TSXT - anyone know this one?? interesting article accusing it of being a scam. go figure.
Nelson: Due diligence with penny stocks needed
Story updated at 6:35 PM on Saturday, October 20, 2007
Don
Nelson
If you operate a small penny-stock company that seems to have done well in selling millions of shares of stock but has hit some legal snags regarding fraud and breach of contract, what do you do? You change officers, find another name and start pitching your game to another set of eager penny-stock investors.
Such could be the case with Three Sixty Inc. a company that markets 360 OTC hangover relief and pain relief products. Bishop residents Michele Shearer and Mark DeMattei (pronounced Dee Matay) reportedly operated Three Sixty and its subsidiary Rockford-Montgomery Labs from the seventh floor of The Fred Building (formerly the Southern Mutual Building) in downtown Athens. Three Sixty looked to the NASCAR industry to help build some publicity and hype about their company.
The trouble is, several of the companies Three Sixty reportedly signed up with for sponsorships or marketing agreements said they were taken for a ride. At least three companies, including Morgan-McClure Motorsports, Dirt Motorsports and Just Marketing International have filed suit against Shearer and DeMattei, and/or Three Sixty Inc., Rockford-Montgomery and their marketing agency Air, Sea and Ground Advertising.
Three Sixty and Rockford-Montgomery seem to have fallen short regarding lots of the publicity the company was pushing about itself during the past year.
Got trouble? Move on.
Just a few days before a Oct. 2 Banner-Herald story ran on Three Sixty's legal troubles, the company issued a news release that stated Shearer was resigning as Three Sixty's president, effective Sept. 14 and that the company would be changing its name and direction to focus on "the aviation arena." Why would a company that had been hyping its NASCAR affiliations suddenly be flying off in new directions?
The release stated that a marketing and sales professional named Peter Van Dyke was nominated as president. The release lists Van Dyke as current chairman and CEO of Integrity Aircraft Holdings Ltd., a West Indies based company. No information, other than the limited amount included in the press release, was available about Integrity Aircraft. Additionally, the release states that Van Dyck was a district sales manager for Meyer Hydraulics Corp. A spokeswoman with Meyer, however, said Van Dyck never worked as an employee with Meyer and instead was a distributor.
Earlier Three Sixty releases claim that 360 OTC Hangover Relief is FDA approved. Well, an FDA spokesman explained that the FDA doesn't approve products. It approves ingredients that are used in products.
In addition to leasing space space on the seventh floor of The Fred Building, the company also claims an address of 1720 Epps Bridge Parkway, which is actually a UPS box. The seventh floor - their corporate offices - in The Fred Building oddly has been inaccessible the last few months to anyone without a special key .
Repeated attempts were made to reach Shearer and De Mattei both by phone and e-mail, but they have not responded. They also did not respond to a message left with an attorney representing them in a lawsuit filed against them in Oconee County and involving the contract for their home construction.
Two of DeMattei's and Shearer's neighbors, Melba Cooper and Dr. Rick Brewer, were named as Three Sixty board members in July. Repeated phone calls to Cooper and Brewer to get their insights on the company have not been returned.
The Three Sixty company operates as an over-the-counter security or penny stock, a low-priced stock tracked on what investors call the Pink Sheets. Penny stock companies often don't file audited financial statements or reports with the Security and Exchange Commission. For that reason, the SEC notes that it's often difficult for investors to find reliable, unbiased information about companies listed on the Pink Sheets.
Information about Rockford-Montgomery and Three Sixty was usually reported through Marketwire, a firm that operates as a self-service news distribution center to which companies subscribe and submit their own press releases in hopes of getting them published in trade journals and news media. In a July press release, Three Sixty announced that it would deliver its 360 OTC Hangover Relief and 360 OTC Hangover Relief Lite to Target distribution centers nationally on Aug. 6 to be sold in all Target stores.
A Target spokesman said the discount department store was not carrying the 360 OTC products. "We are not carrying the product and never have, and we have no plans to bring it to our store," said Joshua Thomas with the Target's media relations department.
The latest Marketwire news release from Three Sixty said the company had filed documents in Delaware to establish the new corporation to be called IAHL Corp., and that it would be listed on the Pink Sheets and that 50 million in common shares were available.
There is much more history on this company, including links to other penny stock companies named Pharb, Who's Your Daddy and IBAC.
In some cases, penny stocks are played like a pyramid scheme, where lots of hype hooks investors, who buy millions of shares of cheap stock to pad the sellers wallets and then are left with worthless shares. That is not always the case, but it pays to do your due diligence before parting with your money.
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 102107
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