Believe it or not, just got a call from Rene Schenk. He started off telling me his 'well-known' policy is to not talk to shareholders for fear of being mis-stated or providing inside info, then said he called me (he heard about my conversation with Frank somehow) to make clear that 'Richard Brown is in our corner.' He said that emphatically and repeatedly and called Richard a 'good friend.' 'Richard is not going anywhere,' he said. Ie, Rich will stay with the company.
I told Rene that Richard strikes me as quite professional and knowledgable in investor relations and has little to say to shareholders only because he (Rene) and Frank aren't forthcoming with him, let alone with shareholders. Rene said that Richard knows what's going on and it's his job to tell us.
I will not characterize that response above further. I don't know what to make of it.
But Rene then said that they've (Q) been very open with shareholders and I said, 'Wait a minute. You did an audit and never released the results. We have no idea what the true sharecount is, we get blind-sided by developments like today...." and he interuppted me, for the tenth time, to say 'This is why my policy is to not talk to shareholders. I cannot discuss these things with you without making you an insider.'
Since I knew I wasn't going to make anymore headway with him, I thanked him for his call and told him I'd pass along his message about Richard to other shareholders. I thanked him for his call and we hung up.
Richard has told me that Frank has hung up on him on occasion (that is a common behavior of Frank's apparently), and so it seems to be a love/hate relationship. I suspect Richard tells Olsen things he doesn't like to hear. Rene wants to keep Rich on board, as does Frank no doubt.
I honesty can't say what prompted Rene's call. He either heard about my call with Frank, was in the room at the time (I heard someone in the background), or Rich contacted him after reading my posts. I don't know. Rich hasn't called me, which is a little strange. He's been quiet lately.
Again, I'll save the rest of my few posts left for tonite.
AI
