature.
Acknowledgement: Each of the undersigned hereby acknowledges that any owner of the Loan, its servicers, successors and assigns, may verify or reverify any information contained in this application or obtain
any information or data relating to the Loan, for any legitimate business purpose through any source, including a source named in this application or a consumer reporting agency.
Mark Faulk used do be long USXP too!!
« USXP Message list | Reply to msg. | Post new msg. « Older | Newer »
By: Faulkhill
11 Jun 2004, 11:15 PM EDT
Msg. 416847 of 541752
Jump to msg. #
Still watching USXP to see how it plays out, I've been out of it for months, but since I've been writing about the naked short selling scandal (The Faulking Truth), this one is still worth following. I just released a new article about Dateline, they have been sitting on a story about the naked short selling scandal since January. It's unethical and morally wrong to keep information under wraps while stockholders and companies are still being ripped off, IMO. Everyone should email Dateline and tell them to get off their butts and air the story now.
http://www.faulkingtruth.com/article/?Investing101&1005
David Patch a CMKX "fraudulent stock aficionado" http://garyweiss.blogspot.com/2008/04/patrick-byrnes-growing-defamation.html
Info on Spongetech CEO Michael L. METTER.
-----------------------------------------------------
The N.A.S.D.'s data bank records do not list a Morgan or Mr. Orr as the owner.
Mr. Orr, 28, who became chief executive of J. J. Morgan in November, failed to return repeated phone calls seeking comment. His previous experience in the securities industry? Four months as a broker trainee for the Weatherly Financial Group of New York, C.R.D. records show.
The firm's brokers make "cold calls" to potential customers in every state.
An allegation of unauthorized trading by J. J. Morgan and Mr. Orr is pending before N.A.S.D. arbitrators. Records also show that the firm's president, Michael L. METTER, 43, had eight complaints filed against him when he worked at other securities dealers. All of the complaints were closed or settled.
So-called boiler rooms, where brokers work phone banks making cold calls, are where phonetic similarities are most likely to create mischief, said John L. Perkins, Missouri's securities commissioner
===========================================================
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 15, 1995
Wall Street; Playing Games With Names
By ANDREA ADELSON
WONDERING whether you misheard the name of the company your stockbroker works for? Did you mistakenly think the check you wrote was to one of Wall Street's long established, top bracket firms? Better ask for ownership information along with a prospectus next time a stockbroker calls with a pitch.
Look-alike or sound-alike names that create an instant aura of credibility are not new to financial institutions, according to state securities regulators. But new brokerage firms with names that resonate with an illustrious history, perhaps even unintentionally, offer the opportunity for confusion among investors.
"People take names of high visibility in the hope it will mislead or rub off or infer something that's not really so," said Stanford Z. Rothschild, a Baltimore investment manager among the group of American Rothschilds who are all unrelated to the well known European banking family. Since 1981, four firms, all out of business now, used the misspelled name, Rothchild, in their title, according to records of the National Association of Securities Dealers.
"That's a give-away," Mr. Rothschild said. "Those who have the name legitimately don't drop the S." He himself is chairman of Rothschild/Pell Rudman Company.
Mr. Rothschild recalled being contacted by the now defunct Stevens, Rothchild & Company of Jersey City, N.J., and asking the broker about the firm's lineage. "It's a great name, but there is no one here with it," he remembered being told.
Nor is there any Rothschild at Rothschild Lieberman Ltd., an institutional stock trader in Greenwich, Conn.
Samuel Lieberman built his reputation as a trader with Chicago-based Rothschild Securities. He was hoping for continuity 11 years ago when starting his own firm. Monroe Rothschild founded Rothschild Securities in 1905. He never claimed a tie to the banking family, said his nephew, Robert S. Karger, the firm's chairman.
"We're not trying to be deceptive with the name," Mr. Lieberman said. Since Rothschild Lieberman's business is with other broker firms, rather than retail customers, there is little likelihood clients would mistake it for a bank, he said.
No namesake appears to exist at Rothschild Global Investment of Tampa, Fla., either. N.A.S.D.'s Central Registration Depository data bank show its president as William Gerhauser.
"The only way the S.E.C. can prohibit someone from using a name is if there is intentional deception, something very hard to enforce," said Philip A. Feigin, Colorado's securities commissioner.
Slight misspellings or plays on words, such as a Montana firm called Forbes & Bradstreet, create enough dissimilarity that sound-alike firms avoid running afoul of states' corporate registration rules, he said.
J. J. Morgan & Company of New York, not to be confused with the 150-year-old New York banking company, was established last year. It is a successor to another firm that was acquired a year ago by Kenneth A. Orr, according to a J. J. Morgan broker, who spoke on the condition that his name not be used.
The N.A.S.D.'s data bank records do not list a Morgan or Mr. Orr as the owner.
Mr. Orr, 28, who became chief executive of J. J. Morgan in November, failed to return repeated phone calls seeking comment. His previous experience in the securities industry? Four months as a broker trainee for the Weatherly Financial Group of New York, C.R.D. records show.
The firm's brokers make "cold calls" to potential customers in every state.
An allegation of unauthorized trading by J. J. Morgan and Mr. Orr is pending before N.A.S.D. arbitrators. Records also show that the firm's president, Michael L. METTER, 43, had eight complaints filed against him when he worked at other securities dealers. All of the complaints were closed or settled.
So-called boiler rooms, where brokers work phone banks making cold calls, are where phonetic similarities are most likely to create mischief, said John L. Perkins, Missouri's securities commissioner.
A. S. Goldmen & Company's name could be confused with Goldman, Sachs & Company, the huge investment bank and one of the most respected names on Wall Street.
But it was not intended to, explained Foster J. Gibbons, the New York firm's lawyer. Goldmen is a play on words; men who make gold, he said. The initials were taken from the first names of the founding brothers, Anthony and Salvatore Marchiano.
The firm, founded in 1988, has 100 brokers and two year-old branch offices, in New Jersey and California.
Goldmen's specialty is selling the speculative and volatile stocks of small capitalization companies to individuals. The firm adds to its 25,000 active accounts with cold calls aimed at potential investors with substantial income. Lists are supplied by various companies.
"If there were confusion, I'd hear about it," Mr. Gibbons said. A spokesman for Goldman, Sachs & Company declined to comment on the potential for confusion.
Goldmen's customer record is less than sterling.
The N.A.S.D. data bank shows four complaints against the firm and its senior executives. N.A.S.D. regulators in New Orleans filed a complaint in September 1993 against Goldmen alleging, among other violations, that unauthorized trades were made in a customer account. A censure, fine and suspension for Stuart E. Winkler, 42, a Goldmen vice president, is on appeal
USXP CEO Richard Altomare to appear on The Faulking Truth Show on CFRN
http://www.faulkingtruth.com/Articles/-EditorsCorner/1059.html
Editor's Corner - April 11, 2007 -
- USXP CEO Richard Altomare to appear on The Faulking Truth Show on CFRN
by Mark Faulk
Universal Express (OTCBB: USXP) CEO Richard Altomare will be Mark Faulk's special guest on The Faulking Truth on CFRN.net on Friday, April 13, at 10:00 AM EST. Altomare has been an outspoken advocate of stock market reform for several years, and his company is a pioneer in the luggage shipping industry, based on the belief that shipping passengers' luggage separately increases safety in the airline industry, and makes traveling faster and easier. According to Altomare, the advantages include "creating separate lines for 'no luggage' travelers so they can arrive 25 minutes before a flight; different ticket prices for those with suitcases and those having none. Separating passengers from their luggage would unclutter our airports, save taxpayers money, reduce governmental expenses, shorten lines, and eliminate the creation of unnecessary fear into the hearts of Americans - and inevitably it will save lives."
Altomare has also lobbied Congress about what he perceives as rampant fraud in our financial markets, and has sparked both strong support and criticism for his efforts. In a company press release yesterday, which was sent to every member of Congress and others in positions of power in Washington, Altomare details what he calls a "trillion dollar tax fraud" problem perpetrated by naked short selling in the stock market. Here is Altomare's press release in its entirety:
Universal Express Exposes Trillion Dollar Tax Scam
NEW YORK, NY - April 10, 2007 - Universal Express Inc. (OTCBB: USXP) CEO, Richard A. Altomare, today presents estimated tax losses to the United States Treasury of over $1 Trillion Dollars due to naked short selling.
"The facts are simple. Sell a stock you do not own. Push the share price down. Force the Company to fail. The failed stock never has to be purchased, and since there is no mandated buy-in after a company fails; almost everyone loses, the employees, the shareholders and now the Federal Government. It's a tax free way of making money," said Richard A. Altomare, Chairman and CEO of Universal Express, Inc.
"To be more specific, this loophole benefits market makers, hedge funds and maybe even the funding of terrorist cells. Our national debt and the Iraqi war could have been paid for with the elimination of naked short selling or a mandated stock buy-in after shorting."
"Once again I call upon our elected officials to address the problem prior to the SEC's efforts to pretend they're fixing a broken system. As they attempt to silence those of us who speak the truth, I ask you to examine the profits, the bonuses and the salaries of those stealing not only from individual companies, but from every hard working American taxpayer," continued Mr. Altomare.
"With all those in Congress looking for an issue worth supporting, how about documented tax fraud in the trillions?"
"Courage is required and our Country and American investors have been stolen from far too long. Where are those real leaders worth following?"
"I'm tired of hearing how much money a candidate raises. Let's rally behind one who shines a light on a practice that is raising our National Debt, raising our taxes, and raising our cost of living," concluded Mr. Altomare.
About Universal Express
Universal Express, Inc. is a 23 year old logistics and transportation conglomerate with multiple developing subsidiaries and services. For additional information please visit www.usxp.com
To listen to this Friday's Faulking Truth show at 10:00 AM EST with Mark Faulk and guest Richard Altomare, go to www.cfrn.net, or to downlad the show afterwards, go to www.streetiq.com
Freedman Revises Estimates Downward, Keeps Target on Universal Express (USXP) / FinancialWire®
FinancialWire.
March 8, 2002 (ResearchReport). In our Research Update, we are revising our estimates downward but maintaining our "Speculative Buy" and 12-18mo target of $0.50.
While revenues are still miniscule, they are increasing, and the new division which provided them, Universal Capital, looks to become the bread-and-butter for the company. The revision in estimates is to reduce annualized run rate projections to fit operational targets.
The company has also issued a 4% stock dividend.
Universal Express' postal and bellhop divisions have achieved relationships with Airborne and American Express, respectively, potentially driving revenues into the company by year-end, if not before.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/B000N3T4PG/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link
1-8 of 8 pages with references to universal express:
Return to book
1. on Page 194:
"... shares as a way of manufacturing short squeezes. Among the most voluble of the OTC short-bashers were two obscure companies, Universal Express and GeneMax. ..."
2. on Page 196:
"... There was even an "airdate"-April 10, 2005-that was repeatedly trum- peted on Gayle Essary's FinancialWire and even a Universal Express press release. When that day came and went without the show being aired, the short- bashing community howled in protest, ..."
3. on Page 197:
"... stantiated. Well, you can rest assured that none of this had any effect on the flow of anti-shorting propaganda from Universal Express or its crusading CEO. ..."
4. on Page 204:
"... in the post-victory offensive, standing upright in a staff car, was the press-release-happy OTC shipping mag- nate Rich Altomare of Universal Express, wearing his multipronged SEC litiga- tion as a badge of honor. ..."
5. from Back Matter:
"... October 3, 2002; "GeneMax battles short sellers: Says it's target of bold campaign," Globe and Mail, Novem- ber 18, 2002; "Universal Express-USXP-Declares War on `Naked Short 275 ..."
6. from Back Matter:
"... NOTES Selling,'" press release, Business Wire, September 23, 2003; "Universal Blames Shorts, But What of Dilution?" by Carol S. Remond, Dow Jones Newswires, October 6, 2003. See also Investrend Research Note, Univer- sal Express, July 14, 2003. ..."
7. from Back Matter:
"... NOTES 197 Similar difficulties: SEC v. Universal Express, Inc., et al., Docket No. 04 CV 02322, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, March 24, 2004. 197 ..."
8. from Index:
"... Services, 154 UBS Paine Webber, xv-xvi Unified Capital Group, 48 United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, 204 Universal Express, 194, 196-97, 204 uptick rule, 184, 200 U.S. Offshore Funds Directory, 142 U.S. ..."
Don't Worry, They Serve Baloney in Prison http://garyweiss.blogspot.com/2008/04/dont-worry-they-serve-baloney-in-prison.html
Jarta, how cound one document this is true? How did you find out about it?
"And, by the way, here's one to test your memory: Who was James S. Clinton, what stock did he have a "preferred position" in and was he really just another alias for John Edwards/Ian McIntyre? ... eom"
WHEREAS, paragraph 12(L) of the "Agreement" provides that
modification and amendments thereto can only be made with the
express written consent of James S. Clinton and Thomas S.
Hughes;
WHEREAS, Leggoons, Inc. is now known as eConnect ("ECNC");
WHEREAS, eConnect has issued and outstanding 60,523,775 shares
of common stock as of August 13, 1999;
WHEREAS, paragraph 4 of the Agreement as previously amended
provides for termination of the Agreement as of September 1,
1999, unless certain conditions have been met;
WHEREAS, those conditions have not been met; and
WHEREAS, ET&T, eConnect, James S. Clinton, and Thomas S. Hughes
desiring to further extend the Agreement in order to allow more
time for the conditions of the Agreement to be met, hereby amend
the Agreement as follows:
(1) All references to a cancellation/termination date of
September 1, 1999 contained in the Agreement, as previously
amended, shall be changed to September 1, 2001 provided that the
following specific conditions have been met by ET&T:
(a) Pursuant to the provisions of Para. 2(d) of the Agreement,
ET&T and Hughes will cause eConnect, fomerly known as Betting,
Inc., formerly known as Leggoons, Inc., to immediately issue
1,792,377 shares of its common stock (inclusive of the
contemplated 5% stock dividend) to certain shareholders as
directed by James S. Clinton, in order to restore those
shareholders to their 10% position as provided in said Para.
2(d).
(b) Thereafter, at the end of each quarter of the fiscal year
of eConnect and within 45 days thereof, Hughes and ET&T will
cause eConnect to issue additional shares if/as needed (as
directed by James S. Clinton) to maintain the interest of
certain shareholders of the company at February 18, 1997 at 10%
of the total shares outstanding.
(c) All shares issued under the provisions of Para. 4(a), (b)
above shall be fully registered and free trading unless this
provision shall be specifically waived in writing by James S.
Clinton.
(d) That all other conditions set forth in the Agreement of
February 18, 1997 (as previously amended) have been met by ET&T
on or before September 1, 2001, except that all parties to the
Agreement specifically waive Para. 1(b) and 1(c) of Amendment #2
to the Agreement, dated April 20, 1998.
(2) All parties to the Agreement acknowledge that eConnect was
formerly known as Betting, Inc., which was formerly known as
Leggoons, Inc.
In witness whereof, the parties have executed this Amendment #4
this 1st day fo September 1999.
ET&T
By: /s/ Thomas S. Hughes
Thomas S. Hughes, President
eConnect
By: /s/ Thomas S. Hughes
Thomas S. Hughes, President
/s/ Thomas S. Hughes
Thomas S. Hughes
/s/ James S. Clinton
James S. Clinton
Here is Rudys roots:
Firm's operations could trouble voters
By Christopher Carey
OF THE POST-DISPATCH [COPYRIGHT]2005, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Saturday, Aug. 13 2005
A company whose touch-screen voting machines won state certification in
Missouri last month has been raising money through stock placements that found
their way to unlicensed securities "boiler rooms" in Europe.
AccuPoll Holding Corp.'s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission
show that the company's financial backers include the children and business
associates of a man who went to prison for fraud in the 1990s.
AccuPoll, a publicly traded company with headquarters in Tustin, Calif.,
declined to comment Friday on its finances or the offshore share sales.
"It is our policy not to publicly speculate on transactions allegedly made by
some of our stockholders or some of our stockholders' affiliates, especially
when we are not a party to such alleged transactions," said William E. Nixon,
its president and chief executive.
His comment was a written reply to questions submitted by the Post-Dispatch.
People who bought AccuPoll shares from the foreign brokerages have lost much of
their initial investment.
AccuPoll's SEC filings show that its early investors include two companies
managed by adult children of Sherman Mazur, a one-time real estate magnate in
Southern California.
Mazur, 56, pleaded guilty to seven counts of bankruptcy and tax fraud after his
empire collapsed. He was sentenced to 1993 to six years in prison.
A group of 24 St. Louisans who invested in property he managed won a $3.2
million civil judgment against him. For more than a decade, they have been
unable to collect the money or identify assets in his name.
AccuPoll is one of at least four publicly traded companies that have listed
Mazur's children as stockholders, Post-Dispatch research shows.
Shares of all four companies have been peddled to foreign investors by overseas
firms that regulators warned were unlicensed telemarketing operations, known as
"boiler rooms." Each stock declined sharply in value, leaving buyers with
little to show for their money.
AccuPoll's affiliations could prove troubling to election officials, given
public concerns about accurate vote tallies and the security of computerized
voting systems, said Bev Harris, founder of Black Box Voting, an advocacy group
in Renton, Wash.
"All it takes is one person who has criminal or ethical problems," said Harris,
whose organization investigates the reliability of touch-screen and other
computerized voting machines. "That pretty much throws the whole integrity of
the system into question."
AccuPoll says it intends to wrest business from the industry's established
suppliers with a computerized system that prints a paper receipt confirming
each user's choices.
The company also is seeking certification in Illinois and has been cleared to
sell its machines in at least 10 more states.
Although the financing questions don't affect the security of the machines,
they could undermine their acceptance, said G. Terry Madonna, director of the
Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College in
Lancaster, Pa.
"This is a very touchy subject," he said. "All of it is against a backdrop of
uncertainty and distrust."
AccuPoll's SEC filings also show that the company got financing and consulting
services from businesses managed by a lawyer named Reid Breitman. Those
entities used the same address that Sherman Mazur and his children have used in
corporation filings.
Breitman, 38, declined to comment Friday, saying he adopted a policy of not
talking to reporters after another publication unfairly drew an association
between him and a "criminal" who once leased the office he now occupies.
The building, a former art gallery in Santa Monica, Calif., also has been used
by Regis Possino, 57, a disbarred lawyer with separate convictions for drug
dealing and fraud.
Four overseas brokerages have marketed AccuPoll's shares to European investors.
Regulators in Spain and Great Britain issued warnings about two of the firms,
Anderson Fitzpatrick AG and Tana Corum Holdings, saying they were offering
investments without proper licenses.
Focus on technology
The Missouri secretary of state's office, which oversees election issues, was
unaware of AccuPoll's financial backers or the sale of the company's shares by
overseas brokerages, spokeswoman Stacie Temple said.
Missouri's certification process for election equipment focuses exclusively on
the integrity of the machine and its technology, Temple said.
The same is true for Illinois, said Daniel White, executive director of the
Illinois State Board of Elections.
"If we do learn of those things, the board would certainly take a look at it,"
he said, referring to questions about companies' financing and executives'
backgrounds.
AccuPoll says 10 other states already have approved its systems - Alabama,
Arkansas, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Pennsylvania
and West Virginia.
The company has signed up just two customers, a pair of small Texas counties,
that are awaiting that state's certification.
High-pressure tactics
The Post-Dispatch has been tracking AccuPoll as part of its continued
monitoring of overseas boiler rooms, which push foreigners to buy stock in
small American companies with limited business histories, revenue and capital.
A series of Post-Dispatch stories last year showed how the operations took in
hundreds of millions of dollars by selling inflated shares in roughly 200
public and private U.S. companies. Those shares invariably plunged in value.
The telemarketing operations are called boiler rooms because they use
high-pressure sales tactics to promote risky or fraudulent investments. They
typically operate from hidden locations, and their brokers often use false
names.
In many cases, they sell shares that are restricted from resale on the U.S.
market for one year. Most foreign investors who bought shares of the other
three public companies with Mazur children as stockholders lost nearly all of
their money. Only one of the companies still exists in its original
incarnation, and its shares trade for a fraction of a penny.
A compelling story
AccuPoll was incorporated in 2001, in the aftermath of the bitterly disputed
2000 presidential election. The company says its system, which includes a
printed verification slip, provides better assurances that each ballot is
recorded accurately.
AccuPoll is hoping to capitalize on the nationwide modernization of voting
equipment inspired by the Help America Vote Act, which allocated $3.9 billion
in federal money for replacing manual punch-card systems.
AccuPoll became publicly traded in 2002, when it merged with Western
International Pizza Corp., a dormant Salt Lake City business whose shares were
still registered with the SEC.
As part of that transaction, a group of AccuPoll investors split 18.6 million
shares of the combined company's stock, or roughly a fourth of the total
changing hands, SEC filings show.
One of those investors, a limited-liability corporation that got 4.2 million
shares of stock, was managed by Jamie A. Mazur, 27, Sherman Mazur's son.
Another limited-liability corporation, which got 4 million shares, was managed
by Jennifer Mazur, 26, Sherman Mazur's daughter.
In addition, AccuPoll issued 3.8 million shares as a retainer to three
consultants - Jamie Mazur, Breitman and GCH Capital Ltd. The company gave them
warrants to buy 2 million more shares at a discounted price.
Breitman once was managing director of GCH Capital. He also manages Palisades
Holdings LLC, which provided AccuPoll with $1.9 million in loans that were
convertible to stock.
California corporation filings lists GCH's address as 2224 Main Street in Santa
Monica, Calif. AccuPoll's agreement with Palisades Holdings lists the same
address for that company.
The address also appears in the Nevada corporation filing for a business that
Sherman Mazur incorporated in December.
A Canadian newspaper, the Vancouver Sun, published a set of articles July 25
that identified Sherman Mazur as a behind-the-scenes player at General Commerce
Bank AG, an Austrian firm that pushed shares of obscure U.S. companies.
Before Austrian authorities shut down General Commerce in 2001, regulators in
other nations had added it to their list of operations selling securities
without proper authorization.
California corporation records show that in August 2001, the mailing address
for GCH Capital was in Vienna and matched the address used by General Commerce
Bank.
Rakesh Saxena, an international fugitive under house arrest in Canada, told the
Vancouver paper that he had enlisted General Commerce to sell shares of several
unlisted companies. He said the firm used boiler rooms in Spain, Germany and
Belgium to market the stock.
The story identified the operators of General Commerce as Sherman Mazur,
Possino and Raoul Berthaumieu, who went to prison in the early 1990s for
writing $1.6 million in bad checks on a Los Angeles bank account, depositing
them at the old Centerre Bank of St. Louis (later Boatmen's, now Bank of
America) and withdrawing $655,000.
None of the three men has been charged with any wrongdoing in connection with
stock sales.
Saxena is wanted in Thailand in connection with the collapse of the Bangkok
Bank of Commerce in 1996. Saxena, who is accused of defrauding the bank, was
arrested in Canada and has been fighting extradition for nine years.
Familiar faces
Two AccuPoll executives came from other public companies that received
financing and consulting services from the Mazur children, Breitman, Possino or
some combination of those sources.
Chester L. Noblett Jr., AccuPoll's executive vice president for sales and
marketing, previously was chairman and chief executive of eSat Inc., a
broadband communications company. Two of Mazur's children, Emily and Trent,
were shareholders. They filed to sell $960,000 of eSat shares in the spring of
2000 - while they were still minors.
Shares of eSat were marketed to foreign investors by securities boiler rooms
operating out of Asia. The company later went out of business.
Craig A. Hewitt, who until May was AccuPoll's chief financial officer,
previously was chief financial officer of Junum Inc., a credit repair and
monitoring firm.
Junum had a financing agreement with Breitman's Palisades Holdings and
consulting agreements with GCH Capital and Jamie Mazur.
Junum gave up on its credit business in 2002 and merged into a company that
develops lottery games for international markets.
Tough market
AccuPoll is facing long odds for success.
The company reported $1.22 million in revenue for the nine months that ended
March 31, with all of the money coming from a subsidiary that specializes in
installing and servicing computer printers and other hardware.
AccuPoll posted a loss of $7.81 million for the same period. That figure
included nearly $4.6 million in general and administrative spending and $2.6
million in professional fees.
AccuPoll had a little less than $73,000 in cash on March 31, the date of its
most recent quarterly report. The company warned that it would require
"substantial additional funding for obtaining regulatory approval,
commercialization of its product, and for continued product improvement."
AccuPoll's stock closed at 14.5 cents a share Friday in trading on the
over-the-counter market, down 96 percent from its high of $3.82 in February
2004.
AccuPoll's lack of resources makes it unlikely that the company will dislodge
the industry's leaders, Diebold Corp., Election Systems & Software Inc. and
Sequoia Voting Systems, said Harris, of Black Box Voting.
"There's a lot of money greasing the skids for these purchases," she said. "The
lobbying dollars are just stunning. That works against the little guys."
The number of systems the bigger companies have in service also works against
the upstarts when election boards are considering equipment purchases, Madonna
said.
"If you have a base of operations with sales and satisfied customers, it's a
lot easier than taking a flier on someone new," he said.
The potential market for AccuPoll's products in Missouri is limited. Most local
election boards that are buying electronic voting machines in the state have
been buying optical-scan machines instead of touch-screen machines, because
optical-scan units are less expensive.
But people elsewhere who have used AccuPoll's equipment were impressed.
"I was amazed at how fast they were and how easy they were for our people to
understand," said Jean Milka, chairwoman of the Democratic Committee of
Allegheny County in Pennsylvania.
The group used the machines this spring at AccuPoll's invitation to decide on
party endorsements for the Democratic primary, she said.
The machines - which resemble a computer monitor married with a printer - were
easy to move and easy to set up, Milka said. And the paper receipts inspired
confidence, she said.
"I just thought it was a great system," she said.
Reporter Christopher Carey
E-mail: ccarey@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-
CMKM Diamonds - The Hammer Falls
http://www.stockpatrol.com/article/key/cmkmdiamondssecaction
Investigative Reports
April 16 2008
At last. Those CMKM chickens have come home to roost.
There is no joy in this story – only long-sought-for resolution. Thousands, of investors lost money as a result of the CMKM Diamonds, Inc. boondoggle. Over the years StockPatrol.com has published over 30 articles reporting on suspicious activities at CMKM and warning investors of the perils they faced by investing in a company with no business, assets or tack-record for truth.
Now, after a series of earlier skirmishes removed CMKM from the public marketplace, the SEC has taken a significant step, charging 11 individuals and three companies with conspiring to illegally issue and sell unregistered shares of CMKM. Along the way, these defendants allegedly pocketed $64 million from 40,000 investors nationwide.
Now you know where your money went – and developing diamond mines never was on the agenda.
The SEC complaint alleges that CMKM Diamonds, Inc., with assistance from a transfer agent and an attorney, fraudulently issued hundreds of billions of shares of purportedly unrestricted shares to an individual named John Edwards. As we reported in October 2006, Edwards reportedly relieved himself of 250 billion CMKM shares through 32 different accounts.
As the SEC complaint states (and we repeatedly reported) CMKM’s CEO Urban Casavant was instrumental to the scheme to inflate the value of and demand for CMKM’s shares. Casavant issued a series of misleading press releases and attempted – quite successfully – to generate investor interest by entering CMKM-sponsored cars in “funny car” races across the U.S.
The funny business was not limited to cars. Casavant never revealed that CMKM’s “business” was being run from his Las Vegas home or that its principal activity was stock promotion, not mining. According to the SEC, much of the investors’ money, about $64 million, went to support Casavant’s lavish lifestyle. The complaint alleges that Edwards profited by approximately $26.4 million from sales through a single broker-dealer, Casavant profited by approximately $31.5 million, and others recruited by Casavant profited by approximately $6.3 million.
The SEC's complaint, which was filed in U.S. federal court in Nevada, alleges that CMKM improperly issued up to 622 billion shares of purportedly unrestricted stock, based in large part on both written authorizations and attorney opinion letters prepared by CMKM’s lawyer, Brian Dvorak. The SEC says that Dworak’s opinion letters were often inadequate, suspect, and inconsistent. Nonetheless, the complaint alleges that based on these faulty documents, CMKM's transfer agent, 1st Global Stock Transfer, and its owner, Helen Bagley, issued “stacks of stock certificates without restrictive legends.”
According to the SEC's complaint, Edwards, Casavant, and their cohorts, Kathleen Tomasso, Anthony Tomasso, James Kinney and Ginger Gutierrez deposited the bogus stock certificates with various broker-dealers and sold the shares into the market. NevWest Securities Corporation and its employees, Anthony Santos, Sergei Rumyantsev, and Daryl Anderson, are alleged to have sold more than 259 billion shares of CMKM stock for Edwards, despite numerous red flags indicating a massive unregistered distribution.
The SEC is seeking a permanent injunction against all defendants and an accounting, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties against all of the defendants except CMKM. In addition, the Commission seeks a penny stock bar against each of the individuals and an order prohibiting Casavant from acting as an officer or director of any public company.
The SEC says its investigation is continuing.
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David E. Coffey
David E. Coffey CPA
6767 W Tropicana Ave Ste 216
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License #: CPA-1953
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For more information, contact the Board of Accountancy at 775 786-0231
or by email at cpa@nvaccountancy.com
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Now, TOGI consists of several entities.
Its Due Diligence entity is building ActivReport, an online search engine that performs linear searches of individuals and allows people to find out about other people before they invest their money. Such information most often does not exist in the small cap arena, Martin said.
"It searches for involvement with other companies and other people, and it brings everything together in one easily read report," he said. "If a person is bad and he has hurt shareholders before - 10 years ago or five years ago - and nobody knows about it and now he shows up here, then shareholders need to know this guy has done it before. What's going to stop him from doing it again?"
----------------------------------------------
American Security Resources Corporation
(ARSC is a fully reporting OTCBB stock)
has passed our initial due diligence Check!
http://www.theownersgroupinc.com/arsc.php?PHPSESSID=97e898e6669abd56be4930b3a91ef13a
======================================================================
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1085069/000137219806000087/form10ksba.htm
On September 8 and 27, 2005 the Company issued 60,000 shares and 40,000 shares to B&B Marketing Communications, pursuant to a consulting services agreement. Also on September 27, the Company issued 1,000,000 shares to the Owners Group, Inc. pursuant to a Consulting Services Agreement.
On December 8 and 12, 2005, pursuant to a consulting services agreement with OTC Services, Inc., the Company issued 1,400,000 shares to OTC Services, Inc. and 1,400,000 shares to Darrel T. Uselton.
AMERICAN SECURITY RESOURCES CORPORATION 10KSB/A 1 form10ksba.htm FORM 10K SBA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Texans Charged With Using Botnet In Pump-And-Dump Scheme
An investigation was launched after the two Texans allegedly sent one of their spammed e-mail messages to an SEC lawyer, who became interested in the case.
By Sharon Gaudin
InformationWeek
July 10, 2007 12:44 PM
The Texas attorney general charged two men with running a pump-and-dump spam scam that defrauded investors out of more than $4.6 million.
On Monday, Darrel Uselton, 40, of Katy, Texas, and his uncle, Jack Uselton, 69, of Houston, face organized criminal activity and money laundering charges, along with securities fraud charges. Both men, who were indicted on July 3 by a Harris County grand jury, still are the subject of an ongoing investigation being conducted by several states and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Both men are accused of using a nationwide botnet of hijacked computers to distribute the spam. The investigation reportedly began after an SEC lawyer received one of the fraudulent e-mails at work.
Darrel Uselton was arrested and is being held in Harris County Jail in lieu of $8 million bond. An arrest warrant has been issued for Jack Uselton.
"Investors will not tolerate scam artists who use the Internet to illegally manipulate stock prices," Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a written statement. "Together with several states and the SEC, we have uncovered an elaborate scheme to defraud unwitting investors. The Office of the Attorney General will aggressively prosecute market manipulators, spammers and con artists whose illegal schemes defraud unsuspecting citizens."
For the past several months, security professionals have been warning about the burgeoning number of pump-and-dump e-mail schemes that are buffeting the Internet. Pump-and-dump refers to potentially fraudulent spam that hypes small-company stocks with phrases like "Ready to Explode," "Ride the Bull," and "Fast Money." The spammers invest in these generally low-cost stocks before the spam campaign begins. Once people are duped into buying the stocks, the share prices go up and the spammers sell off and cash in. The sell-offs, though, usually drive the stock prices down, and the other investors lose their shirts.
The Useltons reaped millions in illegal profits by promoting shares from at least 13 penny stock companies, according to information released by the Attorney General's Office. The suspects then allegedly secretly sold those stocks into an artificially active market they created with manipulative trading schemes, spam campaigns, direct mailers, and Internet-based promotional activities.
The Attorney General's Office reported that its investigators seized more than $4.2 million from the Useltons' bank accounts.
"Unfortunately for the SEC, pump-and-dump spam campaigns don't seem likely to go away any time soon," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, in a written statement. "The use of compromised networks of computers to spread these illegal spam messages can result in quick fortunes for the scammers, and can have serious detrimental effects on the stock involved. But it seems that these criminals were in such a rush to make their millions that they forget to pay any attention to which e-mail addresses were being spammed and in the end, this looks likely to be their downfall."
In March, the SEC suspended trading on 35 companies that had been touted in recent spam campaigns. The trading suspensions -- the most ever aimed at spammed companies -- were ordered because of questions regarding the adequacy and accuracy of information about the companies, according to an advisory put out by the SEC.
=============================================================
GROUP PROMOTES FRAUD FREE INVESTMENTS
http://www.zwire.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=1994&dept_id=226362&newsid=17425071
11/04/2006
GROUP PROMOTES FRAUD FREE INVESTMENTS
By GREG JUNEK, Business Editor
BUILDING ‘OASIS’: John Martin, left, and Bill Frizzell stand outside the offices of The Owners Group, 602 S. Broadway Ave.(Staff Photo By Amy Peterson)
John Martin and Bill Frizzell just wanted assurance that they and others could invest money without fear of fraud or scam.
So Martin and Frizzell established The Owners Group Inc., 602 S. Broadway Ave., after they, along with tens of thousands of other shareholders, saw their money disappear in a penny stock company that could not provide investors proof of stock ownership.
Martin said TOGI was begun based on the principles of honesty and transparency.
"We had these feelings for these shareholders and we wanted to do something for them," Martin said. "So we formed a company, The Owners Group, which is almost like an oasis out there for people to be involved in without worry and fear of scam."
In early 2004, Martin, a former wholesale business owner, and Frizzell, a Tyler attorney, purchased shares of CMKM Diamonds, which traded under the symbol "CMKX," had mining leases in Saskatchewan and traded on Pink Sheets. The allure of finding diamonds caused a buying frenzy, and more than 70,000 people purchased about 700 billion shares of stock in the company.
"You could buy a million shares for a hundred bucks," Martin said. "It was alluring to be able to own a million shares of anything in the stock market. And if they hit, that .0001 stock could possibly run to a quarter or a dime, and you'd make a lot of money. So the allure was rather large, and the people involved in the company itself were promoting it in such a way where they had their own top fuel race cars, they were advertising on the raceways out in Las Vegas, and before they knew it, it spun out of control."
SUSPICIONS
But CMKM was not filing its scheduled reports with the Security and Exchange Commission. Martin became suspicious and he asked Frizzell, who had a 28-year law practice, to look for a way to get information from the company.
Frizzell and Martin suspected the market was "naked shorting" the company, or selling stock without backing it with actual stock certificates.
"A broker will sell you electronically a stock - you give them the money and they put a marker in your account - but they don't have the actual certificate to back that stock up," Martin said. "A large number of penny stock companies that have sold billions and billions and billions of shares out there eventually get delisted. When they're delisted, they go away, and the brokers don't ever have to find the stock to match the money that they got. It's a very complicated process and a lot of people don't believe it happens. They think it's a conspiracy type thing, but it's very prevalent, not just in the small markets but also in the larger markets."
In May 2004, Frizzell intervened as a third-party representative for the CMKM shareholders in an SEC administrative hearing on whether to revoke the company's license that allowed it to trade on the stock market. The company's license was revoked in October 2005.
"I don't really have a securities law background," Frizzell said. "My background is in litigation, and early in my practice I tried a lot of criminal cases, federal and state cases. But when I got to looking into things that were happening to this stock and to these shareholders, it was my thought that this was the most obvious and blatant crime that you could ever see and the regulators were not doing anything about it."
Frizzell's representation of third-party interests in the SEC hearing was the beginning of he and Martin building "the largest shareholder advocacy base in the history of the stock market," Martin said.
"(Frizzell) intervened in the administrative hearing and we started getting information from the SEC, which is very unusual," Martin said. "The SEC doesn't share information with anybody, but the judge ordered that they turn over their investigative work on CMKM to Bill because Bill had gotten into this administrative hearing."
TOGI's effort is ongoing to get at least some return to the shareholders on their investment. Frizzell said CMKM sold "a very significant asset" to another publicly traded company, and the shareholders received 45 million shares for the asset. But the company said stock certificates would be required to assure the shareholders' identity and the group has been working since November 2005 to identify the shareholders.
The company wanted proof of ownership, which required a shareholder to have a certificate for his or her shares. Shareholders called their brokers to request the certificates and faxed them to the group's office.
Martin said 40,000 people have faxed in their certificates, and one year later thousands of people cannot get their brokers to send them their certificates.
"According to our records, there are still some 50 billion shares unaccounted for in the legitimate share count," he said. "My question is, why can't the shareholders get their certificates when they own them? It's their property. The answer to that is once the brokers pass out all of the shares, then they can't claim that there is no naked short. As long as they have some certificates, they can always claim that there is no naked short."
Martin said that CMKM has announced it would file an interpleader action with the federal court in Las Vegas.
If the action is approved, a federal judge would decide who the shareholders are and the mode of payment of the company's shares, he said. The judge could also give attorneys for the company subpoena power to open the brokers' books to determine the identities of the legitimate shareholders.
SHAREHOLDER PLIGHT
A small number of CMKM shareholders and Martin met one Saturday morning and called Frizzell, and The Owners Group grew out of those discussions.
Martin said he, along with many other shareholders, had become addicted to tracking the stock, and would stay on the computer for hours. After the SEC administrative hearing started, he and Frizzell were the shareholders' point of contact.
"They looked to me and Bill, because we were the only voice for the shareholders," he said. "We were the only people they knew to contact."
Martin said there were times he left his office in tears after reading correspondence from some of the shareholders. Some were addicted to watching the charts and reading the chat boards, and they wrote Martin about how they lost their families because the money the just knew they would make with CMKM never materialized.
Some wrote suicide notes. Some, in frustration over losing their money, lashed out at Martin and Frizzell.
"The people have no idea how many lives are ruined in the penny stock market because of scams on a daily basis," Martin said.
The CMKM debacle was not one-sided, he said. Both the brokers and some insiders at the company scammed the shareholders.
"If we had known this about this stock before we invested, we never would have invested in it," Frizzell said, referring to shareholders' comments. "Wouldn't it have been nice if we had a company that could check these things out before we invest? So they said, 'You guys know how to do a lot of good due diligence. ... Let's start a company that does that.'"
Word spread about the group's work in investigating the CMKM issue, and people "with some really good technology and some really good projects" began inquiring if the group could help them get their companies on the public and private markets.
Now, TOGI consists of several entities.
Its Due Diligence entity is building ActivReport, an online search engine that performs linear searches of individuals and allows people to find out about other people before they invest their money. Such information most often does not exist in the small cap arena, Martin said.
"It searches for involvement with other companies and other people, and it brings everything together in one easily read report," he said. "If a person is bad and he has hurt shareholders before - 10 years ago or five years ago - and nobody knows about it and now he shows up here, then shareholders need to know this guy has done it before. What's going to stop him from doing it again?"
Another entity, The Owners Group Entertainment Co. will publish three books, Martin said.
Author Mark Faulk is writing the CMKM story, "The Naked Truth." Martin said the book is about 95 percent complete.
Also, Peggy Sue Gerron of Lubbock, the person about whom Buddy Holly wrote the song "Peggy Sue," approached the group about publishing a book about her life surrounding Buddy Holly and The Crickets in the 1950s. Martin said Ms. Gerron for years has wanted to clear up inaccuracies contained in the movie "The Buddy Holly Story," and the book seeks to do that.
Another book project is an autobiography of Bryan Abrams of the group Color Me Badd.
Faulk is assisting Ms. Gerron and Adams in writing their stories.
TOGI Strategic Alliances entity is working with Data Flow Technologies, which is promising a new way to send data at a much higher speed. Martin said scientists who built the technology have called it "evolutionary."
Its Public Company Promotions entity has a contract with American Security Resource Corp., which is developing high efficiency hydrogen fuel cells that can be mass produced. It is also involved with Diamond I Inc., which develops wireless gaming products.
TOGI also has a Prospective Strategic Alliances entity, which includes Petrosonics, a company that is developing technology for low-cost reduction of sulfur, nitrogen and trace materials in crude oil and other petroleum products. Prospective Strategic Alliances also includes StemSell, a startup company that aims to collect, analyze, process, register and store umbilical cord blood stem cells from donors.
"Ultimately The Owners Group's idea is to make a difference in the small cap marketplace by helping one company at a time," Martin said.
Greg Junek is Business editor. He can be reached at 903.596.6280. e-mail: business@tylerpaper.com
©Tyler Morning Telegraph 2008
=========================================
U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 20187 / July 9, 2007
SEC v. Darrel T. Uselton and Jack E. Uselton, Case No. 07-2211 (S.D. Tex. filed July 9, 2007)
SEC Charges Two Texas Individuals in a Penny Stock Spam Campaign Involving Computer Botnets
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed securities fraud charges against two Texas individuals in a high tech spam campaign that involved personal computers nationwide to disseminate millions of spam emails that yielded over $4.6 million for the defendants. The scheme involved the use of so-called computer "botnets" or "proxy bot networks," which are networks comprised of personal computers that, unbeknownst to their owners, are infected with malicious viruses that forward spam or viruses to other computers on the Internet.
The Commission alleges that Darrel Uselton and his uncle, Jack Uselton, both recidivist securities law violators, illegally made more than $4.6 million during a 20-month "scalping" scheme by obtaining shares from at least 13 penny stock companies and selling those shares into an artificially active market they created through manipulative trading, spam email campaigns, direct mailers, and Internet-based promotional activities. Scalping refers to recommending that others purchase a security while secretly selling the same security in the market. In March 2007, the Commission suspended trading in the securities of 3 of the 13 penny stock companies identified in the complaint because they were the subject of repeated spam email campaigns.
The Commission's complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Houston, alleges that the Useltons violated the antifraud provisions of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Commission seeks permanent injunctions, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties against each of the individual defendants, as well as a penny stock bar against the Useltons.
In related enforcement actions, the Attorney General's Office for Texas and the Harris County District Attorney's Office indicted the Useltons for engaging in organized criminal activity and money laundering. The Texas criminal authorities have also seized more than $4.2 million from bank accounts associated with the Useltons.
The Commission acknowledges the assistance of the Attorney General's Office for New York and Texas, The Harris County (Houston, Texas) District Attorney's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Texas State Securities Board, the State of Oklahoma Department of Securities, the National Association of Securities Dealers and the National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance.
The Commission's investigation is continuing.
See Also: Release No. 55420 / March 8, 2007
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2007/lr20187.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Home | Previous Page Modified: 07/09/2007
SEC Spamming Targets Tied to VSE Alumnus Kamerling
by Lee M. Webb
Canada Stockwatch
July 2, 2007
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) spamming targets Darrel T. Uselton and his uncle Jack E. Uselton, who face related criminal charges in Texas, acquired shares used in one of their serial pump-and-dump schemes from Vancouver Stock Exchange graduate and repeat securities violator Beverlee Kamerling, a Stockwatch investigation reveals.
As previously reported by Stockwatch, a Texas grand jury indicted Darrel and Jack Uselton for organized criminal activity and money laundering related to the manipulative trading scheme on July 3.
The indictment was unsealed on July 6 and investigators from Texas Attorney-General Greg Abbott's special investigations unit arrested 40-year-old Darrel Uselton the same day. An arrest warrant was issued for 69-year-old Jack Uselton, who turned himself in to authorities on July 11.
Bail was originally set at a whopping $8-million each, but according to a spokesperson at the attorney-general's office it was subsequently reduced to $500,000 apiece and the Useltons bonded out of the Harris County jail on July 13. (All amounts are in U.S. dollars.)
The Useltons may find themselves a bit strapped for cash, given that investigators reportedly seized more than $4.2-million from bank accounts associated with the defendants, who are, of course, presumed innocent.
The SEC filed a fraud lawsuit against repeat securities violators Darrel and Jack Uselton in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on July 9.
The U.S. regulator alleges that the Useltons obtained cheap or free shares from at least 13 pink sheet companies, primed the market with rigged trades, encouraged management to issue "positive" news releases and then used "botnets" to distribute hundreds of millions of spam e-mails touting the near-worthless stocks while they dumped their shares on gullible investors and pocketed at least $4.6-million.
Neither Uselton has yet filed an answer to the SEC complaint and the allegations have not been proven in court.
The SEC continues to lead the way in cracking down on stock-touting spammers in both the U.S. and Canada by issuing 10-day trading suspensions against spam stocks and investigating and suing spammers from both sides of the border.
"This latest step in the Commission's anti-spam initiative is intended to protect investors from fraud artists who would treat the investing public as their personal ATM machines," SEC chairman Christopher Cox said about the lawsuit against the Useltons.
"We remain aggressively committed to tracking down anyone attempting to use bots to prey on investors with false or misleading spam about securities," Mr. Cox added.
North of the border where securities regulation falls to a patchwork of independent provincial and territorial watchdogs, British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) chairman Doug Hyndman has been claiming credit for a dramatic drop in stock spam.
While the SEC has suspended approximately 40 spam stocks, many with connections to B.C., since unveiling Operation Spamalot in March and has been actively investigating and prosecuting spammers, Mr. Hyndman thinks that the BCSC's Spamwatch initiative launched in May has produced remarkable results.
"In some cases, we are imposing three-day trading halts," Mr. Hyndman said about the BCSC anti-spam program in a June 25 speech to the Vancouver Board of Trade. "To date, we have imposed five halt trading orders, and surprise, surprise, the volume of spam has dropped dramatically.
"What this told us is that the people responsible for the spam are well aware that we are now watching and acting."
Notwithstanding Mr. Hyndman's parochial perspective and arguably goofy assessment about the effect of the BCSC's three-day halts, which have absolutely no weight beyond the province's borders, it is far more likely that any decrease in spam is the result of the suspensions, investigations and lawsuits by Canada's most respected securities regulator, the SEC.
In the first two articles in this series, Stockwatch sketched the regulatory history of Darrel and Jack Uselton and, among other things, provided an overview of their alleged spamming, market manipulation and scalping scheme.
In a July 20 article, Stockwatch began a review of the individual spam campaigns, beginning with Oretech Inc. and moving on to Intelligent Sports Inc.
In what follows, Stockwatch will pick up its examination of the 13 spam stocks by reviewing Advanced Powerline Technologies Inc., fleshing out the details and providing additional context.
Advanced Powerline
Advanced Powerline is identified as the third of the baker's dozen of stocks spammed by the Useltons. The U.S. regulator says that the pink sheet outfit is an Oklahoma-based company "that purports to be in the broadband over powerline industry."
On its clunky and not fully operational website, Advanced Powerline makes a number of claims reminiscent of the promotional puffery of so many dubious plays that tried to cash in on the irrational exuberance of the tech bubble in the 1990s.
The company boasts that it is "poised at the pinnacle of the most modern technologies since the development of cable fiber optics" and has "fathered a quantum leap forward in advanced cable free high-resolution video."
While waiting to unleash its revolutionary technological marvels, Advanced Powerline has apparently been flogging run-of-the-mill LCD digital television sets manufactured elsewhere under third party contracts.
The television-flogging enterprise has been far from lucrative. As of Dec. 31, 2006, the company had a paltry $480 in cash, accounting for all of its current assets, and a working capital shortfall of more than $2.8-million.
The company's website contains exterior pictures of what it calls "our factory," another embroidered claim.
The 52,000-square-foot building is actually an empty shell requiring at least a $1.4-million build-out, the addition of equipment and perhaps an employee or two to warrant being called a factory.
In November of 2004, Advanced Powerline entered into a 15-year lease at $13,000 per month on the building with the not-for-profit Woodward Industrial Foundation in Oklahoma and undertook to complete the spec building.
In June of 2005, the lease was amended to change the date for the rent to commence from May 1, 2005, to Sept. 1, 2005. The lease was amended again in September of that year, changing the start date for the rent to Feb. 1, 2006.
Advanced Powerline never made any rent payments and the Woodward Industrial Foundation finally sued the company for $123,000 in September of last year.
Oddly, while Advanced Powerline denied the allegation that it had never made a single payment, the penniless company reported an accrued liability of $143,000 for its lease obligation to the Woodward Industrial Foundation at the end of 2006. That represents exactly the amount of rent due from Feb. 1, the second amended starting date for lease payments, to the end of last year.
The rent dispute was resolved without prejudice in an undisclosed out-of-court settlement in March of this year.
Returning to the SEC fraud suit against Darrel and Jack Uselton, the regulator says that the Texas spammers glommed on to a large chunk of stock from one of Advanced Powerline's predecessors.
"The Useltons, and individuals and entities connected to the Useltons, appear to have received a large amount of common stock from a predecessor company to Advanced Powerline in 2004," the SEC rather vaguely claims.
As it happens, like an astonishing and disproportionate number of OTC Bulletin Board and pink sheet companies -- the BCSC perhaps conservatively pegs the number at 700 issuers and acknowledges that a similarly disproportionate number are associated with abusive market practices -- Advanced Powerline has connections to B.C.
In fact, Advanced Powerline's corporate existence traces back to a numbered B.C. company established in 1982.
Just why the promotion-in-waiting lay dormant for so many years remains something of a mystery, but 254300 B.C. Ltd. redomiciled to Nevada and became Bronzesport Industries Inc. in 1999.
In June of 2004, Bronzesport briefly changed its name to AC/DC Communications Inc. before changing its name again to Advanced Powerline on Aug. 11, 2004.
While the SEC claims the Useltons got control of their Advanced Powerline stock in 2004, an opinion letter removing the restrictions on more than 9.7 million shares indicates that Jack Uselton, Michael L. Uselton and a number of companies allegedly controlled by the Texas spammers, including Warrior Capital LLC, acquired the majority of those shares in 1999 and 2001.
However, according to the allegations in a 2006 lawsuit filed by Van Steed, a former officer and director of Advanced Powerline, the 2004 opinion letter is bogus.
Mr. Steed claims that he was snookered out of a promised 92-per-cent control of the company and lost more than $1-million as a result of a fraudulent scheme involving Frank, Mark, Michael and Scott Uselton in addition to SEC-targeted Darrel and Jack Uselton, among other individuals and corporate entities.
Mr. Steed alleges that in June to September of 2004, Frank and Scott Uselton were made ex post facto officers of Advanced Powerline and then fraudulently backdated corporate minutes to September of 1999 as part of the scheme to obtain the bogus opinion letter from allegedly complicit lawyer Tolan Furusho.
Interestingly, Mr. Steed claims that until May of 2004 the corporate records were in the control of Beverlee Kamerling, also known as Beverlee Claydon, who allegedly provided the vehicle for the fraudulent scheme in the form of Bronzesport.
While Darrel, Jack, Frank, Michael and Scott Uselton, collectively known as "the Warrior defendants," deny the substantive fraud allegations in Mr. Steed's suit, they do acknowledge that Warrior acquired its interest in Advanced Powerline's predecessor Bronzesport, along with the corporate records, from a company owned or represented by Ms. Kamerling.
The Warrior defendants make no mention of what consideration Ms. Kamerling received in the deal.
Ms. Kamerling, who is among the approximately 20 defendants in Mr. Steed's lawsuit, has filed an appearance in the case, but has not filed an answer to the complaint.
A notorious alumnus of the former scandal-plagued Vancouver Stock Exchange (VSE), Ms. Kamerling is well known to regulators on both sides of the border.
In 1989, B.C.'s regulator imposed a 10-year trading ban and a 10-year officer/director ban on the flamboyant Ms. Kamerling for her illegal trading during the scandalous Ultra Glow Cosmetics promotion.
After the Ultra Glow debacle, Ms. Kamerling evidently took her skills south of the border and, among other smelly OTC-BB plays, hooked up with another disastrous promotion, United Fire Technology, in 1994.
It did not take long before the VSE graduate ran afoul of U.S. regulators. The SEC sued Ms. Kamerling and several other United Fire players in 1997.
In a 1999 consent settlement with respect to the United Fire affair, Ms. Kamerling was permanently banned from acting as an officer or director of any public company and ordered to disgorge $1.06-million in ill-gotten gains and pay approximately $412,000 in prejudgment interest.
Less than two months after signing the settlement agreement and subsequently pleading poverty to the SEC, Ms. Kamerling attended a Marilyn Monroe memorabilia auction where she dropped approximately $68,000 to purchase some of the blond bombshell's clothing, including $23,000 for an assortment of hats.
Apparently giving little consideration to just who might be watching, Ms. Kamerling appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show about a week after her $68,000 bidding binge to present one of the hats to a wheelchair-bound woman who had been an unsuccessful bidder at the auction.
As it turned out, in addition to a number of outraged investors in both Canada and the U.S. who lost money in various stock schemes orchestrated by Ms. Kamerling, SEC officials also happened to take note of the promoter's philanthropic Oprah performance.
In June of 2000, with Ms. Kamerling not having paid a dime of the approximately $1.5-million United Fire disgorgement and interest sanctions, the unhappy U.S. regulator cited her Marilyn Monroe spending spree when slapping a broad asset freeze on the promoter who claimed that she was living "from hand to mouth."
More recently, Ms. Kamerling, along with accommodating lawyer Mr. Furusho, has been embroiled in another regulatory proceeding north of the border, this time as a respondent in a 2006 Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) action involving Nevada-incorporated Goldtech Mining Corp.
In early 2004, Goldtech, yet another OTC-BB promotion, purported to have an interest in several B.C. mining properties acquired in a share transaction. After a rather comical tussle for control of the company between management and a dissident shareholders group, that particular transaction was cancelled.
Like so many of Ms. Kamerling's promotions, Goldtech imploded amid allegations of illegal activity.
In September of 2006, well after the play had collapsed and three months after the company executed a 1-for-100 reverse split and changed its name, the ASC issued a notice of hearing against a number of Goldtech players including Ms. Kamerling and Mr. Furusho.
According to the ASC allegations, the pair were key figures in a dodgy scheme to raise money from Canadian investors and then funnel it through an Ontario company to Mr. Furusho and Ms. Kamerling and then on to Goldtech.
The Alberta regulator's hearing spanned six days through March and April of this year. Mr. Furusho and Ms. Kamerling were among the respondents who testified before the three-member panel, which rendered its decision on June 15.
The ASC panel evidently did not think much of the testimony of either lawyer Mr. Furusho or promoter Ms. Kamerling, both of whom are reportedly based in Bellevue, Wash.
"In general, Furusho presented himself as someone familiar with a litigation environment and cautious in what he said," the panel wrote. "In our view, he attempted to leave us with the impression that his involvement was far more limited, and subsequent in time, to what was in fact the case.
"We did not find him a particularly credible witness."
Elsewhere in the 11-page decision, the panel explicitly said that it did not believe some of Mr. Furusho's "puzzling" explanations.
The ASC characterized Ms. Kamerling as "as an associate of Furusho," though not a lawyer, who helped him with his legal work for Goldtech.
"We find from the evidence that Furusho and Kamerling worked as a team in matters relating to Goldtech," the panel remarked.
If the Alberta regulator had a clue about Ms. Kamerling's regulatory history and string of promotional debacles, it cannot be gleaned from the June 15 decision.
"The evidence also indicates that Kamerling is a businesswoman who has been engaged in negotiating deals and raising capital," the panel blandly wrote.
"Kamerling was an emotional witness," the panel went on to note. "Her testimony and oral submissions appeared more reflective of a long-standing and wide-ranging series of differences with Kroeker (another respondent) than directed to the narrower issues before us and, as such, they were of limited assistance to us."
In the end, the panel found that Ms. Kamerling, Mr. Furusho and a third respondent, Lee Kroeker, each engaged in illegal trades and distributions and acted contrary to the public interest.
"The Alberta Goldtech investors were put at risk -- indeed, their money has apparently been lost," the panel wrote. "As a result, overall confidence in the fairness and integrity of the Alberta capital market was also jeopardized."
Having arrived at that weighty determination, the ASC has not been in any rush to sanction the offenders.
"These findings conclude the first portion of this proceeding," the panel declared on June 15. "The hearing will resume to consider the issue of whether it is in the public interest to order sanctions against all or any of the respondents."
To this point, no sanctions have been issued. In the event the ASC gets around to penalizing the respondents for their illegal activities, of course, the sanctions will have no effect outside of the province of Alberta.
Turning again to the SEC lawsuit against the Useltons, with an unspecified number of shares under their control, the U.S. regulator claims that the pair orchestrated a series of at least four separate spam e-mail campaigns touting Advanced Powerline between July and October of 2005.
The e-mail spam, which consisted of baseless claims and price projections, boasted about profits of 300 per cent to 750 per cent on other weekly hot picks and urged investors to jump into Advanced Powerline for a huge return.
According to the SEC, the spam e-mails traced back to "servers leased to, paid for, and controlled by the principal spammer," an as yet unidentified individual who charged the Useltons at least $126,000 for the Advanced Powerline spam job.
The regulator claims that between July 1 and Oct. 18, 2005, a period coinciding with the spam campaigns, Darrel and Jack Uselton unloaded more than 818,000 shares of Advanced Powerline for proceeds of at least $533,000.
Just over a year later, the Useltons allegedly kicked off another spam campaign heavily touting the purported broadband-over-powerline outfit between Nov. 26, 2006, and Dec. 8, 2006.
"An incredible announcement is expected out of the company very soon," one of the second round of spam e-mails proclaimed. "This will be backed by a PR blitz and I'm sure you can guess what will happen to the price of this stock!
"Tech companies blast off on news like this. Get in before this one takes off and ride it all the way to the bank!"
The SEC complaint makes no mention of any payment to the principal spammer for the 2006 encore spam campaign in which the Useltons allegedly dumped more than 3.16 million shares of Advanced Powerline and rode off to the bank with proceeds of approximately $267,000.
While that marks the end of the SEC's allegations concerning Darrel and Jack Uselton spamming Advanced Powerline, it is not the end of the story regarding the touted broadband-over-powerline outfit.
On Jan. 25 of this year, Advanced Powerline sued Lorena Uselton and Penny Uselton along with SEC-targeted Darrel and Jack Uselton as well as approximately a dozen entities associated with the alleged spammers. The lawsuit also named a number of other individuals.
Interestingly, the lawsuit indicates that Advanced Powerline hired the Useltons in July of 2006 "to aid in the seeking of funding opportunities" for the penniless promotion.
While the purported agreements were allegedly inked between the 2005 and 2006 spam campaigns orchestrated by the Useltons, the company claims that it did not have a clue about the "evil operations" until Nov. 25 of last year.
Among other things, the $20-million lawsuit levelled allegations of tortuous interference, disparagement and defamation, bribery, fraud, RICO violations and "implied breach of implied contract" against the defendants.
Even from the lay perspective of this reporter, the Advanced Powerline complaint appeared to be a muddle of vague and deficient claims.
Lawyers for various defendants evidently made a similar assessment and figuratively shredded the sloppy filing in answering the complaint on behalf of their respective clients.
Citing an "irreconcilable conflict" with the company, Advanced Powerline's attorney filed a motion to withdraw as the plaintiff's lawyer on March 28.
No lawyer subsequently filed an appearance on behalf of the company and after Advanced Powerline failed to appear at a properly noticed hearing, the judge conditionally dismissed the case on April 16.
The court gave the company 60 days to show up with a new lawyer, but when Advanced Powerline again failed to appear, a final judgment dismissing the lawsuit was issued on June 26.
By that time, the touted broadband-over-powerline outfit was facing its own regulatory difficulties.
Advanced Powerline was part of the kennel of 35 pink sheet dogs that the SEC suspended when it unveiled Operation Spamalot on March 8.
The U.S. regulator said the suspension was ordered because of questions about the adequacy of publicly disseminated information about the company's assets, operations, financial condition and/or financing arrangements involving the issuance of shares.
In the wake of the SEC suspension, Advanced Powerline was booted down to the grey market.
Advanced Powerline last traded on July 18, when 1,400 shares changed hands in a single transaction at one-10th of a penny.
[ RGM Short Selling Home page ]
Former Stratton Oakmont cold caller says Richard Altomare an American hero.
("Editor's note: Darren Saunders first began posting comments on The Faulking Truth almost three years ago, a passionate, but in all honesty, highly dysfunctional soul, filled with anger and discontent."
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http://financial101.blogspot.com/
Sunday, April 13, 2008
We found ANOTHER Ameriican HERO-Part 3
Good morning Brooklyn
and
Good morning World
--------------------------
We VERY rarely in life meet people you genuinally feel GREAT respect for.I feel this respect
after watchingMoneyTV's show on naked short selling. This CEO sure looks tired but he continues
this decades long battle against Worldwide dream killers. I will no longer use the term "American
Dream" because this truly has become a WORLDWIDE issue. Just think of how many dreams
have been DESTROYED because of the GREED of a small few ?
This show is about 34 minutes long. PLEASE pay attention. Most importantly look at the
pain in this man's face. I 'am sure in todays world you can associate with this man's pain.
Whether you own his stock or not,see his pain.
http://www.usxp.com/nss/richardaltomarenss.wmv
================================================
"In 1989 my brother-in-law got me to be a job as a "cold-caller" at Stratton Oakmont in Lake Success, NY. This is where my "softer side" was tested, and tested and tested. I remember Sunday nights watching tv show "In Living Color" dreading the upcoming week of abuse and torture.I wanted to quit many times but never did because I wanted a "name for myself." "
(Editor's note: Darren Saunders first began posting comments on The Faulking Truth almost three years ago, a passionate, but in all honesty, highly dysfunctional soul, filled with anger and discontent. We argued sometimes, and I threatened on more than one occasion to make him "go sit in the corner." But, over time, we have all grown to love Darren, and he has in turn become a better, and as this story will show, stronger person in the face of extreme adversity. He has been an integral part of the crusade against stock market fraud, and I want him to know that I'm proud to call him my friend. Peace always, Mark Faulk)
My Story
Darren Saunders
http://www.faulkingtruth.com/Articles/FaulkingAround/1054.html
TheFaulkingtruth always worth a million giggles.
For Release:
Contact: Thursday, December 5, 1996
Nancy A. Condon - (202) 728-8379
NASD Regulation Expels Stratton Oakmont; Principals Also Barred
Washington, D.C.--NASD Regulation, Inc., today announced it has permanently expelled the New York-based firm Stratton Oakmont from the securities industry.
The announcement was made today after market close following a decision by the NASD Regulation National Business Conduct Committee (NBCC). The NBCC ruling follows an appeal filed by Stratton Oakmont of an April 1996 decision by the New York District Business Conduct Committee (DBCC). The NBCC increased the sanction against Stratton Oakmont to expulsion from the original DBCC sanction of a one-year prohibition against effecting any principal retail transactions.
The NBCC decision also barred Stratton Oakmont President Daniel M. Porush and head trader Steven P. Sanders. In its decision, the NBCC increased Sanders' original penalty from a one-year suspension to a bar and affirmed the bar for Porush. Porush was also fined $250,000 and censured, while Sanders was fined $25,000 and censured.
Stratton Oakmont was ordered by the NBCC to pay $416,528 in restitution to customers, fined $500,000, and censured.
All of Stratton Oakmont's customer accounts will continue to be held by J.B. Oxford, a separate broker/dealer firm that has performed all of Stratton Oakmont's clearing operations. Anyone with questions about their accounts should contact at J.B. Oxford's Customer Service Department at (310) 777-8888, ext. 289. J. B. Oxford is a Los Angeles-based firm.
"With this expulsion, NASD Regulation has rid the securities industry of one of its worst actors," said NASD Regulation President Mary L. Schapiro. "With Stratton Oakmont's extensive and serious regulatory history, and an obvious disregard for all rules of fair practice, today's actions make the securities industry a better place for investors."
Barry R. Goldsmith, NASD Regulation's Executive Vice President of Enforcement added, "In less than a decade, Stratton Oakmont amassed one of the worst regulatory records of any broker/dealer firm. The firm has been the subject of numerous disciplinary actions brought by the NASD, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and state regulators involving fraud, market manipulation, sales practice abuses, and failures to adequately supervise its employees."
The NBCC found that "The firm must be, and hereby is, expelled from membership due to the number and gravity of the violations which we have sustained, and the number and gravity of the firm's relevant prior disciplinary incidents. We find that this history establishes a coherent pattern of willful disregard for regulatory requirements and regulatory authority, as well as a failure of lesser steps to remediate the firm's conduct."
The 23-page decision also noted that the bars of both Porush and Sanders were necessary because: "[They] continue to deny responsibility and exhibit no remorse for [their] misconduct, and, but for the bar, would continue to pose an on-going risk to the investing public."
The SEC and a number of state securities regulators around the nation have also sanctioned Stratton Oakmont. In early 1994, the SEC settled an enforcement action against Stratton Oakmont and Porush, after alleging that the firm engaged in securities fraud through its "boiler room" sales operation. By late 1994, the SEC had charged Stratton Oakmont with violating the settlement agreement and obtained a permanent injunction against the firm requiring future compliance.
Numerous states have taken action against Stratton Oakmont.
The April 1996 DBCC decision resulted from a complaint filed by NASD Regulation in late 1995 and early 1996. The complaint charged:
Excessive and Fraudulent Mark-ups - From October 18, 1993 through November 17, 1993, Stratton Oakmont, acting through Sanders, effected more than 150 principal retail sales of Class A and Class B warrants for the initial public offering of Master Glazier's Karate International Inc. that were marked-up excessively or fraudulently (greater than 10 percent above the prevailing market price).
Deficient Supervision - During the period and activity in question, Stratton Oakmont and Porush failed to establish, maintain, and enforce a supervisory system to prevent the violations in question.
The DBCC found that Stratton Oakmont - which underwrote the offering - controlled the market for Master Glazier, finding that no other broker/dealer made even a single purchase or sale of Class A or Class B warrants on a principal basis during the review period.
In its ruling, the NBCC stated: "Stratton, through Sanders, intentionally structured and participated in an IPO with a view toward retaining a high percentage market share for the purpose of economic gain." It also said that "the firm and Sanders engaged in abusive pricing" and actions that "discouraged the sales force from allowing customers to sell their securities back to Stratton, thus reducing the firm's risk and enhancing its ability to dictate prices arbitrarily."
The NBCC also found that Porush did not satisfy his responsibility to establish supervisory procedures as the firm's President and supervisor of the firm's retail sales force and trading and compliance operations. The NBCC added "we do not accept Porush's defense that he was a mere figurehead as President." According to the NBCC decision, Porush also was the salesperson with the largest individual allocation in the Master Glazier underwriting, had access to real-time pricing information, and as a result "had an obligation to assure that the retail products marketed by his sales force were in compliance with all relevant legal requirements, including those prohibiting excessive pricing."
Prior to today's order, Stratton functioned as a Market Maker for 23 securities listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market's Small Cap Market and 4 on The Nasdaq National Market. As a result of its expulsion, Stratton will cease all of its market making functions immediately.
A more complete litany of Stratton Oakmont's disciplinary history can be found in the NBCC's decision on pages 17-20.
Selected Regulatory History
Stratton Oakmont
Stratton Oakmont joined the NASD in April 1987 and has a long-standing disciplinary history.
Since June 1989, the firm has been the subject of twelve disciplinary actions brought by the NASD and NASD Regulation. The charges encompassed in these proceedings include securities fraud, manipulation, unlawful markups, violations in connection with initial public offerings, breach of market making restrictions, inducing customers not to cooperate in Association investigations, and failures to supervise.
On June 9, 1996, NASD Regulation issued a complaint alleging that Stratton, its President, Daniel M. Porush, and its head trader, Steven P. Sanders, engaged in manipulative, fraudulent and deceptive acts in connection the initial public offerings and aftermarket trading of five securities. The complaint alleges approximately $28 million in illegal profits. The case is scheduled for hearing in January, 1997.
NASD Regulation has issued a complaint and will hold a hearing in December regarding allegations that Stratton failed to comply with NASD Regulation rules requiring the firm to timely report its customer complaints, and failed to have adequate supervisory procedures.
In February and March 1994, Stratton settled an SEC enforcement action brought against it and several of its principals, including Daniel M. Porush. The Commission alleged that Stratton engaged in securities fraud through its "boiler room" sales operation. It was alleged that Stratton made material misrepresentations to its customers in the sale of speculative over-the-counter securities. As part of the administrative settlement, Stratton agreed to retain an independent consultant to review its policies, practices and procedures and to adopt his recommendations.
Stratton failed to comply with the terms of its settlement with the Commission. In December 1994, the SEC filed a complaint against Stratton alleging that it violated the terms of the March 1994 settlement by failing to adopt the recommendations of the independent consultant. After obtaining temporary and preliminary relief against Stratton, in February 1995, the Commission obtained a permanent injunction against Stratton enjoining it from violating the terms of the March 1994 administrative order. In so doing, the Court found that Stratton had failed to adopt the independent consultant's recommendations.