Fortitude Group, Inc. (FRTD)

[Ibanksonit]

disagree whole heartily, this company was a complete mess when Norman J Birmingham, Jim Kelly, Steve Rogers, John Stanton and all of norm's buddies and family got shares for doing nothing providing no benefit to the company or its shareholders. maybe those guys are crying for news because they still have more to sell. Parrila may have has out smarted them, which probably is not hard to do since they are all POS who deserve to be in jail. how anyone can sing their praise is beyond me. but some on this board do.

News was released fast and furious when birmingham was here and is buddy rick was selling shares. they should all choke on the ill gotten gains.

SEC target Lancer featured in Kelly Bermuda Short trial

Canada StockWatch
by Erik Schelzig in Miami
September 25, 2003

James T. Kelly, former head of Pennsylvania-based securities broker Shamrock Partners Ltd., may hear two former co-defendants testify against him in his Bermuda Short trial on charges of conspiracy in a kickback and stock manipulation scheme involving shares of Lighthouse Fast Ferry Inc. Joseph Huard and Bruce Cowen both copped pleas and now appear on the U.S. Attorney's draft witness list.

Jury selection for the trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami began on Sept. 23 and carried over to Sept. 24. The court heard opening arguments after the jury selection wrapped up on Wednesday.

The charges against Mr. Kelly stem from a two-year joint FBI-RCMP undercover sting code named Operation Bermuda Short that resulted in 23 indictments involving the securities of 23 publicly traded companies and charges against 58 individuals from the U.S. and Canada. Mr. Kelly, Mr. Huard and Mr. Cowen, all U.S. residents, were among the Bermuda Short targets arrested in August of 2002.

According to the original seven-count indictment against the trio, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Huard and Mr. Cowen conspired to pay undisclosed kickbacks totalling $900,000 (U.S.) to a purported corrupt fund manager and two due diligence officers in exchange for a fictitious fund operated by an undercover FBI agent purchasing 3,125,000 restricted shares of Lighthouse Fast Ferry for approximately $5-million (U.S.). (All subsequent amounts are in U.S. dollars.) As part of the deal, a further $600,000 would be kicked back to Mr. Kelly, Mr. Huard and Mr. Cowen.

While not specifically identified in the original indictment, the restricted Lighthouse Fast Ferry stock that was to be used in the convoluted deal allegedly belonged to Michael Lauer's purported $1-billion Lancer Group, which was shut down by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on July 10, 2003, amid allegations of massive fraud. Court filings in both the Bermuda Short case and the SEC civil complaint against Mr. Lauer and his allegedly fraudulent fund operation identify Mr. Cowen as a managing director of Lancer.

Lancer was to transfer the approximately 3.12 million restricted shares of Lighthouse Fast Ferry to Capital Research Ltd., purportedly run by Mr. Cowen. Capital Research was then supposed to deposit the shares into its account at Shamrock, which also held an account in the name of Connelly & Williams Associates Inc., the fictitious fund operated by the undercover FBI agent. Upon the fictitious fund wiring $5-million to Capital Research's Shamrock account, the restricted Lighthouse Fast Ferry shares were to be transferred to Connelly & Williams's Shamrock account.

Upon completion of the planned $5-million transaction, Capital Research was supposed to wire a $900,000 kickback to the undercover agent's Swiss company. Mr. Kelly, Mr. Huard and Mr. Cowen allegedly planned to split another $600,000 kickback.

After completing a $16,000 "test trade" for 10,000 shares of Lighthouse Fast Ferry that involved a $10,000 kickback to the undercover agent paid by means of a cheque drawn on the account of Capital Resarch, the FBI decided that it had the evidence it needed and the planned $5-million trade was cancelled. The grand jury indictment against Mr. Kelly, Mr. Huard and Mr. Cowen was filed under seal on May 28, 2002.

Mr. Huard, a former Shamrock officer, was also indicted along with Howe Street promoter Les Price in connection with a separate Bermuda Short alleged kickback scheme involving shares of Mr. Price's Medinah Minerals Inc. On Dec. 18, 2002, Mr. Huard negotiated plea bargains in both cases and began to sing about his former co-defendants.

Evidently Mr. Huard had a good deal to sing about; on May 22, 2003, the grand jury issued a superseding indictment against Mr. Kelly and Mr. Cowen. In addition to the earlier kickback charges, the superseding indictment alleges that Mr. Kelly and Mr. Cowen fraudulently manipulated trading in Lighthouse Fast Ferry on behalf of Lancer, artificially inflating the month-end share price of the thinly traded stock.

On Aug. 21, Mr. Cowen hammered out his own plea bargain, pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire, mail and securities fraud. As part of his deal, which resolves any federal criminal liability with respect to his involvement in Lancer as well as his role in the Bermuda Short kickback and stock manipulation conspiracy, Mr. Cowen agreed to co-operate with authorities.

While it is widely believed that much of Mr. Cowen's promised co-operation will focus on Mr. Lauer and his allegedly fraudulent Lancer operation, he also tops the list of potential prosecution witnesses against Mr. Kelly.

Trial Attorneys Thomas Hanusik and Thomas McCann of the Fraud Section of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, are in Miami to prosecute the case against Mr. Kelly. Miami defense attorney Norman Moscowitz is representing Mr. Kelly.

Government prosecutors say James T. Kelly was a man who got involved in securities fraud because of "greed." His defense attorney says Mr. Kelly was a sick man who trusted his partners, and was not involved in fraudulent activity.

Because of health problems suffered by Mr. Kelly, an abbreviated daily trial schedule was instituted by Judge Cecilia Altonaga, running from 11:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Because of this timetable, the trial is expected to last three weeks.

SHAMROCK'S BIGGEST CLIENT

"This is a case about greed," said Mr. Hanusik in his opening statement to the jury. "It's about greed that led him to work with other people -- to conspire with other people -- to commit fraud."

Mr. Hanusik outlined the charges against Mr. Kelly, attempting to simplify the details for the jurors -- most of whom do not have a financial background.

"This case involves small cap stocks -- known as penny stocks," Mr. Hanusik said. "You'll learn that penny stocks in particular don't trade very much, they are thinly traded stocks."

Mr. Kelly was involved with Mr. Cowen at a company called Capital Research, Mr. Hanusik explained. Mr. Cowen was the "liaison" to the Lancer Group, which in turn was a major client in Shamrock, he said.

Despite a lot of talk about the Lighthouse Fast Ferry company, Mr. Hanusik emphasized that the abstract dealings in stocks was at issue in the trial, not the dealings of the actual company.

"This case is not about the ferry company itself, but about people who owned the ferry company stock," he said. "How they manipulated the ferry company's stock, specifically how they manipulated the month-end stock in 2001."

According to the prosecutor, "At the end of the months in this case, the fund managers from Lancer would get on the phone with Shamrock to tell them to push the price up."

Mr. Kelly would comply by buying up blocks of stock, which would create demand, Mr. Hanusik said.

"Remember, Lancer wasn't just a client, it was Shamrock's biggest client," he told the jurors. "The evidence is going to show that he (Kelly) was helping Lancer push the price of the ferry stock up at the end of the month -- that's called window dressing."

SCHLIEN AND JONES

Mr. Hanusik described how a sting operation was devised, using an undercover FBI agent named Mike Palasek and two former securities fraudsters, David Jones and Robert Schlien.

Mr. Jones and Mr. Schlien had been charged with fraud in Nevada, and with more charges pending against them in the Southern District of Florida, they had decided to cooperate with the government, Mr. Hanusik said.

Agent Palasek set up shop at Mr. Jones and Mr. Schlien's Boca Raton, Fla., offices, and they began spreading the word that they had $8 million to invest every month.

"They told people they had connections to British fund, that they had made friends with a British fund manager, known only by his first name, Nigel," Mr. Hanusik said.

But there were two hitches to the riches. First, the two men and the undercover agent wanted a 30-per-cent kickback.

"It was made clear to everyone that the fee could not be disclosed to the fund," Mr. Hanusik said.

Second was that a test trade with $10,000 kickback for two purported due diligence officers in Atlanta needed to take place.

"You'll hear how they were going to 'paper it over' as consulting fees," Mr. Hanusik said.

Mr. Hanusik told the jurors that the three conspirators bought into the scheme, planning to invest the money in Lighthouse Fast Ferry, but also wanted to make some money for themselves.

"You'll hear that Cowen, Huard and Kelly wanted a cut for themselves," he said. "They each wanted $200,000. ... As I told you earlier -- this case is about greed."

The test trade and a larger purchase arranged "with Kelly and his people to buy $5 million in stock," the prosecutor said, and the $10,000 was wired back to pay off the due diligence officers.

"Had this not been an undercover operation, a sting, the big transaction would have taken place," Mr. Hanusik said. Instead, the three men were arrested.

HI JIM, WE WANT TO TALK TO JOE

"James Kelly committed no crime," Mr. Moscovitz said, addressing the jury for the first time on behalf of Mr. Kelly. "He doesn't deserve to be sitting here. That deal was done by two men with whom he was close."

Mr. Kelly was "going through some very tough mental and physical problems," and was relying on his friends to operate his business, Mr. Moscowitz said.

Out of the 35 to 40 recorded telephone conversations, only three were with his client, Mr. Moscowitz said. All the others were with Mr. Huard or Mr. Cowen.

"When the informants call Shamrock, they ask for Joe Huard, they talk to Bruce Cowen," Mr. Moscowitz said. "If Jim answers the phone they say, 'Hi Jim, we want to talk to Joe.' And he hands them off."

The same went for the documents that were going to be introduced into evidence, Mr. Moscowitz insisted. "(The prosecutors) mention documents, but there's nothing that ties Jim Kelly to those documents," he said. "Those were prepared by Joe Huard or Bruce Cowen. Jim Kelly's name never appears."

Specifically on the test trade and the kickback to the purported due diligence officers, there was no proof that Mr. Kelly was involved, Mr. Moscowitz said.

"That transaction was done by Joe Huard. ... He makes the arrangements. The $10,000 cheque, which they say 'they sent.' That check was written by Bruce Cowen. It was sent by FedEx by Bruce Cowen.".....

Norm Birmingham's long-honored history...

*Unnamed* Medical company (too lazy to look it up again as Norm isn't worth spending the time on again) - I remember he started as CFO, then muscled his way into the CEO position and unilaterally voted to roll one of his worthless subsidiaries into the company at the shareholders expense.

Neometrix - CFO - stopped publically reporting while he was CFO taking all the shareholder money with them.

American Commerce Solutions - CFO - tried to get them to buy buddy Rick's scam shell CPN Entertainment. Got a LOI, then when American Commerce Solutions uncovered the scam, they rescinded and Norm Birmingham ran for the hills. (Quit)

There's another company in here that no longer trades, but again, I'm too lazy to waste more time on Norm.


Norman J Birmingham is of course connected to NEGS through an agreement signed with Blue Flame Enterprises, Inc in January of 2010

http://www.otcmarkets.com/edgar/GetFilingHtml?FilingID=7004086

A couple of months after that agreement was signed David F. LaFave was elected as the new president, COO, and Director.

http://www.otcmarkets.com/edgar/GetFilingHtml?FilingID=7135474

Just like with Open Door Online and JD American Woodwork Inc/American Commerce Solutions Inc while Birmingham was involved with those shells, NEGS began to do S-8 filings to issue consultant shares.

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=64852250

NEGS got diluted down to no bid.

Beere Financial Equity - CFO - Once again stopped publically reporting while he was CFO taking all the shareholder money with them.

ISBL - Owner - company soaks shareholders then quietly gets delisted to the Grey Sheets and fades away to nothing. Made a good chunk of cash passing off another company "dividend" in another company called Banx & Green, another sub that he owns, much like nearly 10 years earlier with the medical company.

BGGR - Owner - The scam in which ISBL shareholder would get 18 times their investment back, LOL! We'll see where this one goes, but I bet nowhere as many will shred the company if it attempts to trade as it will be used as another avenue for Norm to steal from investors.

This is a SMALL example of what Norm and Rick do, the person Anderson tirelessly defends. How can anyone deny their scammers unless you're one of them? You can't.
it all seems to come back to the same name/address....time after time......

7124 brandywine way columbia maryland....

norman j birmingham even uses his kid J Adam Birmingham