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Check out Adam Feuerstein's blog post at 12:15 on the ASCO Monday Live Blog. There's your price volume action. Amazing how thestreet.com can move a stock.
It's the obstruction of justice that I don't get. My 14 yr old could have looked at those websites and saw they were fake. Frankly, that's one reason I held through that period. Never in my wildest dreams did I think Mosky, who was a millionaire going into spongetech, would jeapordize his FREEDOM making a few more million.
Didn't make sense, and still doesn't. CLEARLY there's something loose upstairs with that guy.
No question. As a Master-Planner-Extraordinaire, Moskowitz is just about to trap the shorties. Don't underestimate the power of hyper intellect combined with abstract thinking.
I happen to have some inside information on this... which I'm prohibited from trading on. I'm willing to give a little clue...
Time travel.
That's really all I can say for now...
Pure Genius.
The answer is there are some that still believe in the company.
I agree.
I'm no law expert, but it seems to me that by far their most serious crime is conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Am I wrong here?
At least they had to surrender their passports. If either of them had an ounce of grey matter left they would have been hiding in a temple basement in Israel somewhere weeks before the arrest warrants came out.
Frankly I'm shocked they were both in the country.
I believe it was overachiever yesterday that stated he thought Mosky was perhaps mentally retarded. I don't think he was joking.
Mosky has SERIOUS issues. I used to think this saga would end up as a good movie script. Not anymore.
It's just AMAZING he got as far as he did. One has to believe it has much to do with trust inspired by his purported faith in God. I know it played into my thinking.
Never again.
How in the hell can 71-20 Harrow St, Queens, New York 11375 be worth $2,000,000?
Holy crap I thought real estate in California was expensive, lol. That place would sell for $150k here.
trippi
As a wholly owned subsidiary I cannot imagine a scenario that does not force Dicon out of business.
It's possible I guess for an entity to buy the patent license(s) and equipment and property at auction and then try to re-hire old employees, but in the meantime their doors are going to be closed and folks will not have a paycheck.
M&M owe EVERYBODY money. Spongetech owes EVERYBODY money. Spongetech's and RM's assets will be liquidated to pay back such, and Dicon is one of those assets.
What a disaster for that company. My thought is (and I think it's obvious) that SPNG paid a premium for that company thinking they could control the questions arising from the huge disparity between retail sales claims and wholesale product purchases from Dicon.
Dicon got suckered just like the shareholders.
If one stops and thinks about how many lives Moscowitz'z and Metter's lies have touched... It's absolutely discusting. Every employee at Dicon will now be looking for a job.
How many total years of labor did they add on to so many's retirement date?
How much prison time is equitable? At their ages a life sentence of hard labor wouldn't come close to re-paying their debt to society. 5 years is an absolute joke.
I don't think 5 years is even CLOSE to enough.
Today's developments beg the question... "How could ANYONE be so stupid?"
The fake websites? Really? I mean conspiracy to obstruct justice in a federal case is SERIOUS stuff. They had zero chance of getting away with that... did they think that would fool the SEC?
The opinion letter debacle is comedy. I'm surprised Moscowitz can spell "Steve". And the supposed self-claimed Orthodox Jew has his elderly parents hock their house to bail his fat azz out of jail?
I often thought that if they in fact were guilty of faking these customers they would at least try skipping the country. Nope. Picked up in NYC.
What in the hell were these yokes thinking?
2nd UPDATE: Spongetech Execs Accused In Alleged Fraud Scheme 05/05
Updates with details from SEC filing in the ninth through 13th paragraphs)
By Chad Bray
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The top executives of Spongetech Delivery Systems Inc. (SPNG:$0.0080,$-0.0330,-80.49%) were arrested and charged Wednesday in an alleged scheme to defraud investors by reporting falsely and grossly overstated sales figures.
According to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday, Michael Metter, Spongetech's chief executive and president, and Steven Moskowitz, the New York pre-soaped sponge maker's chief operating officer and chief financial officer, were charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud and obstruction of justice. They each face up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge.
Metter, 58 years old, of Greenwich, Conn., and Moskowitz, 45, of Flushing, N.Y., are expected to appear before a U.S. magistrate judge in federal court in Brooklyn later Wednesday.
"The defendants in this case--Spongetech's highest corporate officers--are charged with executing a bold scheme to portray Spongetech as a company that was performing at a level far above reality," U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement. "As detailed in the complaint, the audacity of their scheme was matched only by their obstructive efforts during the course of the SEC's investigation."
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also has filed civil charges in the matter, calling the case a "pump-and-dump" scheme.
In the complaint, prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn alleged Metter and Moskowitz between January 2007 and May 2010 publicly reported the company had secured purchase orders or made sales to five customers that did not exist.
For the nine months ended Feb. 28, 2009, the purported sales to those five customers accounted for as much as 99% of Spongetech's revenue, prosecutors said.
During that time frame, the men allegedly filed multiple false reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and issued numerous press releases touting the false sales figures, typically via the Internet, prosecutors said in the criminal complaint.
In a civil lawsuit, the SEC said the purpose Metter, Moskowitz and others flooded the market with false public information in order to fraudulently inflate the company's stock price, so they could illegally sell shares through affiliated entities in unregistered transactions.
Through affiliated entity RM Enterprises International, Metter, Moskowitz and the company allegedly illegally distributed about 2.5 billion Spongetech shares at inflated prices, the SEC said.
They allegedly used false and baseless attorney opinion letters to justify the unregistered sales, the SEC said. The men also allegedly regularly understated the number of outstanding shares in press releases and public filings, the SEC said.
Two New York lawyers and a Brooklyn self-employed consultant also have been charged in the SEC's civil case.
Metters, Moskowitz and Spongetech spent portions of their illicit profits to advertise with professional sports teams, including teams in Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and the U.S. Tennis Association, the SEC said.
Since the SEC issued subpoenas in September as part of a formal probe of Spongetech, Metter and Moskowitz allegedly have tried to fabricate the existence of the five purported customers, according to the complaint.
They allegedly sought to create Web sites and virtual offices for the companies, have furnished investigators with phony purchase orders and produced "questionable documentation" purportedly constituting proof of payments by the customers, prosecutors said in the complaint.
The SEC suspended trading of the company's stock Oct. 5, according to the complaint. The suspension expired Oct. 16, and Spongetech has been trading only in the "grey market," a market for securities not listed on any stock exchange, the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board or the pink sheets, according to the complaint.
A phone call to Spongetech wasn't immediately returned Wednesday.
An automated message on the company's investor relations phone line said the company would make no comment during the SEC investigation and would only make public comments via press releases.
-By Chad Bray, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-227-2017; chad.bray@dowjones.com
There are buyers somewhere. Have you watched MTLQQ lately? How this thing is hanging at .01 is bordering on freaky.
At this point we MUST assume the OS is 3 bil.
I sold at .038 as soon as the news hit. My trade went through in about a minute. Surprised the crap out of me.
Less than 3% of the outstanding have traded. This is truely bizarre.
Metter and Mosky will not walk on conspiracy to obstruct justice charges. VERY SERIOUS. They are CLEARLY out the door. Friggin' dirt bag crooks.
I can't believe it's still trading at .03 cents.
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The top executives of Spongetech Delivery Systems Inc. (SPNG:$0.0300,$-0.0110,-26.83%) were arrested and charged Wednesday in an alleged scheme to defraud investors by reporting falsely and grossly overstated sales figures.
According to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday, Michael Metter, Spongetech's chief executive, and Steven Moskowitz, the cleaning-products maker's chief operating officer, were charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud and obstruction of justice.
Metter, 58 years old, of Greenwich, Conn., and Moskowitz, 45, of Flushing, N.Y., are expected to appear before a U.S. magistrate judge in federal court in Brooklyn later Wednesday.
In the complaint, prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn alleged Metter and Moskowitz between January 2007 and May 2010 publicly reported the company had secured purchase orders or made sales to five customers that did not exist.
The purported sales accounted for as much as 99% of Spongetech's revenue, prosecutors said.
During that time frame, the men allegedly filed multiple false reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and issued numerous press releases touting the false sales figures, typically via the Internet, prosecutors said in the complaint.
Since the SEC issued subpoenas in September as part of a formal probe of Spongetech, Metter and Moskowitz allegedly have tried to fabricate the existence of the five purported customers, according to the complaint.
They allegedly sought to create Web sites and virtual offices for the companies, have furnished investigators with phony purchase orders and produced "questionable documentation" purportedly constituting proof of payments by the customers, prosecutors said in the complaint.
-By Chad Bray, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-227-2017; chad.bray@dowjones.com
Spongetech Execs Metter, Moskowitz Alleged Overstated Sales
STILL Number one in bar soaps at Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/baby-products/1253811011/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_ba_1_4_last
Number 7 in ALL baby soaps and cleansers.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/baby-products/1253810011/ref=pd_ts_ba_ldr_1253810011
The sponges continue to sell...
He talks about his wife using Swiffer dusters then throwing them away, that's why he started SpongeTech. He goes on to say the lawsuits are about "piling on", and the company is protecting shareholder value. (That's where my blood pressure starts to creeep up). He mentions Spongetech is in 45,000 stores across America, and their goal is one new product a month for the rest of the year.
That's about it. NOTHING about the missing 10k. For that we have to trust GORT.
I listened to it. Not impressed.
SpongeTech Sues Hedge Fund Manager, NY Post
by Paula Schaap ,Senior Reporter , April 26, 2010
SpongeTech has lashed out at penny stock hedge fund manager
Timothy Sykes, as well as journalists and The New York Post
with a lawsuit seeking $43 million in damages.
The New York-based company that manufactures soap-filled sponges filed a lawsuit in New York State court Thursday claiming it was the target of a “short and distort” stock market manipulation scheme.
SpongeTech claims the scheme was concocted by Post business
reporter Kaja Whitehouse and Tim Sykes, according to court
documents.
Sykes is the wunderkind who turned himself into a millionaire using his bar mitzvah money and shorting his way through penny stocks. He founded hedge fund firm Cilantro Fund Management which closed in 2007. Sykes now sells advice on trading in the penny stock market.
As evidence that Whitehouse had teamed up with Sykes in its alleged campaign against the company, SpongeTech claimed that the reporter used Sykes as an “expert.”
The lawsuit also claimed that David Patch, who posts to various investor online sites, sent complaints to the Securities and Exchange Commission about SpongeTech which he copied to Whitehouse and other news organizations.
That, according to SpongeTech, was evidence that Whitehouse, Sykes and Patch were in agreement to depress SpongeTech share’s price so that short sellers could profit,he complaint said.
Which short sellers profited from the alleged scheme was not detailed in SpongeTech’s complaint, although the company said in its lawsuit it had $18 million in damages. Plus, SpongeTech claimed, it as entitled to an additional $25 million in punitive damages.
The SEC sent SpongeTech a “Wells notice” on Dec. 28, 2009, advising the company that it intended to seek an action alleging securities laws violations, according to a regulatory filing.
The Post and Sykes did not return calls seeking comment on the lawsuit. HedgeFund.net was not able to locate David Patch.
A phone number for SpongeTech’s investor relations department was
answered by a recording saying that the company could make no comment during the SEC’s investigation. SpongeTech’s attorney did not return phone calls and e-mails seeking further comment on the lawsuit.
SpongeTech is already in New York State court as a defendant. The company was sued by CBS Radio for allegedly failing to pay more than $366,000 for radio ads. It was also sued by Madison Square Garden for more than $430,000 that the Garden claimed SpongeTech owed for sponsorship agreements.
SpongeTech is contesting the CBS and Garden lawsuits
http://www.hedgefund.net/publicnews/default.aspx?story=11208
ummm wait...
What do you want it to be?
yea... very much agreed.
Either way it's the end of the road... win or lose.
Davesfx...
Shhhh!
(it's satire) And it's Friday. And I'm really not Joel Pensley.
But... this is the internet, and as such anyone anywhere can say anything and create ANY document saying ANYTHING they wish to suit their agendum.
Merely trying to point that out to y'all.
It's Happy Hour. ;)
No, I am Joel Pensley.
Will the real Joel Pensley please stand up?
I'm sorry... 70,700. Too much caffiene this morning
I saw that too. Golden parachute.
Google this Tavy...
Jim Backer PPT Research Inc
https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/DocumentDisplayServlet?documentId=OngETBBRXLjUHgfqDm+Vbw==&system=prod
It really looks like they're gonna drop the hammer on Mosky, and IMO he makes it worse with his sophmoric lies. I swear I'm watching a terrible episode of the three stooges sometimes. Frustrating.
Beyond Mr. Heifetz, nor the other MSG Affiants, being without motive to misrepresent the truth, this assertion of a notation is on its face incredible. A business man admitted to being financially strapped, does not give $360,000 to an entity he alleges just recently misappropriated $70,880, without significant protections. It is also difficult to accept that Mr. Moscowitz waited until after weighting the relative strengths of the filings with this Court to remember to bring this assertion to the attention of the Court.
OTC/pink sheets stocks were having technical server issues that was causing problems.
no... I believe you, I don't believe the shorts tho. Thanks for calling. I was on the world's longest phone call.