Misanthrope makes valid objective points. And there are a lot of other red flags but the crux of the problem stockholders will face is that the management and officers are not acting like entrepreneurs in a startup. They're acting like corporate bigwigs with a company making millions of dollars a quarter. The salaries, as they were in 2009 as we'll, are ridiculously high for the value of their participation. None of the have any experience other than tanking the company first time around. Why does a startup need a CFO and a Controller? Why do they need a $200,000 a year CEO who has nothing to contribute? And as far as Magrit using her own money or putting anything in the kitty, read the financials. I don't believe she put in a plug nickel, ever. She forgave part of her huge salary that had accrued when they ran out of money. Most of that probably was incurred while the doors were shut too. And let's not forget the $6 million in compensation that the siblings took out in less than 2 years.
The company is just too top heavy. The question of intent is almost not as important as just looking at the whole picture and seeing that there is no possible way the company can carry out this fantasy. Maybe if you had Senters as the CEO with a couple of sales people under him and a part time bookkeeper with the siblings as unpaid board members there might be a slight chance but even then with the huge dilution sales would have to rival Grey Goose and the like. That's not going to happen. And as long as they keep spending money like a drunken sailor, mostly on themselves, and on cheesey cheap non impact marketing, they are headed right down the same road they were in 2009.
Let's not forget that Margit has alone accumulated close to 40 million shares at a zero cost basis. There's no record of any cash investment for such other than $1500 to capitalize MEI. Giving up accrued salary for services the company didn't need in the first place? And let's not forget that she was rewarded handsomely for that give back in stock. And then there's the severance package for 8 months for close to $500,000 which she was paid in full in cash and allowed her to accelerate her stock vesting. That shouldn't be legal. She quit and then hired herself back!
The really shady part of this is governance and controls. The siblings are simply doing all of these deals with themselves with no oversight. And, has anyone looked into these capital companies they did stock deals with? I did. They all seem to be shell companies with no officers or directors listed and appear to have no other deals with anyone other than Marani. Eco? McCaillen? And they were all incorporated and started shortly before the company attempted their comeback in 2013. Very fishy.
Bottom line is the largesse of the siblings not only stands in the way of the company getting anywhere but will most like take the company down. Just keep in mind that the company must sell 20 cases a month just to cover car payments for the siblings. Then they have to sell another 300 cases to cover their salaries for doing god knows what. Dan Senters is the only one currently there that offers any value that the company needs NOW.
