AimRite Holdings Corp (AIMH)

[PhenixBleu]

We live and die with our choices. Below is a selection of paragraphs highlighting Berney's choices. Keep in mind that this CEO was Berney's business associate in the Beneficial Shareholder biz that has been permanently revoked. The one named in those wonderful new filings since last Fall...cough...cough.

* * * * *

To say that Peter Berney is an unsavory character would be an understatement. In the 1990s, he specialized in what were known as “box jobs.” Attorneys like Peter Berney would create fraudulent companies, often by hijacking dormant shells, and install nominee officers who would put much of the companies’ stock into the hands of promoters. Once the stage was set, a pump and dump operation would follow. While the term “box job” has by now fallen out of use, these fraudulent schemes continue and the lawyers like Berney who manufacture these vehicles are given a “license to swindle” in exchange for turning in the buyers, promoters and investor relations firms that purchase the hijacked vehicles for reverse merger transactions.

Berney was associated with a number of other crooked lawyers. He set up shells and hired them to write false and misleading opinion letters freeing up stock. He was indicted with a number of others, and fled to Switzerland. He was extradited quickly, and faced new charges in 2001, when he was indicted for securities fraud and other crimes along with his wife Rebecca and another Las Vegas resident, Robert Potter. Potter was an alleged Genovese organized crime family associate. Among those charged with him were Shawn Hackman, who allegedly played a role in the CMKM Diamonds scam, and Herbert Jacobi, who allegedly played a role in the Infotopia scam. Jacobi and two of his co-defendants got lucky when a judge dismissed the case against them because of mistakes made by the prosecution; Hackman pled guilty.

Berney pled guilty to some of the charges lodged against him, and was a key government witness in the dismissed case. He remained free on bail, and, as testimony in that case shows, continued to run box jobs with public shells with the apparent blessing of the Department of Justice. It was during that period that he hijacked the Medbox shell, then known as MindfulEye. The case was high profile, remaining in the news in Nevada for years. It is difficult to see how and why a judge saw fit to grant custodianship to an individual convicted for securities fraud involving hijackings. Even more puzzling is why the government allowed him to continue such obviously illegal behavior at the expense of investors.

Berney eventually served a short time in prison, and was released in December 2008. But he wasn’t done with law enforcement. While he was serving as the government’s cooperating witness, he was also involved in criminal activity unrelated to securities fraud. In 2010 he was convicted of incest (by the state of Nevada) involving “several” of his eight children. He was sentenced to 57 months to 12 years in prison. The Justice Department claimed it had no knowledge about the foregoing.

https://www.securitieslawyer101.com/2015/medbox-license-swindle/