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Saw Cabana Lime & Lemonade at my local 7-11 in San Diego(Chula Vista area). Been also seeing them at Sprouts Marketplace.
O dang, in guess I should jump all in into this stock! Lol!
Tic toc tic toc tic toc tic toc tic toc B O O M! Suckas!
Someone is living in lalaland.
You'll need more than good luck... You'll need a miracle!
Agree! Looks to me like these Credit Suisse guys are a bunch of crooks!
They got lawsuits after lawsuits against them:
ENJOY!
Credit Suisse Settles Elbit Suit Stemming From Fraud
Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) and Elbit Systems Ltd. (ESLT) agreed to a settlement of the Israeli defense contractor’s lawsuit seeking to hold the bank liable for the conduct of two former brokers convicted of defrauding investors.
Elbit, Israel’s biggest non-government developer of defense technology, said it would withdraw its lawsuit “in return for the payment of an undisclosed amount,” according to a company statement yesterday.
Ex-Credit Suisse broker Eric Butler was convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, in August 2009 of intentionally misleading clients by saying their investments were backed by federally guaranteed student loans when the instruments were actually auction-rate securities tied to the housing market. Victims sustained losses of more than $1.1 billion, according to the government.
Elbit, Israel’s biggest non-government developer of defense technology, said it would withdraw its lawsuit “in return for the payment of an undisclosed amount,” according to a company statement yesterday.
Ex-Credit Suisse broker Eric Butler was convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, in August 2009 of intentionally misleading clients by saying their investments were backed by federally guaranteed student loans when the instruments were actually auction-rate securities tied to the housing market. Victims sustained losses of more than $1.1 billion, according to the government.
Julian Tzolov, Butler’s partner, pleaded guilty and testified against him at trial. Both men were sentenced to five years in prison.
Elbit sued in federal court in Manhattan in 2010, alleging that the bank’s role “was to keep the fraudulent scheme hidden from the public, the federal authorities and from the victims themselves, for as long as possible.”
U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in January denied a bid by Credit Suisse to dismiss the suit.
Katya Jestin, a lawyer for Haifa, Israel-based Elbit, declined to comment on the settlement. Mark Hanchet, a lawyer for Zurich-based Credit Suisse, didn’t immediately respond to a voice-mail message left at his office yesterday seeking comment.
The civil case is Elbit Systems Ltd. v. Credit Suisse Group, 10-cv-10, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). The criminal case is U.S. v. Tzolov, 08-cr-370, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-30/credit-suisse-settles-elbit-suit-stemming-from-fraud.html
Credit Suisse Group faces a potential $2 billion of exposure over fraud that occurred a decade ago at National Century Financial Enterprises, a result of a federal judge's determination on how to apportion responsibility.
Friday's decision by U.S. District Judge James Graham could expose the Swiss bank to hundreds of millions of dollars of added liability over the activities of Lance Poulsen, who co-founded National Century in 1990 and was its chief executive. He is now serving a 30-year prison term and is presumed insolvent.
The decision is also a victory for bondholders including the state of Arizona, AllianceBernstein Holding, Lloyds TSB Bank, MetLife, Allianz's Pimco unit that accused Credit Suisse of deceiving it about the company and missing its estimated $2.9 billion fraud.
"Credit Suisse and Mr. Poulsen are the last remaining defendants in this very serious case, and we are confident that our clients will prevail at trial," Kathy Patrick, a lawyer for some of the bondholders, said in a telephone interview.
Jack Grone, a Credit Suisse spokesman, declined to comment. Harold Levison, who represents MetLife and Lloyds, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100411173
Former Credit Suisse Executive Pleads Guilty to Inflating the Value of Mortgage Bonds
A former senior trader at Credit Suisse Group pleaded guilty on Friday to charges that he fraudulently inflated the value of mortgage bonds as the housing market collapsed, becoming one of the highest-ranking Wall Street executives to admit to crimes related to the 2008 financial crisis.
Kareem Serageldin, the former Credit Suisse trader, admitted to mismarking their positions to avoid losses in their investment portfolio at the end of 2007. He appeared in Federal District Court in Manhattan a week after being extradited from Britain.
During the court hearing, Mr. Serageldin, 39, said that after discovering that members of his team were fudging the value of its bond portfolio, he made the fateful decision to participate in the fraud rather than put an end to it.
“Why did you do that?” asked Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein.
“To preserve my reputation in the bank at a time when there was great financial turmoil,” he said.
Judge Hellerstein asked Mr. Serageldin numerous questions about his misconduct, at one point suggesting that the bank turned a blind eye to the scheme.
A Credit Suisse spokesman, Jack Grone, referred to an earlier statement from securities regulators commending the bank for immediately reporting the wrongdoing and cooperating with the investigation. Sean P. Casey, a lawyer for Mr. Serageldin at Kobre & Kim, declined to comment.
Federal prosecutors first charged Mr. Serageldin, an American citizen living in London, in February 2012, and urged him to return to the United States to face the charges against him. Two of Mr. Serageldin’s underlings, David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, pleaded guilty to participating in the conspiracy and cooperated with the government.
The assets overvalued by the three former Credit Suisse traders were mortgage-backed securities, the complex bonds that caused hundreds of billions of dollars in losses across the banking system and brought global markets to its knees.
The traders inflated the value of the bonds to increase their 2007 year-end bonuses, prosecutors said. Mr. Serageldin secured a cash bonus of more than $1.7 million and a stock award of more than $5.2 million.
“While the real estate market was imploding and the financial crisis emerging, Kareem Serageldin and his co-conspirators concealed significant subprime mortgage-related losses in order to secure multimillion-dollar paydays,” Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said.
Mr. Serageldin, the former global head of structured credit in Credit Suisse’s investment banking division, pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to falsify books and records. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years. His sentencing is set for Aug. 2.
Credit Suisse rescinded Mr. Serageldin’s stock award after uncovering the fraud. He agreed to forfeit about $1 million — the approximate after-tax amount of his cash bonus.
The government’s investigation originated in early 2008 when the bank disclosed that it was taking a $2.65 billion write-down after discovering Mr. Serageldin’s team had misstated the value of mortgage securities on their books. Credit Suisse suspended the team and reported them to the authorities.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/ex-credit-suisse-executive-pleads-guilty-to-inflating-value-of-mortgage-bonds/?_r=0
Ex-Credit Suisse Traders To Be Charged Over Subprime Fraud
Federal prosecutors are expected to charge four former Credit Suisse brokers with criminal fraud for misleading investors by inflating the value of subprime mortgage derivatives to increase their own bonuses, reports the Wall Street Journal. In addition, the Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to file civil charges related to the case.
The charges are related to an incident in February 2008, when Credit Suisse suspended a group of traders for their role in a $2.85 billion overvaluation of asset-backed securities, which caused the bank to take a $1 billion hit in its first-quarter earnings that year. The banking giant itself reportedly won't be charged.
After years of criticism and public outrage over the lack of criminal prosecutions of Wall Street traders and executives whose risky trading helped cause the financial crisis, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission seem to be finally taking action. Last week, it was reported that DOJ was probing possible fraud at WMC Mortgage Corp., the former subprime mortgage division of General Electric, and more such cases from DOJ and the Securities and Exchange Commission are reportedly due in the coming months.
The rogue traders suspended by Credit Suisse in 2008 were not named, but they reportedly included Kareem Serageldin, the global head of synthetic collateralised debt obligations (CDOs), and others working on his derivatives team at the bank's London office.
"Serageldin has been dismissed after an internal review, assisted by external lawyers, which examined thousands of emails and held face-to-face interrogations," reported The Guardian in March 2008.
Serageldin could not be located and it is not clear if he is involved in the pending case.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/31/credit-suisse-subprime-mortgage-fraud-lawsuit_n_1245515.html
Investors sue Credit Suisse for fraud
By Justin Baer in New York
A group of real-estate investors are suing Credit Suisse for fraud, alleging it extended loans to four luxury resorts on predatory terms to ensure the Swiss bank would eventually control the properties once they defaulted.
The suit, filed on Sunday in a US District Court in Boise, Idaho, marks the latest legal effort to hold the financial services industry responsible for its role in the collapse of the realestate market. The plaintiffs, led by LJ Gibson and Beau Blixseth, are seeking $24bn, including $16bn in punitive damages.
The complaint also alleges that Cushman & Wakefield, the real-estate company, conspired with Credit Suisse to defraud investors by providing appraisals the banks used to inflate the value of the resorts.
As part of its "loan-to-own" scheme that began in 2004, Credit Suisse persuaded many of the owners and developers to retrieve the equity from their investments "up front" by taking non-recourse loans from the bank, the plaintiffs said.
"We believe the suit to be without merit and will defend ourselves vigorously," Credit Suisse said.
Cushman said: "The allegations are completely without merit."
"The defendants intended to violate US law with this appraisal scheme and intended to burden the resorts and the purchasers of property in these resorts with enormous debt, thereby earning for defendants enormous fees based directly on the amount of debt Credit Suisse and its agents could impose on a resort project," according to the complaint.
The four resorts defaulted on their debts or filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors, a direct result of Credit Suisse's actions, and they were now controlled by the bank, the plaintiffs argued.
"This newly developed syndicated loan scheme was deliberately designed by Credit Suisse with the knowing assistance of Cushman in order to enrich Credit Suisse and its employees, while placing the resorts in a perfect position to be taken over by Credit Suisse and/or in collusion with its noteholders by leaving the developments two thinly capitalised to survive, precisely as Credit Suisse intended, planned and schemed from the beginning at each resort," the complaint read.
The four developments - Lake Las Vegas, Tamarack, Yellowstone Club and Ginn Sur Mer - are located in Nevada, Idaho, Montana and the Bahamas.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7f452a70-f999-11de-8085-00144feab49a.html#axzz2gRHYZC2T
Agree! Looks to me like these Credit Suisse guys are a bunch of crooks!
They got lawsuits after lawsuits against them:
ENJOY!
Credit Suisse Settles Elbit Suit Stemming From Fraud
Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) and Elbit Systems Ltd. (ESLT) agreed to a settlement of the Israeli defense contractor’s lawsuit seeking to hold the bank liable for the conduct of two former brokers convicted of defrauding investors.
Elbit, Israel’s biggest non-government developer of defense technology, said it would withdraw its lawsuit “in return for the payment of an undisclosed amount,” according to a company statement yesterday.
Ex-Credit Suisse broker Eric Butler was convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, in August 2009 of intentionally misleading clients by saying their investments were backed by federally guaranteed student loans when the instruments were actually auction-rate securities tied to the housing market. Victims sustained losses of more than $1.1 billion, according to the government.
Elbit, Israel’s biggest non-government developer of defense technology, said it would withdraw its lawsuit “in return for the payment of an undisclosed amount,” according to a company statement yesterday.
Ex-Credit Suisse broker Eric Butler was convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, in August 2009 of intentionally misleading clients by saying their investments were backed by federally guaranteed student loans when the instruments were actually auction-rate securities tied to the housing market. Victims sustained losses of more than $1.1 billion, according to the government.
Julian Tzolov, Butler’s partner, pleaded guilty and testified against him at trial. Both men were sentenced to five years in prison.
Elbit sued in federal court in Manhattan in 2010, alleging that the bank’s role “was to keep the fraudulent scheme hidden from the public, the federal authorities and from the victims themselves, for as long as possible.”
U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in January denied a bid by Credit Suisse to dismiss the suit.
Katya Jestin, a lawyer for Haifa, Israel-based Elbit, declined to comment on the settlement. Mark Hanchet, a lawyer for Zurich-based Credit Suisse, didn’t immediately respond to a voice-mail message left at his office yesterday seeking comment.
The civil case is Elbit Systems Ltd. v. Credit Suisse Group, 10-cv-10, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). The criminal case is U.S. v. Tzolov, 08-cr-370, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-30/credit-suisse-settles-elbit-suit-stemming-from-fraud.html
Credit Suisse Group faces a potential $2 billion of exposure over fraud that occurred a decade ago at National Century Financial Enterprises, a result of a federal judge's determination on how to apportion responsibility.
Friday's decision by U.S. District Judge James Graham could expose the Swiss bank to hundreds of millions of dollars of added liability over the activities of Lance Poulsen, who co-founded National Century in 1990 and was its chief executive. He is now serving a 30-year prison term and is presumed insolvent.
The decision is also a victory for bondholders including the state of Arizona, AllianceBernstein Holding, Lloyds TSB Bank, MetLife, Allianz's Pimco unit that accused Credit Suisse of deceiving it about the company and missing its estimated $2.9 billion fraud.
"Credit Suisse and Mr. Poulsen are the last remaining defendants in this very serious case, and we are confident that our clients will prevail at trial," Kathy Patrick, a lawyer for some of the bondholders, said in a telephone interview.
Jack Grone, a Credit Suisse spokesman, declined to comment. Harold Levison, who represents MetLife and Lloyds, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100411173
Former Credit Suisse Executive Pleads Guilty to Inflating the Value of Mortgage Bonds
A former senior trader at Credit Suisse Group pleaded guilty on Friday to charges that he fraudulently inflated the value of mortgage bonds as the housing market collapsed, becoming one of the highest-ranking Wall Street executives to admit to crimes related to the 2008 financial crisis.
Kareem Serageldin, the former Credit Suisse trader, admitted to mismarking their positions to avoid losses in their investment portfolio at the end of 2007. He appeared in Federal District Court in Manhattan a week after being extradited from Britain.
During the court hearing, Mr. Serageldin, 39, said that after discovering that members of his team were fudging the value of its bond portfolio, he made the fateful decision to participate in the fraud rather than put an end to it.
“Why did you do that?” asked Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein.
“To preserve my reputation in the bank at a time when there was great financial turmoil,” he said.
Judge Hellerstein asked Mr. Serageldin numerous questions about his misconduct, at one point suggesting that the bank turned a blind eye to the scheme.
A Credit Suisse spokesman, Jack Grone, referred to an earlier statement from securities regulators commending the bank for immediately reporting the wrongdoing and cooperating with the investigation. Sean P. Casey, a lawyer for Mr. Serageldin at Kobre & Kim, declined to comment.
Federal prosecutors first charged Mr. Serageldin, an American citizen living in London, in February 2012, and urged him to return to the United States to face the charges against him. Two of Mr. Serageldin’s underlings, David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, pleaded guilty to participating in the conspiracy and cooperated with the government.
The assets overvalued by the three former Credit Suisse traders were mortgage-backed securities, the complex bonds that caused hundreds of billions of dollars in losses across the banking system and brought global markets to its knees.
The traders inflated the value of the bonds to increase their 2007 year-end bonuses, prosecutors said. Mr. Serageldin secured a cash bonus of more than $1.7 million and a stock award of more than $5.2 million.
“While the real estate market was imploding and the financial crisis emerging, Kareem Serageldin and his co-conspirators concealed significant subprime mortgage-related losses in order to secure multimillion-dollar paydays,” Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said.
Mr. Serageldin, the former global head of structured credit in Credit Suisse’s investment banking division, pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to falsify books and records. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years. His sentencing is set for Aug. 2.
Credit Suisse rescinded Mr. Serageldin’s stock award after uncovering the fraud. He agreed to forfeit about $1 million — the approximate after-tax amount of his cash bonus.
The government’s investigation originated in early 2008 when the bank disclosed that it was taking a $2.65 billion write-down after discovering Mr. Serageldin’s team had misstated the value of mortgage securities on their books. Credit Suisse suspended the team and reported them to the authorities.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/ex-credit-suisse-executive-pleads-guilty-to-inflating-value-of-mortgage-bonds/?_r=0
Ex-Credit Suisse Traders To Be Charged Over Subprime Fraud
Federal prosecutors are expected to charge four former Credit Suisse brokers with criminal fraud for misleading investors by inflating the value of subprime mortgage derivatives to increase their own bonuses, reports the Wall Street Journal. In addition, the Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to file civil charges related to the case.
The charges are related to an incident in February 2008, when Credit Suisse suspended a group of traders for their role in a $2.85 billion overvaluation of asset-backed securities, which caused the bank to take a $1 billion hit in its first-quarter earnings that year. The banking giant itself reportedly won't be charged.
After years of criticism and public outrage over the lack of criminal prosecutions of Wall Street traders and executives whose risky trading helped cause the financial crisis, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission seem to be finally taking action. Last week, it was reported that DOJ was probing possible fraud at WMC Mortgage Corp., the former subprime mortgage division of General Electric, and more such cases from DOJ and the Securities and Exchange Commission are reportedly due in the coming months.
The rogue traders suspended by Credit Suisse in 2008 were not named, but they reportedly included Kareem Serageldin, the global head of synthetic collateralised debt obligations (CDOs), and others working on his derivatives team at the bank's London office.
"Serageldin has been dismissed after an internal review, assisted by external lawyers, which examined thousands of emails and held face-to-face interrogations," reported The Guardian in March 2008.
Serageldin could not be located and it is not clear if he is involved in the pending case.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/31/credit-suisse-subprime-mortgage-fraud-lawsuit_n_1245515.html
Investors sue Credit Suisse for fraud
By Justin Baer in New York
A group of real-estate investors are suing Credit Suisse for fraud, alleging it extended loans to four luxury resorts on predatory terms to ensure the Swiss bank would eventually control the properties once they defaulted.
The suit, filed on Sunday in a US District Court in Boise, Idaho, marks the latest legal effort to hold the financial services industry responsible for its role in the collapse of the realestate market. The plaintiffs, led by LJ Gibson and Beau Blixseth, are seeking $24bn, including $16bn in punitive damages.
The complaint also alleges that Cushman & Wakefield, the real-estate company, conspired with Credit Suisse to defraud investors by providing appraisals the banks used to inflate the value of the resorts.
As part of its "loan-to-own" scheme that began in 2004, Credit Suisse persuaded many of the owners and developers to retrieve the equity from their investments "up front" by taking non-recourse loans from the bank, the plaintiffs said.
"We believe the suit to be without merit and will defend ourselves vigorously," Credit Suisse said.
Cushman said: "The allegations are completely without merit."
"The defendants intended to violate US law with this appraisal scheme and intended to burden the resorts and the purchasers of property in these resorts with enormous debt, thereby earning for defendants enormous fees based directly on the amount of debt Credit Suisse and its agents could impose on a resort project," according to the complaint.
The four resorts defaulted on their debts or filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors, a direct result of Credit Suisse's actions, and they were now controlled by the bank, the plaintiffs argued.
"This newly developed syndicated loan scheme was deliberately designed by Credit Suisse with the knowing assistance of Cushman in order to enrich Credit Suisse and its employees, while placing the resorts in a perfect position to be taken over by Credit Suisse and/or in collusion with its noteholders by leaving the developments two thinly capitalised to survive, precisely as Credit Suisse intended, planned and schemed from the beginning at each resort," the complaint read.
The four developments - Lake Las Vegas, Tamarack, Yellowstone Club and Ginn Sur Mer - are located in Nevada, Idaho, Montana and the Bahamas.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7f452a70-f999-11de-8085-00144feab49a.html#axzz2gRHYZC2T
I'm excited!
The circulation averages for the six months ended: 6/30/2013 for O OPRAH is 2,417,589 and COOKING LIGHT MAGAZINE 1,796,440
THAT'S 4,214,029.00 people that will learn about Belviq!!!
http://abcas3.auditedmedia.com/ecirc/magtitlesearch.asp
Paulness is an ASS-CLOWN!
Obesity Epidemic
Sharing powerful stories from his anti-obesity project in Huntington, W. Va., TED Prize winner Jamie Oliver makes the case for an all-out assault on our ignorance of food.
http://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_oliver.html
Wow...that's great news!
The writing is on the belly.
I bought in at .60 and sold 25k @ $1.30, so I'm doing fine. Never fall in love with a stock. I'll buy more when it drops below $1.
For me, any company that has used Tobin for promoting its company is a red flag for me, and Tobin has been promoting PLSB for years.
I'm not saying PLSB won't be successful, I am just being very careful on PLSB.
FOX Business Network Finally Fires Pump & Dump Contributing Stock Pimp Tobin Smith
June 19, 2013: After "first hearing" about his penchant for pushing garbage upon an unsuspecting public, Fox Business Network, an entity of News Corp., yesterday finally fired penny stock pimp, Tobin Smith, a network contributor and regular guest on Fox's Bulls & Bears program. FBN cited his current promotion of Petrosonic Energy, Inc (PSON) a piece of cow dung, with zero cash and a book value of 3 cents, but currently trading in the high .70s, thanks in part to Mr. Smith's $50,000 paid endorsement.
Penny Stock Pimp
Tobin Smith
Smith's contract was purportedly terminated under the network's contributor policy, which states that "no contributor to FBN, nor his/her firm, and/or family members are allowed to accept financial consideration of any kind whatsoever to issue research, advertisements, or to otherwise promote individual stocks or securities." On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch reported that Smith, in a 20-page news mailer, pimped PSON.
FBN and MarketWatch's sudden revelation comes in spite of the fact that Smith has pushing the stocks of intrinsically worthless companies for years, through his company, NBT Equities Research, which offers investor relations services for small companies, for payment. Each of Smith/NBT's clients have been the subject of massive Pump & Dump campaigns, shamelessly using Smith's FBN gig as an offer of credibility. Just a few of the many stocks Smith has pimped over the years, resulting in millions of dollars in investor losses, are: Western Graphite, Inc. (WSGP), IceWeb Storage Corporation (IWEB), Velatel Global Communications (VELA), and Replicel Life Sciences (REPCF),
This website calls out Fox Business Network on it's claim that it has only now first heard about Smith's stock pimping business, as we have sent numerous proofs of Smith's breach of his contract to FBN producers.
Thanksforplaying- now go and look in the mirror and see who looks dumb.
Oh yeah...The Uglydoll may not look pretty, but it has resulted in some good looking sales receipts - it's raked in over $100 million in retail sales since its debut.
Oh yeah ....The Uglydoll may not look pretty, but it has resulted in some good looking sales receipts - it's raked in over $100 million in retail sales since its debut.
Dumb to you but brilliant to most. I'm sure you got a job that u love and look forward to going to everyday for the rest of your life.
Get back to me after you build an empire.
http://m.inc.com/?incid=37737
Pretty Awesome! Uglydolls website is available in 3 languages, Italian, German and English.
http://www.uglydolls.com/
Uglydoll Movie Moves Forward at Universal Pictures
7 January 2013 11:51 AM, PST | MovieWeb | See recent MovieWeb news »
Universal Partnerships & Licensing today announced it has entered into a representation agreement with Pretty Ugly, LLC, the creators of the popular Uglydoll brand, to expand the digital category of the imaginative Uglydoll world, or "Uglyverse." Universal will launch interactive and wireless content, such as apps, games, widgets and virtual goods. A feature film based on the Uglydoll characters is currently in development at Illumination Entertainment, Universal Pictures' main supplier of family and animated films. The film will be produced by Illumination founder Christopher Meledandri (Despicable Me, Hop, Dr. Seuss' the Lorax), and distributed worldwide by Universal.
The husband and wife artist team of Dávid Horváth and created the Uglydoll characters in 2001, and since then, the franchise has become a worldwide success with an extensive line of licensed products and publishing. In collaboration with Pretty Ugly, Universal is taking the brand into the digital realm for the first time. »
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni44387791/
TOBIN/TOBY IS A SHADY DUDE.
Here's another Company Tobin has been promoting for years...
http://thestreetsweeper.org/article.html?c=6&i=565
With China Tel, Has Tobin Smith Been 'Outfoxed' Again?
by Melissa Davis - 4/22/2010 9:41:21 AM
Tobin Smith, co-star of Fox News Channel’s popular “Bulls & Bears” investment show, recently declared a challenging new “mission in life.” In an upbeat message to his 2,700-plus followers on Twitter last week, Smith promised to helpChina Tel Group (OTC: CHTL.OB) – a penny stock company he has been touting for months – secure the financing it needs in order to survive.
To be sure, CHTL could use some assistance. More than a year ago, CHTL agreed to pay $195 million for a 49% stake in Chinacomm – an Asian broadband wireless company that ranks as its primary asset – but it still lacks the money required to actually pay for that deal. Although CHTL has inked plenty of financing agreements in the meantime, most recently with two mysterious firms known as Excel Era and the Isaac Organization, the company never seems to collect promised cash from those backers in the end.
For its part, CHTL has blamed outside forces for those failures.
“All of the equity deals have been negotiated during the biggest capital contraction since the Great Depression,” CHTL stated in response to questions from The Street Sweeper on Thursday. “Beyond that, the company cannot speculate on the specific reasons Excel or any other investor did not come through after signing a contract.”
So far, those financing deals have served as little more than catalysts for temporary rallies in CHTL shares that inevitably end when the money fails to appear. CHTL’s latest arrangement, a private placement that suggested a market value of $1.33 billion for the bleeding company, stands out as perhaps the best example of all.
On Feb. 9, CHTL announced that it had secured a deal to sell a 48% stake in the company to Excel and Isaac for $640 million or the equivalent of $3 a share. The stock, available on the open market for one-third of that price just a few days earlier, rocketed 50% to an intraday high of $1.80 – with a staggering 11.7 million shares changing hands – on the news. The shares, worth less than 40 cents a year ago, continued to trade above $1 over the course of the next few weeks.
By then, however, CHTL skeptics had already begun to raise serious questions about the celebrated financing deal. They focused on Excel, a Hong Kong firm that had pledged to deliver three-quarters of the $640 million in funds, in particular.
Although Excel claimed to manage more than $200 billion in assets – a sum that would make it one of the largest investment funds in the world – the firm seemed to burst onto the scene out of nowhere. Before announcing its big investment in CHTL, in fact, Excel failed to register on the public radar at all.
Even so, as a huge fan of CHTL, Smith saw no reason for alarm.
“Understand that many, many investment firms in Asia are NOT publicly held and do NOT ‘advertise’ their business success,” Smith wrote when reiterating his strong buy recommendation and $8 price target on CHTL in late February.
“Nothing obviously will do more to build their credibility and CHTL’s credibility than making their (promised) payment,” he added. But “I now have ZERO doubt as to their ability and intent to not only make their payment deadlines but advance the deadlines” and deliver the funds early.
CHTL was supposed to receive its first big payment, totaling $240 million, by March 1. Four days after that deadline passed, however, CHTL suddenly announced that Excel had decided to scale back its investment and allow Isaac to make up the difference. Excel has since dropped out of the financing deal altogether, and even Isaac – which hasalready collected huge chunks of CHTL stock – has decided to renegotiate the terms of its own contract “in light of recent developments” and withhold any further payments to the company in the meantime.
Nevertheless, Smith has expressed total confidence that Isaac will deliver the promised funds. In an interview with The Street Sweeper on Thursday, Smith said that CHTL had already negotiated a new $300 million financing arrangement with Isaac and would announce details of that contract by “Monday or Tuesday at the latest.” Smith has offered broader reassurances to his followers on Twitter, with CLRH’s stock bouncing from 55 cents to 74 cents over the past week in response.
With Excel now out of the picture, however, critics have decided to take a closer look at CHTL’s remaining finance partner.
Until now, skeptics note, Isaac has focused primarily on real estate projects – carrying much smaller price tags – and the firm needed bank loans itself for some of those. (In a curious move, Isaac did branch out last fall by investing in a B-list movie starring a former “Playmate of the Year.”) If Isaac truly has $300 million to spare, critics ask, why has the firm – which has apparently been involved with CHTL from the start – waited until now to suddenly pledge the funds? Furthermore, they wonder, why would such a cash-rich firm list a U.S. address that corresponds with a UPS store(suggesting that it operates out of a post office box) instead of a legitimate headquarters?
Regardless of the answers, CHTL clearly needs some funds. According to its latest quarterly report, which will soon berestated because of regulatory concerns, CHTL has $280 million in current liabilities and almost no money available to cover those looming debts. Since it went public two years ago, CHTL has instead issued loads of company stock – while waiting for big cash infusions that never seem to materialize -- in order to cover its mounting bills.
Meanwhile, CHTL itself has readily admitted that the company must resolve its liquidity problems and ultimately achieve profitability if it hopes to continue operating as a going concern.
CHTL insiders, paid with millions of shares of company stock, have already begun to cash out some of their holdings while they wait for better times. If CHTL follows the same devastating path blazed by some of Smith’s previous microcap picks, however, the company’s best days may already be behind it.
Outfoxed
Despite his popularity, as evidenced by two bestselling business books and a highly rated show on Fox, Smith has a checkered track record at best.
Smith actually began stumbling about a decade ago. He helped launch a high-tech mutual fund at the height of the dot-com bubble in 2000, Reuters revealed, only to see it shut it down as a result of massive losses – with his second-largest holding plummeting by 90% -- less than one year later. He has gone on to embrace some other notorious money-losers since that time.
For example, Smith has often recommended some of the same ill-fated stocks exposed by Citron Research (formerly known as StockLemon) before they crashed. He has also criticized the bearish website, despite its early calls on several doomed companies, along the way.
When Immtech (OTC: IMMP.PK) fell 30% on a devastating StockLemon report seven years ago, in fact, the company relied on comments from Smith (who wasn’t even following the stock) for help. Less than a month earlier, Immtech pointed out, Smith had dismissed StockLemon as “nothing more than a mouthpiece for short-selling hedge funds or syndicates of individuals who have an incentive to drive the price (of targeted stocks) down.”
Immtech’s stock, which fetched $25 before StockLemon’s report, now trades on the lowly Pink Sheets for 10 cents a share. Meanwhile, Smith has gone on to promote several stocks exposed by StockLemon/Citron Research – including InterPharm (OTC: IPAH.PK), Emcore (Nasdaq: EMKR) and Zeros & Ones (OTC: ZROS.OB) – that have fared quite poorly as well.
Smith has favored risky companies targeted by other stock detectives, too. In 2006, for example, Smith took aim atsharesleuth.com – a new website launched by billionaire short seller and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban – when it examined Xethanol, a stock that Smith himself had highly recommended, in its first-ever investigative report. Although sharesleuth.com had raised legitimate concerns about Xethanol, backing up its claims with solid evidence, Smith nevertheless blasted the report and sided with the company instead.
“Listen, ever since we were notified on this misguided (at best) attack on Xethanol, I have been working with management and others to rebut the incredibly inaccurate slam job done by sharesleuth.com on XNL,” Smith wrote at the time. Meanwhile, “I am reiterating our strong buy (rating) under $8 here for your legacy portfolio. And to help remove the stock from short-selling inventory, I’m recommending putting a ‘good-till-canceled’ sell order for $30 on the shares you hold.”
Xethanol, which hit $15 at its peak, had fallen below $5 a share by that time. The stock continued to plunge in the months that followed, triggering a class-action lawsuit by Xethanol shareholders who later scored a multimillion-dollar settlement from the company. Although Xethanol tried to reinvent itself under a new name – and somehow secured a listing on the New York Stock Exchange for a while – the company wound up filing for bankruptcy, rendering its stock virtually worthless, late last year.
During a telephone conversation this week, Smith told The Street Sweeper that his firm originally purchased Xethanol itself but ultimately sold the stock after realizing that the company lacked a feasible business model.
Meanwhile, Smith has long since moved on and declared CHTL his new favorite in the microcap arena. He began recommending CHTL at 35 cents last summer and says that he bought 4 million shares of the stock on the open market himself. While some of Smith’s loyal fans have followed his lead, other investors – burned by his advice in the past – have decided to steer clear of all his stock picks.
“I followed Tobin Smith’s teasers for a while, doing a bit of my own gumshoeing,” one investor wrote after the Stock Gumshoe website scrutinized Smith’s endorsement of CHTL last summer. “His microcap picks were incredibly, staggeringly bad – the worst of all his bad stuff. In fact, I really don’t believe that any of the micros (save one) ever did anything but sink into oblivion.”
With CHTL more than doubling to peak at $2 by January, however, Smith won over plenty of others in the volatile penny-stock trade.
“Tobin Smith is putting his career and reputation on the line with his aggressive stance on China Tel Group,” Monster Stock Alerts wrote in late January, with the stock already falling from its recent highs. “Mr. Smith … has placed an $8 short-term target price on CHTL common stock. (He) will either become a hero or a prisoner!!! Monster Stock Alerts believes that he will indeed come out on top.”
Overextended
CHTL actually began trading around $1 a share – 25% above its current price – when it surfaced as a new telecommunications company a couple of years ago.
By then, regulatory filings show, CHTL had already agreed to give John Isaac (of the Isaac Organization) 5.5 million shares of stock for serving as an “independent contractor” for the company. Since then, CHTL has gone on to awardmillions of additional shares to other independent contractors and consultants – including members of its own management team – as compensation for their services.
“The company has no employees and limited cash,” CHTL explained on Thursday, “so historically has paid as many consultants and vendors as possible using stock.”
Of course, CHTL has been hoping for piles of cash all along. Within months of going public, CHTL was already hunting for partners willing to pay big bucks for a stake in the company. By October of 2008, the company’s regulatory filings show, CHTL had inked a “strategic frame agreement” that would allow an outfit called Runcom Technologies to buy 28% of its stock for $100 million. However, as reflected by CHTL’s dismal cash balance, Runcom never actually came through with those funds.
Undeterred, CHTL went ahead and promised $195 million for a 49% stake in Chinacomm regardless. CHTL made a small down payment on that big-ticket purchase in late 2008, regulatory filings show, and then issued a huge promissory note (originally scheduled to come due last month) for the rest. Meanwhile, CHTL arranged to sell almost half its stock to a firm called Olotoa Investments so that it could pay its upcoming bills.
When CHTL asked Olotoa to make a $50 million payment on its purchase in May of 2009, however, the firm failed to deliver. When CHTL asked Olotoa for an even larger $65 million payment two months later, the firm failed to deliver once again.
After waiting in vain for the promised funds to appear, CHTL finally cancelled the Olotoa deal – which Smith hadpreviously celebrated – in November of last year.
Today, Smith continues to praise CHTL’s “incredible” business model and “successful” management team. At the same time, however, he readily admits that the company has suffered some major setbacks in the financing arena.
“These are engineers and construction guys,” Smith told The Street Sweeper. “They’re not capital market guys.
“When it comes to capital structure,” he conceded, “they’re knuckleheads.”
CHTL has certainly treated its stock like an endless money supply. For example, regulatory filings show, CHTL issued more than 30 million shares of stock to consultants and contractors – causing its overhead costs to skyrocket -- during the first nine months of 2009 alone. Since then, those filings show, the company has issued millions of additional shares for similar consulting services.
With the stock blowing past $1 near the end of last year, CHTL insiders began to cash in some of their chips. Isidoro Gutierrez, identified in regulatory filings as CHTL’s chief administrative officer and uncle to two of the company’s top executives, sold at the highest prices – fetching up to $1.55 a share – around the time the stock hit its peak.
In early February, however, a mysterious Mexican trust holding 4.8% of CHTL’s stock (just short of the 5% stake required for detailed disclosures) reported the most lucrative sales of all. Between Dec. 17 and Jan. 22, the trust sold more than 2 million shares of CHTL – at prices ranging up to $1.91 a share – and pocketed almost $3 million in proceeds in the process.
Kenneth Waggoner, CHTL’s outside legal counsel, executed some well-timed sales as well. On the same day thatCHTL announced that Excel had reduced its original funding commitment, for example, Waggoner sold 15,000 shares of stock at just under $1 a share. Two days after CHTL learned that Excel would be unable to make its first big payment – and three days before the company actually disclosed that news – Waggoner followed up with an even bigger sale by cashing in 40,000 shares as the stock headed below 70 cents a share.
This week, CHTL itself downplayed those transactions.
“Since the insiders receive no cash compensation and devote their full attention to the company’s business, the company assumes the stock sales are to meet the personal obligations of the selling insiders,” CHTL stated on Thursday. Moreover, “those who have sold have only sold a small fraction of their total holdings.”
CHTL took a big hit in the meantime. By the time that CHTL officially announced that it had terminated its agreement with Excel on April 1, the company’s stock had already begun to plummet and ultimately closed that day at a four-month low of just 55 cents a share.
To be fair, CHTL has since made something of a comeback. Over the course of the past week, CHTL has jumped backabove 70 cents a share – soaring 17% on Thursday alone – with Smith loudly promoting the company.
“Spent day with George Alvarez, CEO of CHTL, talking EVERYTHING – including new debt financing, new Isaac equity deal, etc.,” Smith wrote in Twitter shorthand on Wednesday. “Our capital structure plan is coming together nicely.”
Smith’s “tweet,” suggesting that he might personally participate in a financing deal, triggered wildly mixed reviews in online chat rooms. While fans celebrated the update, expressing renewed confidence in their investment, skeptics ridiculed the news.
“If Toby says it,” one poster concluded sarcastically, “then it MUST be true."
* To contact Melissa Davis, the author of this story, please send an email to editor@thestreetsweeper.org.
Paul does make a good point.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=PLSB
Period Ending
Total Revenue:
Dec 2012 $235K
Sept 2012 $726k
Jun 2012 $956k
March2012 $377k
From Tobin Smith @ NBT Research...
PLSB is up over 130% for us this YEAR…and 300% from our initial research coverage.
But don’t sell a SHARE…there is a LONG way to go in upward valuation based on the latest report from management to shareholders.
Our take? On @70,000,000 shares outstanding (assuming ALL 19M warrants exercise at .62) fair value at 3 million case sales (2.5 million Cabana/500k Pulse) by mid-2014 PLSB is @$250,000,000 or $3.50 a share.
PLSB will for sure UPLIST to NYSE Market in the next year…that will help gain a whole new list of institutional investors.
Time to be VERY greedy with your shares…and buy on dips IF you don’t have a position.
http://nbtequitiesresearch.com/report/nbts-1-consumer-beverage-stock-2013pulse-beverage-plsb
So, is SFIN going to release a p/r about this event or do I have to call I/r to get this info?
Agree. Safetex International is NOT on the 2013 exhibitor list.
http://spreeshow.com/show-information/exhibitor-list/
2013 Exhibitors
21 Century Smoking
21st Century Perfumes
A & D Importers LLC
American Express
Art FX
Bella Group
Bellapierre Cosmetics
Belleza by Cortex USA
Better World Books
Bretthand, Inc.
Britten Banners
Brixmor
Cafaro Company
Carriage Works Inc.
CBL & Associates Properties, Inc.
Cell Pak Inc.
Cord Cruncher
Creations Global Retail
d’Marie Inc.
David & Young
DDR Corp.
Deep Sea Cosmetics
Dr-Ho’s
Dvir Enterprises LLC
EcoATM
Equip Inc.
Exhibits Southwest, Inc.
F.C. Dadson
Fabrique Innovations Inc.
Fashion Tech USA Inc.
FJM Security Products
Flamingo Zone
Flexible Innovations Ltd
Florida Marine Research
Flying Luggage Belts & Accessories
Forever Collectibles
General Growth Properties
GES Entertainment
Ghost Armor
GK Development
Glimcher
Go! Calendars Games & Toys
Grace Harvest & Assoc.
Green Tea Hawaii
Hand in Hand
Happy or Not
Herolily USA Inc.
Hi-Dow International
Hua Hao Company LLC
Incoco
Infinity Lights
Innovative Vending Solutions
Intelex Group USA
IQ Massager
ISO Beauty Inc.
Jones Lang LaSalle Americas, Inc.
Keyscaper
Kimco Realty
Kiolink
Lamborghini Shop Orlando
Lip Ink International
Live POS
LockUse LLC
Logo Loops, LLC
MAC Recycling
Macerich
Madacy Marketing LP
Magic Cook
Magic Massage Therapy
Massage Vending
MicaBeauty
Militti Sales & Promotions
MiniMe
Mohawk Sports/World of Sports
Mukikim
MyQuickPrints.com
Nadi World LLC
Nail Candy
Natural Leigh LLC
Nexcycle
Nu-Tech Inc.
NuVu Group
NYS Collection Eyewear
Party City Retail Group
Phantom Skinz
Phillips Edison & Company
Pinook USA
PIO I/E LLC
Playful World Products, Inc.
Play Visions Inc.
Posterita Inc.
PREIT
Premier North America Inc.
Prints Charming
Product Hunters, Inc.
Pro Retail Inc.
PSIO USA
Quick Tag
RBD Power Solutions Inc.
Recoil Winders
Reiko Wireless Inc.
Riibers Party Shades
Rouse Properties
Safari LTD
Shade Saver Inc.
Sheepskin Gifts
Shoe MGK
ShopKeep POS
Simon Property Group
Smart for Life
Smarte Carte Inc.
Smartwork Products
Specialty Retail Report
Spirit Halloween
Sportula Products
SRX-Specialty Retail Exchange
STAK Design
Storefront
Street Talk
Sun Wireless
Sweet Amanda’s
Tanger Outlet Center
Teddy Tank
The Irvine Company Retail Properties
The Memory Company LLC
The Merchant Solutions
The Solar Giant
The Taubman Co.
Theisen Vending Company
Toni Brattin Solutions
Urban Retail Properties LLC
Weingarten Realty
West Edmonton Mall/Mall of America
Westfield
Wide Angle Marketing
Wild Creations
Woodstream Corporation
World Tech Toys
World Wear Project, LLC
Worry Free Gadgets LLC
Zhir Shield
Zip Tight
"The people at Eisai will make those people look like the fools that they are."
Couldn't agree more!
Eisai Co., Ltd. is a Japanese pharmaceutical company, ranking among the top 25 in the world by revenue and achieving $8 billion USD in sales for the fiscal 2008 year[ambiguous]. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, it has some 10,000 employees, among them about 1,500 in research. Eisai is a member of the Topix 100(Tokyo Stock Price Index)and Nikkei 225 indices.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisai_%28company%29
WELL SAID PAULTHEOCTOPUS!!!
WOW WOW WEE WHAAAA!!!!
WOW WOW WEE WHAAAA!!!!
I kinda missed them....NOT!
Last i heard from Pulse is that the roll-out of the health line is in 30-60days.