Replies to post #297403 on Sulja Bros. Building Supplies, Ltd (SLJB)

[Wood Dog]

I remember that time, and I recall thinking it was a brokerage deal like Steve is supposedly doing now. On the other hand, the discussion was so rediculous with arguments about the weight of sand and gravel, that I just observed for the most part.
Like so many of the parts of this scam, there was just enough information/lies to make the claim possible if not probable. The constant volume of claims and pumping seemed to overwhelm reason. I came to think that some of it must be true and in fact if twenty or thirty percent of the claims were true, we would have all been happy.
I had made some very profitable trades on a few other companies that I knew far less about, just trading on volume and selling the news. I think for me this made it easier for me to go along with the doubts here.
Well, it's been interesting. Good luck, and don't forget to send Pv a Christmas card. lol

[janice shell]

Vucicevich arrest derails Colchester dreams

BY GARY RENNIE, STAR COUNTY REPORTERDECEMBER 17, 2008 11:06

COLCHESTER -- A $20-million residential and commercial development was promised more than two years ago to transform this village into a European-themed tourist attraction with a world-renowned Kronk boxing gym.

The development was to include a cheese factory and wooden spindle and truss manufacturing operation all touted for their potential jobs.

But town officials say the dreams are dead after promoter Petar Vucicevich was arrested and charged Monday with two counts of fraud by the RCMP.

A two-year investigation by the Ontario Securities Commission is also heading to a hearing next year.

The RCMP and OSC allege Vucicevich, 43, was part of a “pump and dump” stock scheme that netted more than $11 million in the sale of shares of a Nevada-incorporated company called Sulja Brothers Buildings Supplies Ltd.

It’s the same name as the Ontario-based company that owns the now-closed Sulja lumberyard on the outskirts of Harrow, a few kilometers away.

But Dan Scott, Vucicevich’s lawyer, says his client never owned the lumberyard although an RCMP news release on the charges creates some confusion about the relationship of companies using the Sulja name.

Several members of the Sulja family used to work with Vucicevich over the years, but they’ve had a falling out after the investigations into the stock sales began.

“We trusted that guy,” said John Sulja Sr., 66, who founded the lumberyard more than 20 years ago and has a home on the property. His son Steve, who was recruited as CEO of the Nevada Sulja company, won’t talk about the case. He’s also facing OSC charges.

“I can’t comment,” he said from the door of one of the buildings on the Sulja’s former lumberyard.

In a previous interview, Steve Sulja said the family sold the lumberyard’s accounts receivable and payable to one of Vucicevich’s companies, but not the lumberyard land and buildings. He said then that he was duped into believing fabulous deals to build a hotel in the Middle East or buy and sell hundreds of millions of dollars of cement were being completed.

The Suljas are now trying to get a new business going without any ties to Vucicevich.

Scott says Vucicevich has co-operated with the RCMP and OSC investigations and expects he’ll be vindicated when the roles of all participants are revealed.

“The Suljas are essentially pointing the finger at my client,” said Scott. “We’ll wait and see what evidence they (RCMP) have,” he said.

“You can’t say Colchester is dull,” said town Coun. Ron Rogers, who lives in the village and wonders what its future holds now.

The RCMP have obtained restraining orders on 11 properties that Vucicevich acquired more than two years ago, mostly in key locations in the village.

Rogers says he and other town officials met in 2006 with Vucicevich and his planner at the time, Pranab Shah, to hear his development ideas.

Vucicevich, who also lives in the village, or one of his associates occasionally dropped into public planning meetings, he said.

Those were the days when Vucicevich was a familiar figure in the village, flashing a big wad of bills and driving a black Range Rover. His penchant for all-black clothing accounts for the nickname “Black Pete.”

The Range Rover and other expensive cars, like a Maserati, haven’t been seen recently although Vucicevich still lives in the village.

“Basically nothing was done,” says Rogers of the promised development. About the only positive sign was construction of an ice cream parlour on County Road 50 in the village this past summer, although it hasn’t opened yet, Rogers said.

A planned restaurant on County Road 50 in a former Chinese restaurant never opened although a sign still says Opening Soon. A house Vucicevich bought on the outskirts of the village remains unfinished after renovations began more than a year ago.

Coun. Paul Innes said Vucicevich tore down several aging cottages to create a large lot in the centre of the village that would be ideal for development.

Vucicevich has allowed boaters to park trailers on the lot when events like the annual fishing derby attract a big crowd, said Innes, who also lives in the village.

If no development is forthcoming, Innes and Rogers say the town would love to have some of Vucicevich’s property to expand the municipal park on the Lake Erie waterfront.

While all the criminal or OCS allegations await hearings in 2009, the stock price in U.S. markets has plummeted to less than a 10th of a cent a share. In 2006, it traded as high as 21 cents a share.

The news of RCMP charges was welcomed by many former investors who got burned in the stock’s major collapse in 2006 after failure to deliver promised audited financial statements and The Star’s story of an RCMP investigation.

Some investors posting on Internet stock market forums still hope for a miracle. Some say the RCMP and Vucicevich are jointly carrying out a “sting” operation against a murky plot to bring the company down.

“I’ve seen this happen lots of times,” says Janice Shell, an art historian and a veteran observer in the U.S. of penny stock scams after she got burned by one. Lauded in a Fortune magazine article on Internet stock scams a decade ago, her research has sparked investigations into many.

The hype builds up on Internet forums and the warnings get drowned out, says Shell, who has followed the Sulja saga. But when the stock collapses, some investors remain in denial and form a cult-like group of true believers, she says.

Shell said most penny stocks are outright scams with no real product or service. Some are plausible business ventures that are mismanaged into oblivion, she said. Only a very few succeed of the many thousands out there. “The exceptions are pretty rare,” she concludes.

“This is like going to Las Vegas and playing the quarter slots,” says Shell of investing in penny stocks.

© Copyright (c) The Windsor Star

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