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without any major production increases all this means to me is more out of my pocket....i will reserve judgment on how nice it is until i see some production updates especially the NG
I just bought 25k more shares....now that I know we have Santa on our side what could go wrong.
Happy Holidays!
he is shocked to find what most already know....that there is nothing going on...did he fall in an empty hole?
contractor--I don't know what you are insinuating about doc but he has been honest all along and only speaks about facts unlike others who hint at knowing information they shouldn't. Fact is this thing has gone down 90% and they have reported no progress except giving themselves more of the company on our dime.
I can't believe that more people don't have a problem with 3 million post split shares going to someone with Hamouth's past and for no real good reason. Leopards don't change their spots and this smells of something bad. Believe me I hope I am wrong as I would love for this stock to make up for my losses in SSTY.
i don't think that my questions were answered previously....3 million post split shares equals about 20% of the company going to Rene Hamouth and it is the same person from the article I previously attached. Isn't anyone concerned about this? Are there explanations that I missed somewhere?
thanks
I'll go back and check prior posts....i just started paying attention to this thing again as I was writing it off as dead money until I saw a recent pop
I have restricted shares from SSTY but haven't followed True Products......has anyone seen this? Any comments? Did I read right that Rene Hamouth will get 3 mil POST SPLIT shares? That will be about 20% of the company or am I reading that wrong?
I am not trying to bash although I am sure some may think so....
Chell Group's chairman nabbed in boiler room raid
by Brent Mudry
Canada StockWatch
December 18, 2002
In the latest setback for Chell Group Inc., one of Mark Valentine's favourite penny stock promotions, chairman and long-time director Adrian P. Towning has been arrested in a joint Canada-U.S. crackdown on allegedly fraudulent cross-border telemarketing schemes. Mr. Towning, who replaced founder and controversial promoter Cameron Chell as chairman of Chell Group this summer, was arrested and charged on Nov. 15 after an investigation by Canada's Competition Bureau. Mr. Towning and his associates were targeted in a civil complaint the same day by the United States Federal Trade Commission in a parallel American probe.
Mr. Towning and his associates face charges under Canada's Competition Act and Criminal Code in a telemarketing operation which flogged business directories, credit card suppliers and office toner suppliers which were never ordered and often never delivered. The FTC and the Competition Bureau co-operated in the joint probe, assisted by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Connecticut Attorney General's Office.
Federal officials claim Mr. Towning and his associates employed 400 telemarketers in a series of boiler rooms in Ontario and Quebec. The group's U.S. bank accounts and other assets have been frozen by court order in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
The telemarketing charges come 4-1/2 months after Chell Group announced on July 1 that Mr. Towning was named chairman in a shakeup it described as a "realignment of its senior management team to more efficiently deal with its operating plan, M&A activity and regulatory management." Company founder and namesake Mr. Chell was stripped of his management control, but kept on board as chief technology strategist.
Although not noted in Chell Group's upbeat press release, a week earlier, on June 24, the Ontario Securities Commission released an unflattering statement of allegations against Mr. Valentine, a long-time close associate of Mr. Chell who ruined Thomson Kernaghan, a once-respected Bay Street brokerage.
The OSC cited Mr. Valentine's handling of dubious domestic and offshore dealings in three of Mr. Chell's promotions: Chell Group, C Me Run Corp. and Jawz Inc. Another Valentine close associate, Bermuda-based offshore functionary Paul Lemmon, played roles in various Chell promotions. (Mr. Chell is a former director and shareholder of VC Advantage Ltd., the general partner of VC Advantage Fund Limited Partnership, which are two of the prime Valentine-Kernaghan entities probed by the OSC.)
Meanwhile, a two-year RCMP-FBI joint undercover probe, inspired by penny stock dealings through Bermuda and Mr. Valentine's legendary shorting prowess, dubbed Bermuda Short, was gearing up for an intricate arrest operation. On Aug. 14, Mr. Valentine and Mr. Lemmon were among 20 Canadians of 60 parties arrested in the Miami-based operation.
Mr. Chell has his own baggage. The former broker with McDermid St. Lawrence Securities in Calgary was kicked out of the industry in November, 1998, in a consent settlement with the former Alberta Stock Exchange featuring a five-year ban, strict supervision for two years if he returned, and a $25,000 (Canadian) fine. Mr. Chell was also charged under the Criminal Code of Canada with knowingly causing his assistant to forge a client's account-opening signature. "While the evidence creates a strong suspicion, the inconsistencies and conflicts in the assistant's testimony, the great passage of time and the acknowledged memory lapses all leave some doubt," ruled the Alberta judge, who acquitted Mr. Chell in September, 1999.
With the Valentine revelations casting a cloud over Mr. Chell, Mr. Towning was tapped to become Chell Group's chairman this summer. Mr. Towning knows the company well, having served as a director since 1994 and he was a member of its audit committee.
In its regulator filings, Chell Group describes Mr. Towning as a "private, independent investor in several companies involved in the communications industry." Chell Group notes he served as director of some of these companies, including Medical Communications Corp. from 1994 to July, 1996. Medical Communications filed for bankruptcy protection on May 14, 1996, got a court-appointed trustee on July 11, 1996, and was officially dissolved five days later. The only other detail Chell Group provides on Mr. Towning is the disclosure that between 1983 and 1989, he founded and managed a company called Anglo-Massachusetts Investments Inc., which had offices in Boston and London, and was involved in "providing financial advice to Europeans."
Mr. Towning is also an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries and Administrators of London, according to a filing by an unrelated company. "After qualifying, he spent a number of years with an independent investment bank in the Bahamas where he specialized in estate planning, corporate and trust management and investment portfolio consultancy," states the filing.
Mr. Towning now has some new credentials for his resume. He was charged in Canada in the telemarketing scheme, along with associates Charles Hamouth, Todd Ivison, Francis Loo and James Lynes, all of Toronto, and Albert Mouyal, Ricardo (Rick) Aquino and Atilla (Kris) Jausz, all of Montreal. Also charged are 1230704 Ontario Inc., doing business as Hanson Publications Inc., 3579573 Canada Inc., dba Associated Merchant Paper Supplies Inc. and Fourniture de Papier Associated Merchant Inc., and 1018961 Ontario Inc., dba Copier Supply Centre Inc., along with several other affiliated companies.
In its civil complaint, the FTC claims Mr. Towning, Mr. Hamouth and Mr. Mouyal have served as owners and officers of Hanson, Hanson-Quebec and Associated Merchant Paper Supplies. "Acting alone or in concert with others, (they) formulated, directedl, controlled or participated in the acts and practices set forth in this complaint," states the court filing.
The FTC claims that since at least 1997, the Towning-Hamouth-Mouyal group engaged in a plan, program or campaign to sell business directories and office suppliers such as printer rolls for automated credit cards machines, machine ribbons, counterfeit detection pens and credit card machine cleaners, by interstate phone calls throughout the U.S.
The boiler room phone chimps misled victims, mostly small companies and non-profit organizations, into believing goods had been ordered when they were not. The phoners used various pretexts, including posing as legitimate or regular suppliers of such items. Most times, victims, or marks, did not know about the cost of the purported Yellow Pages clone directories until they received invoices for $300 (U.S.).
While Mr. Towning's criminal charges and U.S. civil charges are a setback for Chell Group, they also came at an unfortunate time for an unrelated company, Armagh Group Inc., a budding penny stock promotion in its formative stages. This fall, Mr. Towning was named as one of two directors, and served as the company's designated contact and his Toronto address served as the official corporate address. On Nov. 18, three days after the charges, Mr. Towning resigned "for personal reasons."
On Nov. 26, the Armagh shell completed a reverse takeover of OVT Inc., dba SmartVideo, in exchange for 12 million convertible preferred shares and 1.2 million common shares. Three men were named directors and each hold identical four-million-share allotments: Richard E. Bennett Jr., Robert J. Walters and William R. Dunavant, the latter serving as director of business development.
The company describes Mr. Dunavant as an "experienced sales and marketing executive and entrepreneur specializing in the creation of large volume sales within niche markets." "In each of his four previous ventures, he has taken underdeveloped companies and has built them into lucrative businesses."
Mr. Dunavant is no stranger to intriguing promotions. The troubled horse shampoo mogul was described by Forbes magazine in 1996 as a "persuasive scoundrel who plundered the company." The company in question was Straight Arrow, Mr. Dunavant's self-acclaimed biggest success story. In a variation of a classic "bust-out," Mr. Dunavant took control of the family-run horse shampoo firm in 1989 and expanded the market to humans, while allegedly milking the company dry.
Even Forbes initially fell for Mr. Dunavants new pitch of "Mane 'n Tail" in 1994. In a flattering 1994 puff piece, the business magazine noted Tane Harwood, a Houston-based rodeo-rider-turned-advertising-executive, was excited with her "softer, thicker, shinier and so much easier to brush" hair. "I've got two bottles of Mane 'n Tail in my bathroom," Ms. Harwood confessed.
Two years later, Forbes, in an editorial mea culpa, admitted it failed to "spot the whiff of fakery" and exposed Mr. Dunavant in quite unflattering terms. "A Pennsylvania court has found Dunavant, 44, guilty of awarding himself millions in excessive compensation, siphoning off company funds to cover personal expenses and diverting Straight Arrow assets," stated Forbes writer Michelle Conlin.
In 1999, articles by MSNBC on May 5 and Miami Herald reporter James McNair on June 7 note Mr. Dunavant jumped from horse shampoo to high-tech video compression technology. At a computer pornography convention in Las Vegas in 1997, the entrepreneur, then the president of Summus Technologies, an affiliate of Verinet, told a San Francisco Chronicle reporter that Verinet's software was great for fast porno site downloads. "People want to see it, do it and get out of a site fast," Mr. Dunavant told the reporter. A year later, the Mane 'n Hair and porno pitchman hooked up with controversial Howe Street stock promoter Rene Hamouth in Corsaire Inc., renamed Net Command.
In 1999, Mr. Dunavant was back in the news as the president of Net Command. The SEC issued a 10-day trading halt of Net Command shares on June 11, 1999, freezing the stock at $15 (U.S.), a market capitalization of $210-million (U.S.). The stock fell sharply when trading resumed. (Although Rene Hamouth formerly lived in Eastern Canada, there is no known relation between him and Charles Hamouth of Toronto, the telemarketing prosecution target.)
tharmon--i respectfully disagree
The proposal is ridiculous and that is the reason for the drop. What investor wants to see 30% dilution with nothing to show for it along with 500 mil o/s after the company just ran through hundreds of millions? There is one reason for the drop.
fish....I'll take the .72 and being on the OTC any day before I give a CEO of a floundering stock 30% of the company for no good reason other than idle threats
Can anyone tell me the # of shares held by insiders here and the float?
Thanks
contractor-very informative video-thanks for the share
These shares were valued at over $900,000 when they were awarded to CB. He has already been compensated for his good deed but now he wants it 25 times over on top of that. It is not the shareholders fault that the sp is in the toilet.
shadow-I may be wrong but I think the 500k were already issued to consultants in exchange for services with the BDC. They were already converted to common if I recall correctly.
maybe I need to listen more closely. I don't remember hearing probably but who knows anymore.
neld-jc told me that same thing and it is exactly like ltg described
1% every 90 days so it would take eight years
I still can't live with it because no matter how long you want to take the shareholders you are still doing it.
John-CB was paid for his loans-he was paid with $950k worth of stock for less than $500k in loans and interest. That is where the preferred shares came from. I would think 100% interest is enough for him.
i don't know
I did confirm that.
Tharmon-I am prtty sure CB owns all the preferred shares
great point nandina!!!!
It sounds like they are looking for $5 mil and that would give them the shares to do it. I am thinking they would want to leave some breathing room in case an acquisition came along that they could not pass up so maybe my number is a little low but I don't think 500a/s is going to pass any vote regardless of the plan.
no problem ctb-this whole thing has us all trying to figure things out. I think with the right plan that the r/s could work to our advantage. I would not vote for a/s being at 500 mil but I would vote for 25-30 mil.
ctb-for the sake of argument I will assume that the a/s remains at 500 mil(even though I don't believe that will be the case)
How will the investors get 10's of millions of unsplit shares with $5 million? The stock price would be over a dollar so even with a little discount marked in it would be no where close to that amount.
ctb-no way this thing passes with 500 mil a/s post split. It will be adjusted down dramatically. The shareholders will remain in control pre and post split.
r/s is perceived as a negative...the word is out so why turnback now? I think with the 12 coming on line and the nash murphy in progress we will get the momentum that we had pre 14.
i am indifferent with the 1:25 as the market cap doesn't change but the a/s would need to be no more than 30 million at that rate. I think you will see more communication on this as there is no way it will pass without it.
ctb-i too am greedy but i think that what sabe is saying is the plan and I for one am ok with that plan. I think the a/s count will be dramatically lower than 500 mil and they will raise somewhere in the 3-5 mil mark like doc said. We keep talking about sitting on 7000 acres in the barnett shale but it is time to stop sitting and start drilling and that is what they are trying to do. Did I want dilution, hell no! If it is done correctly and with the right intentions it could actually help with the return multiples. I saw it with my company recently as they did some shelf financing and I thought the stock would plummet but we then bought two more companies and we are now up 50% since then.
I was unhappy with the filing on Friday but if the master plan comes together I think there will be enough money to go around for everyone.
added 120k shares...am I nuts or a genius? Only time will tell. GLTA longs
Mcquade-I argued with Etrade this morning over this issue for the third time and there is no definitive answer to that question. They say it could happen at any time but it could also takes weeks.
Brean Murray initiates Buy. Target $7. Brean Murray initiates TBYH with a Buy and sets a $7 tgt, based on their expansion to three chipset platforms and into fast, growing emerging markets in Latin America and Asia, which should drive superior growth to those of its direct competitors.
I think Hawk may be in NYC to ring the bell tomorrow morning with CB as they announce news on the Padgett 11 and 12....where in the world is GEH?
However, as of March 31, 2007, we were still a BDC and as such, the financial statements included in this filing are as a BDC. Going forward, the Company will no longer be a BDC with unconsolidated majority-owned portfolio companies but rather be an oil and gas operating company with consolidated subsidiaries. With the filing of the N-54C, effective April 3, 2007, the Company has commenced a new development stage and has not generated any significant revenue to date as an oil and gas operating company. The results of operations for April 1, 2007 through April 3, 2007 were not material and therefore, the Company will utilize April 1, 2007 as the inception date for the new development stage
Etrade offered an additional level of security last year and I took them up on it. It was free and easy to use and it will help prevent what they are describing in this story. It is a key fob with a rolling number on it that changes every ten seconds and you have to add it to your password for access every time you log in.
I think you may be on to something. Now it is time to let it go to trade freely. No news yet might actually be a good thing as the current trading restrictions may deter new money. I have called and emailed etrade to they can provide no timeline or explanation and it is very frustrating.
so far mazzuto has delivered what he has promised...if the next two quarters meet expectations we could be looking at a $15 stock...glta and thanks for the posts linus
i'm betting on it doc
i just added more shares as well...i had to wait 13 minutes on hold before etrade would finally allow the buy order....this is a sure fire way to hold this thing back
Tom,
Could you share who you spoke with and how you got a hold of them as I would like to call myself? The only contact information I have is a chinese email address.
TIA,
PC
what is up today? Very nice buying activity.