Joe:
Mouthing off? OK. Here is some "mouthing off" from the SEC. It is an excerpt of a message from the SEC to another ASTG watcher which was sent to me. It is too good not to share with everyone.
OH, you are such a good guy!! Talk about keeping your mouth shut--YOU should learn that lesson and really take it to heart.
Wes
______________________________________________________
> For your information, on May 22, 1997, the SEC filed a civil action
> in
> the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against Members
> Service Corporation and Mr. Joseph Lanza alleging violations of the
> antifraud, registration, and reporting provisions of the federal
> securities laws.
>
> Member, which was based in Winter Park, Florida, purported to acquire
>
> and operate private companies engaged in various businesses,
> including
> oil and gas production, the sale of cellular fax machines, and the
> development of a synthetic blood substitute. The complaint alleges
> that, beginning in 1992, certain defendants issued false and
> misleading press releases, prepared false and misleading financial
> statements, and made undisclosed payments to salesmen and others to
> manipulate the price of Members stock from $2.50 to a high of $12 per
>
> share.
>
> According to the complaint, the scheme began when stock promoter
> obtained 1.4 million shares of unregistered Members stock in sham
> transactions designed to circumvent the registration provisions of
> the
> federal securities laws.
>
> The complaint alleges that the defendants met in Boca Raton in May
> 1992 and agreed to undertake a series of actions to raise Members'
> share price artificially, to sell more than one million shares of
> unregistered Members stock that the defendants controlled at Union
> Securities, and to share the proceeds from the sales. Members
> thereafter allegedly issued various false and misleading press
> releases about its involvement with companies that were developing
> synthetic blood and producing oil and gas. The complaint alleges
> that, in one press release, Members falsely stated that it had
> acquired a synthetic blood company when, in fact, it had not. In
> another press release, Members allegedly predicted that drilling on
> its oil and gas properties would generate substantial revenues, but
> the release failed to disclose that there was no reasonable basis for
>
> the prediction.
>
> As part of the alleged scheme, Mr. Lanza recommended the purchase of
>
> Members stock to others. Mr. Lanza was paid at least $540,000 for
> promoting the stock. This information was taken from Litigation
> Release Number 15371 and Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Release
> Number 915.
>
> Thank you for providing us with the opportunity to review your
> concerns.
>
> April B. Keyes
>
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