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Mrogop, playing catch up and responded to ajaxx before I saw this.
Ajaxx, just so you know, I've only used Pacer a few times prior to these searches so I'm not very experienced with using this tool.
Also, the Houston office site still says it hasn't been updated since 5/2 although the person I spoke with today was confused by this. Maybe because she immediately scans it she assumes it will appear immediately? Mrogop said that it's usually updated on Mondays and Fridays.
And, if even in a couple of weeks we still can't find anything on Pacer, my conclusion would be that the case has been sealed. I don't know why or how often a case is sealed (in fact, maybe it always is in the investigation period).
But I don't think that means irrefutably that it's tied to the Jefferson case.
I did specifically ask about Jefferson and she searched the TX database and didn't come up with anything. All this tells us is if he is indeed being investigated, it's either a) not being conducted out of Texas or b) it's been sealed.
Sorry, I realize this isn't very helpful but just wanted to provide what info I could in case someone else could expand on it.
Additionally, if posts (I confess don't read them when I see they are personal or ot) contain personal attacks on an individual then anyone can report a "tos violation" at the bottom of the post. The ihub administrator, Matt, reviews all of these and if he also feels it violates the terms of service (tos) agreement, he will suspend or revoke posting rights. The individual can then only post on ihub jailhouse until the rights are restored. (If anyone is unfamiliar with the this "board", go to home and search Jailhouse.)
Also, Katie, I sent you a pm saying that I'm pretty sure this does not have to be a premium board to ban someone. You might want to check with Matt.
Download (1 pages $ 0.00)
Bankruptcy Cases
Name Court Case No. Filed Chapter
1 WILLIAM JEFFERSON, INC. nywbke 99-01298 10/20/1999 AP
PROGRESSIVE RESTAURANT SYSTEMS, INC. AND WILLIAM JEFFERSON, INC.
Civil Cases
Name Court Case No. Filed NOS Closed
2 WILLIAM JEFFERSON AND CO INC cacdce 8:1995cv00155 02/24/1995 850 09/29/1995
William Jefferson Co v. Stratosphere Corp, et al
3 WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, ESTATE OF scdce 9:2000cv03937 12/27/2000 440 06/08/2001
Rice, et al v. National Security, et al
4 WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, WILLIAM J caedce 1:2001cv05352 03/26/2001 440 03/27/2001
Nelson v. Clinton
Doug - I searched erhe and erhc (since erhc is in erhc energy it should come up). Based on last couple of days info, I also searched phil nugent and phil c. nugent with no results. Just tried menmon and offor, also no results.
Homeport - lol! I'll keep checking but if this is tied to Jefferson then the case is most likely sealed and I won't be able to find anything.
Kobi, I have successfully been able to search just by company name. Here are results from Saturday that I pulled up for erhc. As you can see, nothing since 2000. Additionally, when I spoke with the clerk today she said that after the warrant has been executed, they do scan it into Pacer. However, if the case is sealed there, obviously, will be no results (which she indicated would be the case if a congressman was being investigated).
All Types Name Search Results
5 Total Party matches for selection ERHC for ALL COURTS
Search Complete
Sat May 6 14:07:46 CDT 2006
Selections 1 through 5 (Page 1)
Download (1 pages $ 0.00)
Civil Cases
Name Court Case No. Filed NOS Closed
1 ERHC INVESTMENT GROUP A codce 1:2000cv00679 04/03/2000 850 04/13/2000
Environmental Remed v. Talisman Capital, et al
2 ERHC INVESTMENT GROUP C codce 1:2000cv00679 04/03/2000 850 04/13/2000
Environmental Remed v. Talisman Capital, et al
3 ERHC INVESTMENT GROUP II codce 1:2000cv00679 04/03/2000 850 04/13/2000
Environmental Remed v. Talisman Capital, et al
4 ERHC INVESTMENT GROUP, LLC codce 1:2000cv00679 04/03/2000 850 04/13/2000
Environmental Remed v. Talisman Capital, et al
5 ERHCO, INCORPORATED ordce 3:2005cv00714 05/19/2005 840 07/06/2005
ERHCO, Incorporated v. World Shoe Association et al
http://pacer.uspci.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/dquery.pl
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FWIW, I spoke with someone in the Southern District of Courts Office. She said that a search warrant that has been executed should show up in Pacer unless the case is sealed. She also said warrants are executed through the US Marshalls' office. I asked about the site saying it hadn't been updated since 5/2 and she was confused thought it was updated "almost instantaneously". I mentioned Jefferson and she said if it was in conjunction with a Congressman it is definitely sealed. But, I'll keep check pacer just to see if anything comes up.
"The world has the oil, and China has the money," says Chen Huai, who is a member of the Chinese cabinet run Development Research Center.
China's Global Quest For Oil
China's economic growth raises price of oil; foreign rivals concerned
Raymond McDonald (ramacdo) Email Article Print Article
Published on 2006-05-08 15:14 (KST)
A major concern of the American public in the past year has been the rising price of fuel. As the world's largest consumer of oil, the U.S. price for petroleum remains the cheapest -- almost half of what you would pay in Europe or Japan. Nonetheless, the cost for a gallon of petrol in the US is nearing $3 per gallon and has become a major issue in the nation's politics.
Many blame high oil prices on American foreign policy -- namely the war in Iraq and the insecurity of the Middle East region. However, the biggest threat to U.S. oil dominance comes from the world's most populous nation, China. China has overtaken Japan as the world's second largest oil consumer, and with a population over four times the size of America's, it wont be long until China overtakes the U.S. for the number one slot.
The growth of China's oil consumption is directly linked to the increased economic freedoms of cities on its coastal regions. The nation's economic growth since the 1990's has been nothing short of incredible. In 2005, the economic growth rate was 9.9 percent, larger than that of any other nation. A rising Chinese economy means that there are also an increasing number of Chinese people with disposable incomes. With this comes an increased opportunity for average citizens to purchase cars.
In 2002, Chinese demand for cars increased by 56 percent; then in 2003 it increased by 75 percent. The most recent figures suggest that the number of car owners in China now stands at somewhere in the region of 25 million. So that means there are tens of millions of people who purchase petrol who didn't a decade ago. With the world's oil supplies beginning to dry up, this means that the cost of petrol grows even more expensive throughout the world. Forecasts predict that in the year 2020, China will need a minimum of 14,200,000 barrels of oil per day.
The Chinese people's burgeoning demand for oil means that the nation's own oil reserves are no longer sufficient, so that it now has to search the world for oil supplies. An oil pipeline from Kazakhstan into China -- the 988-kilometer long Atasu-Alashankou pipeline -- is nearing completion and will eventually pump 20 million tons of oil into China. This is just one of many recently built oil pipelines from Russia and Central Asia into China.
However, demand is such that China has to look beyond its former communist neighbors. For the past few years it seems there has been a never-ending flow of Chinese diplomats to Nigeria, one of the worlds poorest nations. Nigeria has oil and needs money; China has money and needs oil, so they seem like perfect trading partners. At the end of April, Chinese president, Hu Jintao arrived in Abuja, Nigeria to sign a deal in which China will pay 4 billion dollars in exchange for four oil exploration licences.
China is said to still be looking throughout Africa for cheap and exclusive sources of oil. They have made similar efforts in South America, and are now receiving oil from Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, and Ecuador.
International critics claim that China is seeking to secure oil contracts in nations with appalling human rights records that America, Japan, and Europe refuse to deal with. China has oil interest in Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Sudan, Chad, and the Republic of Congo -- countries whose human rights records outrage the developed world. Oil trade between China and Iran has increased, with China spending roughly US$100 billion on developing one large Iranian oil field. Iran is frequently at odds with the U.S., Israel, and Europe, making China's involvement with it an unpopular decision internationally.
So while many nations are critical of its methods, China will continue to attempt to quench its thirst for oil. The countries government has a much simpler view on the situation, "The world has the oil, and China has the money," says Chen Huai, who is a member of the Chinese cabinet run Development Research Center. It seems like the rest of the world will just have to pay the price for China's increased fuel demands as they are only going to increase.
©2006 OhmyNews
http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?menu=A11100&no=290499&rel_no=1&...
Hope not, but agree. Look at their pr history, doesn't seem like they had issues releasing information in 2005.
http://spooz.com/press.aspx
Ok, don't know how much I'll be on ihub today but if/when it seems needed I'll repost.
Tap - thanks, that is a great post.
Thanks for all the research. This seems like the most plausible scenario to me, too. I think they are throwing out a net and seeing what they can pull in.
Rock - I don't know, I've only been following erhe this year. I can't even figure out what relationship Phil Nugent had with erhe other than being a shareholder.
When you google the name on Global Environmental (Phil C. Nugent), it comes up as a personal injury lawyer in Houston or (for lack of anything more specific) a businessman in LA. Nothing comes up under erhc when you add his middle initial "C", so I'm not positive if it's even the same person. I did find the below but can't pull up information:
"Mr. Nugent is not battling to save his newest enterprise, Global Environmental ENERGY Corp . Global is not an enterprise of Mr. Nugent s; ..."
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2005-14%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=%22global...
Hopefully others can shed some light on this for us.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2005-14%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=%22phil+c...
Ajaxx, thank you, that is a good article. Below quote:
"The warrants further specify that the agents sought correspondence and e-mail between Jefferson and named foreign nationals, the source said. The source declined to comment on what the agents might have seized in the raids."
Now, I didn't follow erhe in 2003/2004. Any chance previous ceo was communicating directly with foreign officials? Or during this time is your (or anyone's) opinion that Offor was most likely the one talking with "foreign nationals" as opposed to people in Houston?
(Edit: wish we knew who were the "named" foreign nationals)
Bingo! No doubt in my mind now. The part copied below is towards end of the article in link: (p.s. be sure and read the last paragraph!)
"In the words of Congressman William Jefferson (D-Louisiana) of the same Africa congressional Sub-Committee, “these [African] countries are not averse to having us forward-place assets there of all sorts, including military assets.” (IASPS African Oil Symposium Proceedings, p.25)
Bring on the tiny two-island state of São Tomé e Príncipe (this is pronounced roughly as “Sowng Tomay ee Preensp” in Portuguese, but it can be rendered in English as St. Thomas and Prince Islands, and is usually abbreviated to STP in the military jargon).
This impoverished former Portuguese colony of 170,000 inhabitants was known until now mainly for its cocoa plantations – it was at one time the world’s top cocoa producer. Like Gorée, it was once also a place of no return for slaves brought from the African mainland to work those plantations, because there was no local labour ( [8] ).
But it is now talked of as another potential Kuwait, and has been earmarked by the imperial strategists as a possible location for the regional homeport of a future US Forces Southern Atlantic sub-command, as proposed in a list of regional security recommendations of the African Oil Policy Initiative Group’s 2002 white paper ( [9] ). That paper goes on to suggest that “a US-Nigerian compact on regional security issues should be established to make the area more secure and thereby more attractive for direct foreign investment.”
“São Tomé and Príncipe just signed a joint exploration agreement with Nigeria. Whoever thought about that little place?” said congressman Jefferson. “But they are now estimating four billion barrels of oil in São Tomé and Príncipe. And that’s just the beginning.” (IASPS African Oil Symposium Proceedings, p. 23).
It is just the beginning, but of what, precisely? The historical record shows that the onset of sudden large oil revenues, like lottery prize money, can be a mixed blessing, especially in poor countries. Professor Teri Karl of Stanford University, co-author of the Catholic Relief Services June 2003 report “Bottom of the Barrel: Africa’s Oil Boom and the Poor” ( [10] ) was another speaker at the IASPS African Oil Symposium, and she warned:
“Across the board and across regions, oil over time reduces welfare, lowers growth rates, leads to political instability of oil exporting countries, causes great environmental damage, and also buffers regimes, authoritarian regimes that are violators of rights. This is not a Middle Eastern phenomenon; it’s not an African phenomenon; it’s not a Latin American phenomenon; it’s an oil phenomenon inserted into weak political and economic institutions.”
She went on, “Let me add one more thing…. There is very powerful statistical evidence linking oil and war. [..] In a series of statistical tests World Bank economists Collier and Huffler show that the most powerful risk factor for perpetuating civil war is the export of primary commodities, particularly mineral commodities.” (IASPS African Oil Symposium Proceedings, p.17)
Recent events seem to attest to the truth of these observations. Last month, STP was the scene of a military coup which temporarily deposed President Fradique de Menezes ( [11] ), apparently brought about by internal competition for the revenue to come from deep-water oil extraction in the oceans around the islands. Existing oil exploration rights are held by ERHC, a Houston-based subsidiary of the privately-owned Chrome Group, which operates mainly in neighbouring Nigeria, but, as reported by BBC News, further licenses to develop the offshore fields are due to be auctioned in 2004. Neither the oil nor the revenue has yet started to flow, yet already there is a scramble for the spoils. The doctrine of pre-emption is indeed pervasive.
To all this there is a small dose of irony. Fradique de Menezes, who was brought home and put back in the saddle by Nigerian President Obasanjo after multilateral negotiations with the coup leaders, is a former cocoa trader. So is US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Walter Kansteiner ( [12] ).
Meanwhile, President Obasanjo has revealed that Nigeria will henceforth ‘protect’ STP through a joint military pact ( [13] ). US marines have disembarked and some of them are already ‘embedded’ (yes!) with the Nigerian military in Liberia ( [14] ), in operations which, to the apparent chagrin of the neocon Defense establishment, are seen by some as a dress rehearsal for further West African involvements of the humanitarian and nation-building variety.
All we are missing now is the Hollywood movie version. I can already see that great actor Cuba Gooding Jr. playing the new Top Gun: as he and his girl stroll along a palm-fringed equatorial beach in ‘that poor little place’ São Tomé, and the patrol boats and fighter jets roar off into the distance to fight the terrorists, the locals, as in Okinawa ( [15] ) and 63 (or is it 64?) other countries and places around the world, will dutifully service the employment-providing military base. But that’s a story for another time."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/wall/wall15.html
OT: Speed, was hoping for some help since you are the only lawyer I "know". I think you're probably in corporate law but think these might be rudimentary enough that you can answer.
Another company I'm in just had there offices searched under a search warrant. (LOL, anyone want stock picks from me?!?!) First, in order to obtain this warrant they had to have a judge sign off on, right? Do you know if this type of proceeding will be filed on Pacer?
Also, when searching, do they remove all files/computers from the office that they feel may be pertinent to the investigation or do they spend hours going through all files and only taking documents that are clearly relevant? Is it indicative of anything if they leave the office with materials?
Thanks in advance if you have time to respond.
Item 8.01 Other Events
On May 4, 2006, a search warrant issued by the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, was executed on ERHC Energy Inc. ("Company") for various records including, among other matters, documents
related to correspondence with foreign governmental officials or entities in Sao Tome and Nigeria. The Company cooperated fully with the government in respect to this matter.
I haven't seen enough to convince me that the COMPANY is under investigation.
Btw, anyone know anything about search warrants? Do they just go in a take files, computers, etc. to search through later? Do they spend hours in the office going through everything? Does it mean anything if they take things from the premises? Can anyone shed any light on the actual search? tia.
You know what they say about great minds...ha ha.
Mrogop, I think if there's any connection, it's Nigeria. It seems to me, there just aren't that many small companies in the US doing business with Nigeria. And, with the Sao Tame accusations of illegal payments to Nigeria, you can see how someone may think there's a connection. bwdik.
I hadn't been following this story at all but now I guess it's time.
I think you were the one that first brought up this possible scenario, right? Of all the theories thrown out there, it really seems the most plausible to me.
I just hope erhe has had no contact with Jefferson. If they did, no matter how miniscule, this could really drag out.
FWIW: Here's story from 8/05, check out 1st paragraph.
Sunday 28 August 2005, 22:24 Makka Time, 19:24 GMT
Vice President Atiku Abubakar's home was searched (file)
The FBI has raided the Maryland residence of the Nigerian vice president as part of an investigation into whether a US legislator made or approved payments to officials in West Africa, a US newspaper reported.
A US State Department spokeswoman confirmed the search had taken place but would not make further comment.
"All inquiries regarding the search of the United States' residence of Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar should be directed to the Department of Justice," she said.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
The raid, which took place on 3 August but has just come to light, was in connection with an investigation into William Jefferson, a Democratic legislator from New Orleans, the city's Times-Picayune newspaper said on Saturday.
Diplomatic channels
The Nigerian vice president was not available for comment on Sunday, but a Nigerian presidential spokeswoman said: "The presidency has been notified of the incident and is using diplomatic channels to find out the reason and the findings surrounding the incident."
A source familiar with the investigation said subpoenas showed federal agents were looking for records indicating whether Jefferson paid, offered to pay or authorised payments to Nigerian or Ghanaian government officials, The Times-Picayune said.
Agents were seeking documents related to Jefferson's dealings with Abubakar and the vice president of Ghana, Aliu Mahama. Jefferson returned from a five-day visit to Ghana in mid-July, about three weeks before the FBI raided his homes, according to the newspaper.
The subpoenas focused partly on a telecommunications deal Jefferson was trying to engineer in Nigeria over the past year, according to documents and those familiar with details of the investigation.
Kentucky company
According to The Times-Picayune, sources familiar with the telecommunications deal said Jefferson was attempting to smooth the way for iGate Corp., a small Kentucky company, to offer its high-speed broadband technology to Nigeria's fast-growing telecommunications market.
Jefferson's spokeswoman, Melanie Roussell, said the eight-term legislator would continue to decline comment on the federal investigation. He has only said he is cooperating with federal investigators, according to the newspaper.
Jefferson's attorney, Mike Fawer, has said he thinks the FBI had been conducting a sting operation against his client.
Abubakar and his wife, Jennifer, a doctoral student at American University in Washington, were said to be in Nigeria.
thanks. eom.
FYI, ihub may experience some hiccups today or be a little slow.
Posted by: Bob Zumbrunnen
In reply to: IH Admin [Matt] who wrote msg# 66261 Date:4/27/2006 2:36:51 PM
Post #of 66433
Just a little note to let everyone know that we're planning to replace iHub's webserver on May 6th and also move its existing webserver to adserver duties, and add some big hard drives to the adserver's database server to give us copious space for backups, log files, etc.
For the technoids among you, it's a noticeable, but not huge increase in horsepower for iHub. Its current dual-Xeon 3.06Ghz box (Dell 2850) is getting replaced with an 1850 with a pair of 3.8Ghz Xeons. The new box has Windoze Web Server 2003 on it, so we'll have the platform in place for our eventual rewrite in ASP.NET.
The adserver that'll be replaced with iHub's current 3.06 duallie webserver is a beige box I bought in 2001 that has a single 1.9Ghz processor in it. It was a fire-breather in its day. It'll be a door stop or maybe an extra computer for the office now.
There will likely be outages, but by all rights they should be extremely short. In a perfect world, no outages would be perceived by anyone except for people possibly having to log back in suddenly if they're not using cookies. But it's not a perfect world, so who knows what'll happen...
The only extended outage I foresee is the adserving system being down long enough for me to install a couple of 500-gig drives in its database server. That should only take minutes, then things are likely to be a bit on the slow side ad-wise while those monsters are formatted.
FWIW, according to PACER there are no court documents for ehrc energy for "all courts" anywhere in US since 2000. (Again, site hasn't been updated since 5/2.)
All Types Name Search Results
5 Total Party matches for selection ERHC for ALL COURTS
Search Complete
Sat May 6 14:07:46 CDT 2006
Selections 1 through 5 (Page 1)
Download (1 pages $ 0.00)
Civil Cases
Name Court Case No. Filed NOS Closed
1 ERHC INVESTMENT GROUP A codce 1:2000cv00679 04/03/2000 850 04/13/2000
Environmental Remed v. Talisman Capital, et al
2 ERHC INVESTMENT GROUP C codce 1:2000cv00679 04/03/2000 850 04/13/2000
Environmental Remed v. Talisman Capital, et al
3 ERHC INVESTMENT GROUP II codce 1:2000cv00679 04/03/2000 850 04/13/2000
Environmental Remed v. Talisman Capital, et al
4 ERHC INVESTMENT GROUP, LLC codce 1:2000cv00679 04/03/2000 850 04/13/2000
Environmental Remed v. Talisman Capital, et al
5 ERHCO, INCORPORATED ordce 3:2005cv00714 05/19/2005 840 07/06/2005
ERHCO, Incorporated v. World Shoe Association et al
http://pacer.uspci.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/dquery.pl
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homeport, as soon as Pacer is updated from last week, I think we'll be able to get more information.
"What is PACER?
Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is an electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information from Federal Appellate, District and Bankruptcy courts, and from the U.S. Party/Case Index."
https://pacer.login.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl?court_id=00idx
thanks. eom.
LOL! I went directly to pacer (and didn't use g-oil-d's link) which doesn't have the fine print. But I will keep checking back...thanks.
https://pacer.login.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl?court_id=00idx
OT: Janice or Jim, was wondering if you could answer a couple of questions for me. I can't find anything on the sec site that addresses this specific question.
I was invested in an otcbb stock (whai) and the ceo allegedly issued shares to himself, friends and family (among lots of other things). This went on for at least 18 months or so. During that time there were many filings made with os listed incorrectly. So, just wondering what's the transfer agents responsibility in a case like this? Do they actually have to issue the shares to the ceo? And, without bod knowledge? "Who" should have caught that this was occuring and not being reported correctly? The ta? The auditing firm? (Btw, the ta was Manhattan Transfer Registrar Co., Miller Place, NY).
This is really just to satisfy my curiosity and understand the ta's role better. Thanks for any info.
OT: Manti, how can you tell when Pacer was last updated? I don't use the site very often so am not really proficient. tia
Don't know if this has been posted before, from 2/06. However, may be enlightening information to those in the oil field (and, if so, would appreciate any comments for those of us not)...I just don't know enough about the specifics of the industry to know if this tells anymore than is already known or not.
c) Progress Report on Drilling of JDZ Block One First
Exploratory Well OBO 1:
Council noted that drilling of the JDZ 1 Exploratory Well
(OBO 1) is progressing satisfactorily without pollution
incident and/or accident and that the Well has been
logged and 135/8 inch casing ran and cemented with a
current well depth of 12,500 feet.
http://www.nigeriasaotomejda.com/PDFs/PRESS%20STATEMENT%207_02_06.pdf
Interesting...thought they already announced "discovery". Can't immediately find link but will keep trying:
"Meanwhile, the JDA says it is awaiting the analysis of the results of the first exploratory well on Block 1 in the joint development zone, a JDA official said.
"After that, we will announce whether there was a discovery or not," said spokesman Sam Dimka."
From Transocean on May 1st (text doesn't paste well), page 2.
http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/11/113031/reports/050106.pdf
Deepwater Discovery ship * 2000 10,000 30,000 Nigeria Chevron/ExxonMobil Jan-06 Aug-06 165,000 285,000
Aug-06 45 days Mob/Contract Prep
Nigeria Total Oct-06 Oct-07 357,000 165,000
Nigeria Total Oct-07 Oct-08 364,000 357,000
Oct-08 30 days Mob/ Contract Prep
Brazil Devon Nov-08 Nov-11 475,000 364,000
Just saw this, as you see, my conversation with her was very different.
Don't shoot the messenger:
Just spoke with the ehrc office. There will be no pr released re: this matter. I said "so this is the only information you are providing your stockholders re: this". She said, "we don't have any further information, how can we provide it to you. Thank you." and hung up.
Anyone have level 2? how are the buys/sells stacking up? tia
Never mind, "do it yourself", right?
Miami, I can't really "enlighten" you as this is all my opinion based on my experiences on message boards. But, I will share that with you, for what it's worth.
You see, I agree with your theory from your first post from 4/9 which as I understood it was "people are posting here for a reason". Most of us have a common reason for being here, which is our investment in erhe. Unfortunately, I'm too cynical to believe that anyone would monitor and post on this board, because they find it...fascinating or interesting or just want to keep our expectations in line or for the shareholders best interest, etc. In my experience on message boards, whenever someone wants to bequeath their information to you for altruistic reasons, it's for their benefit, not yours.
Specifically re: Meridian - he came here and gained the board's trust by posting factual information that proved true. He, obviously, has access to information most of the rest of us don't. However, since the bod announcements he has chosen to post info he has with a negative slant (you'll either have to trust me on this one or go back and re-read his posts). I don't believe Meridian is a basher but a manipulator. He will use the information he has and if it behooves him personally to present it positively, he will. And, if it is in his best interest (whatever that may be) to show the negatives, he will do that.
Miami, you were able to see through Mongo and my opinion is that Meridian is just a little more sophisticated than Mongo.
Again, all my humble opinion.