Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
The story was written already, Monroe. It doesn't "look" completely gone. It IS completely gone.
Baltia is ordered revoked as of 11/5 by the ALJ at the SEC. Baltia has already said they will not fight revocation. They have ignored repeated notices of delinquency. They have not commented AT ALL in public since this all began back in May, save for the ridiculous analogy that Lampl made about their trading suspension being like forgetting to pay a credit card bill. Alleged private emails between Lampl and a certain IHUB member here are also suspicious.
The only thing happening behind closed doors is Tony and his compatriots trying to avoid legal action. They know they are under a big microscope and have likely already lined up legal council to try and defend them and their gross negligence and incompetence.
Looks like a typo. Tony did send publish that letter in November 2017, though.
And yet Lampl is still listed on the management team, though he doesn't have a single mention of this on his own LinkedIn page.
The Nov 5th initial order didn't state anything about a telephone hearing. They have until Nov 26 to file for review of the order. After that, it's buh-bye....
"This initial decision shall become effective in accordance with and subject to the provisions of Rule 360. Under this rule, a party may file a petition for review of this initial decision within twenty-one days after service of the initial decision. "
Rab,
Did you read the full letter? The US attorney basically explains that they have provided all requested documents, but in the end of the 5th paragraph states that they are still awaiting audit reports of Kayla's anti-money laundering program. Why has Drago's council not turned this over yet? Possibly because they didn't have such a program in place. Or not.
Almost 5 months ago they stated on the company web site they will not fight revocation.
They're done.
Websites can be hacked, same with Twitter and Facebook. It does not hold the weight of an 8K, by any stretch. If he's so transparent and open, he should have sent a shareholder letter, at a minimum, when the doo-doo all started hitting the fan in May. Instead, he's been 100% silent.
Let me remind you - it’s been 10 months since Tony gave an update with his name signed to it - The cheerful, joyous happy holidays shareholder letter dated December 29, 2017.
The update 5 months ago on the company web site about not fighting revocation was not attributed to anyone in particular. It wasn’t official in any capacity. Tony’s name wasn’t signed to it. It was a cop out and weak attempt at the fake transparency he promised a year prior.
Right. They made $43 BILLION in revenues and about $2 Billion in net profit.
Baltia has "made" $0 in Revenue and $0 in profit.
A future plan requires a competent management team and money. Baltia has neither, and any diligent investor would be off their rocker to even consider something that this clown show comes up with after how they've treated current investors for since the Songbird deal fell through and they "lost" the $1M down payment.
There is no evidence of any negotiation. The previous reference was to a "previously negotiated" deal, which was long before the initial revocation order.
Remember, the company made a public statement on the web site in June that the will not fight revocation. It's coming. The company is done.
No money, no assets, no transparency, no DOT authorization, no FAA certification, no operating certificate.
Sounds like a great private investment.
Follow the money....
It was recently rumored here that BLTA management was soliciting some shareholders for direct contributions of around $20k about a year ago to pay off the audit bill. Guess that didn’t happen...
Monroe, He did absolutely say, in writing TWICE, that the financials are complete. Nowhere did he say they are "almost done". First in the Nov 14, 2017 shareholder letter:
"As the company undergoes its transition and preparation for operating as a Part 121 air carrier, we understand that it is vital for us to maintain transparency and hold ourselves to the standards we set forth during our Special Shareholders Meeting in May 2017."
....
we have completed the audit for fiscal years 2015, 2016, and the first three quarters of 2017 and are preparing the final drafts for legal review and release
On Nov 30, 2017 (2 weeks later), he also wrote:
the company has nonetheless been able to complete the 2015 and 2016 audits which we are striving to release soon
The company has not responded to anything at all. It was hinted that the BLTA and SEC legal council's spoke after the May 7 notice, but in subsequent SEC documents they made it clear that BLTA has not responded to anything. This also lines up with the June web site update that BLTA dba USGL will not fight the revocation.
So you can be hopeful about the ALJ working something out with them, but it's abundantly clear by their own statements that this won't happen.
Exactly. Upon the May 7 notice, Baltia council contacted SEC about a so-called previously agreed upon settlement which, in my opinion, could have only been to get current with the financials.
This latest update basically says they have to show cause by 10/26, or else they will be revoked.
Game Over.
They will be zero'd out because they will be completely worthless more than they are now.
There will be no new entity that would even look at this company. Why would they?
1.) no financials for several years
2.) no assets
3.) no operating certificate
4.) no DOT operating authority
5.) one failed business plan after another
SEC and Baltia are not talking. Baltia has not responded to any of their notices. Baltia is not talking to even their shareholders, at all. Baltia has said they will not fight revocation. The order will stand and be final in the coming weeks. Bet on it.
Tony can't show us where $100M+ has gone over the years, other than inflated salaries, 2 rusty old 747-200 airframes, a Citation business jet that **WHY?** they seemed to need to conduct business for a company with no revenue. Oh - and the $1M they scrounged up to throw away on a deal that was heavily skewed against them from the get go. That alone is curious. Was that by design?? Follow the money....
How do you come up with the number 50% chance of rebirth? Who knows - you ask?
Anyone who's read the SEC actions and the witnessed the company's own words and actions these past 12 months. They are not fighting revocation, which is effectively letting the company die. All the shareholders are about to be zero'd out. It's 100% fact.
There's need to paint these "what if" scenarios when they are not possible to happen.
No, please re-read all the other posts from anyone else. More importantly, read the SEC revocation order. It's 100%. Not 99%. Not even 99.999%. It's a solid 100%.
Monroe -
I don't know or even understand why you keep pushing this "maybe" idea that they will rise up from the ashes. They will not. That's not an opinion, it's completely fact based.
They have made it very clear on the company web site that they are NOT going to fight revocation. It WILL be delisted. Shares WILL be wiped out. There is no "maybe" to this. It's 100% fact and will happen. It doesn't matter what they do at this point, the SEC is slamming the door shut once and for all. And with that, perhaps this and the other board will be removed so we can all get a few minutes back out of our days.
Why do you keep postulating these wild theories that are no different than saying a local pig farmer has bread flying pigs? Neither will ever happen.
There’s nothing to take over from Tony. No assets, no certificate, no financials. But, they do owe $22M from the Logistics Air law suit, so they certainly have liabilities. And they lack years of financial filings.
At this point it’s simply a company on paper that has achieved absolutely nothing in 29 years. Nothing else.
Not a single sane person would even consider taking this over because there’s nothing to take over! Zilch!
If a well heeled whale wanted to get into starting an airline, they can start fresh - and they can use the name US GLOBAL because the $20 name hold expired!!!! There’s absolutely no reason to try and resurrect Baltia dba US Global.
You can’t make this stuff up.
The only option at this point is for this company to be revoked, which will happen when the SEC process is complete. All shares will be zero'd out, everyone starts over.
No reason at all to invest in any kind of re-incarnation of this company with this management team. If you want to invest in an upstart airline, there are plenty of other small airlines that show much more promise, considering they've already gotten certified and have payload revenue.
I find it funny The Lamp supposedly sent Rab an email again. The last one said an update was coming the following week. That was like a month ago and of course, nothing happened. Now he supposedly says they will announce something when they are ready and "not before". Wow, that's a great communication director. His job is to keep the shareholders updated, not in the dark.
I still question whether he has a job with BLTA anymore. Someone might ask Lamp why he removed all references from his LInkedIn about Baltia/USGL.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-lampl-9b095512/
Not to mention their web site clearly states they aren't going to fight revocation.
If Tony had any money, he would have put it up to complete the audits instead of calling shareholders last year to help them pay the bill.
The BLTA share price has only gone down since then. Any shares he owned are worthless, along with everyone else.
And the SEC won't just let this die and forget about it. BET ON IT.
Yes, there is precedent and quite recent. Let this be a warning to those who don't use gofundme funds in the way they were stated/intended.
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/400K-in-Donations-Missing-From-Homeless-Mans-GoFundMe-Lawyer-Says-492418391.html
GoFundMe took the high road in this case and said they would make sure the guy would get paid.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90233641/gofundme-will-pay-philadelphia-homeless-man
The domain name registration expires on Oct 31, 2019. Not Oct 19 of this year.
Domain Name: USGLOBAL.COM
Registry Domain ID: 39347648_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
Registrar URL: www.godaddy.com
Updated Date: 2017-10-25T14:01:11Z
Creation Date: 2000-10-31T12:42:39Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2019-10-31T11:42:39Z
The web hosting provider of the actual site content is GoDaddy, which is the WalMart of web hosting companies. Cheap to buy, terrible customer service.
We don't have any way of knowing when the godaddy account expires, though. If that expires before 10/31/19, then the page will be a generic splash page without any USGL content.
If they bought their web services as a 2 year subscription on October 25, 2017 (last updated date), then it's likely the domain registration was part of that deal and they both will perish next year - long after the revocation.
There may be, but in October 2019 I don't think it will matter any more....
It looks like the domain was last updated 10/25/17 and expires 10/31/19.
Domain Name: USGLOBAL.COM
Registry Domain ID: 39347648_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Updated Date: 2017-10-25T14:01:11Z
Creation Date: 2000-10-31T12:42:39Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2019-10-31T11:42:39Z
This is not necessarily the same timeline of their godaddy hosting plan. If that plan ends sooner and they don't renew it, then the web page will become a placeholder with a godaddy logo. Nobody would be able to put up their own usglobal.com web site until/unless the company lets the domain name expire on 10/31/19.
The next update will be after the stock is revoked, which looks like October given the timeline of the latest ALJ order.
BLTA has already said they will not fight revocation so I think they're just waiting for this final puzzle piece to begin a complete shutdown.
Once the GoDaddy web hosting plan is up for renewal, we won't even see usglobal.com anymore.
I stand corrected from my prior post expecting that the company communications guy made an actual commitment to make a public announcement. Rab's comment said that Lyin Lampl said "possibly"... "may"...
That's in line with everything else with this company. Non committal statements that they can't be held to. "Striving to release" the financials was another good play on words.
Nothing to see here folks. The countdown begins.
I've repeated this several times -
Tony hasn't made any public comment or statement with his name attached to it since the December 29, 2017 Happy Holiday BS shareholder letter. The website front page blurb could have been written by anyone. If it were from any other CEO, they would put their name at the end of it. They would have released a PR, 8K or shareholder letter. Tony has been a cricket, or more like a cockroach.
Well, this new stay of execution gives Lampl even more reason to put out a statement as he allegedly told rab in a random phone call last week. Update coming this week, says he.
If he fails to put out an update, his "Lyin Lampl" nickname is even more apropos.
This all assumes Rab called the USGL 1-800 number, routed himself to Lampl's phone and got the man himself on the other end.
Rab - since you say you talked to him and he promised an update this week...what will you think of the guy when he doesn't come through? Maybe he just wanted to get you off the phone.
Still waiting for this update Lampl told you was coming this week. I doubt it will be today. Apple has a big media day that will outshine anything. Even a Baltia comeback..
Indeed, the FAA was not biased against BLTA.
Had they rubber stamped this mess and an accident subsequently occurred as a result of shoddy maintenance that was overlooked by said FAA, who takes the heat?
Once you answer that question, you’ll also have your answer to why the feds withheld an operating certificate.
Who said we're relying on linkedin to make investment decisions? The fact is he used to have Baltia in his LinkedIn profile work history and now he does not. That's something to be curious about, for sure.
We also didn't see an 8-K about the suspension activities either, though we should have. But who cares, right?!
are we seeing a rally on Rab's indication that an announcement of some kind is coming next week??? Slap the ask!
Tony hasn't signed his name to any public communication since the December 29th Happy Holidays shareholder letter.
The web site blurb about the "defenseless proceeding" could have been jotted down by anyone. In fact, the grammar looks on par with a 6th grade writing assignment.
Call them all the names you want, but the FAA is not the reason BLTA failed their certification. Dozens of airlines have been certified and started (and many failed) since Baltia was founded nearly 30 years ago. But for some reason this little outfit with 2 rickety old 747's was targeted to never get off the ground? And yet still nobody flies direct to LED.
I can think of only 2 that would even consider JFK-LED - Aeroflot and Delta. There's nobody else that would have the feed on either end to make regularly fill the flight with strong yields.
Some functions of the FAA are privatized already. Privatizing the FAA as a whole is a terrible idea, for reasons that are out of scope to this message board.
Having spent quite a bit of time in the Coney Island/Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn, this is quite true. The restaurants like Vis-a-Vis, La Vue and Orange Grill are awash in Russian extravagence. They all have amazing food and morph into a nightclub atmosphere as the night goes on with flowing vodka, expensive suits and beautiful women.
Clearly not the kind of place Tony would ever be able to afford, and definitely not where you would find a black T, gold necklace wearing mafioso-wanna be.
The FAA has nothing to do with BLTA anymore. The DOT revoked route authority. The SEC made an initial revocation order. BLTA is just a paper company that has generated $120M in stock sales with nary a dollar to show for where it all went. They owe money to one company for engine leases, so it didn't go there. They couldn't close the Songbird deal last October, so it didn't go there (except $1M that they never will see again). They certainly didn't spend it all on 2 30 year old 747's.
They've not made one penny of revenue, but have been able to pay six figure salaries all these years to people who have done next to nothing.
I really hope to see the SEC do some digging into this mess. It's not your average penny stock, that's for sure.
The house of cards is slowly caving in.