Re: 11/11/99 - Slaying victim's venture probed
Slaying victim's venture probed
Published in the Asbury Park Press 11/11/99
By JASON METHOD and JAMES W. PRADO ROBERTS
STAFF WRITERS
ONE OF TWO penny-stock promoters murdered in Colts Neck was a hidden partner in a fledgling drug detoxification company, and he nearly destroyed it while he was hyping the stock, according to one of the company founders.
But murder victim Albert Alain Chalem, who was killed with Maier S. Lehmann Oct. 25 in Chalem's gated mansion, made sure his name was kept off any document that would link him to the company, according to Bennett L. Oppenheim, a founder of CITAmericas Inc., Fort Lee.
"Alain was a behind-the-scenes guy," said Oppenheim, a clinical psychologist. "Ultimately, I got yelled at for putting his name on paper."
Oppenheim said Chalem and his associates neglected to pay the company's bills, instead spending time to arrange promotional events. Missed meetings and payments eventually caused the company to lose contracts with hospitals, bringing it to its knees, Oppenheim said. Oppenheim said that after he resigned from the company in February, he evicted Chalem and his girlfriend, Kimberly Scarola, out of Oppenheim's Fort Lee office and forwarded the company's mail to 3 Bluebell Road, Colts Neck, the house where the couple lived. Both Chalem and Lehmann were murdered at that address, surrounded by business papers, authorities have said.
"They (Chalem and Scarola) would still be (working) in my office today, if I had not kicked them out in February," Oppenheim said.
Since the murders, federal, state and county law enforcement officials have focused on the victims' complex business relationships, which spanned the globe.
Chalem's involvement with CITAmericas is another example of what may be his questionable business dealings in both high finance and the high-risk, penny-stock world. Since the murders, authorities have speculated the killings were linked to one or both of the men's financial dealings. Both men were shot several times in the head.
No arrests have been made.
Chalem's business dealings were tangled.
In interviews this week, people linked to him contradicted each other about Chalem's involvement with various businesses.
For example, Oppenheim said Chalem's girlfriend, Scarola, was the acting chief financial officer for CITAmericas, but Scarola denied yesterday ever being responsible for paying bills for Oppenheim's company.
"I was never responsible for paying his bills," she said. "I never had his books, I never took care of anything with him -- at all. I have nothing to do with him. I really couldn't even tell you what his role was."
Nevertheless, the Asbury Park Press has obtained a letter dated March 12, 1998, bearing the signature "Kimberly Scarola." It authorized CITAmericas accountant Larry Wald to release checks written by Aviation Industries to eight creditors, and identifies Scarola as acting chief financial operator of the company and Oppenheim as acting director of CITAmericas. Wald could not be reached for comment yesterday.
"That would be a forgery," Scarola said of the signature. "I have never signed anything for that."
Oppenheim said he formed CITAmericas with two investors in 1995. The company secured affiliations with hospitals in New York City, Florida and California.
Then the two investors sold the com-pany to Aviation Industries in Rose-land, a penny-stock company promot-ed on the Internet site www.futuresuperstock.com, which police say was run by Chalem and Lehmann.
Although drug detoxification and avia-tion may seem to be a poor fit, in the world of venture capital such corpo-rate marriages are not unheard of, and Oppenheim said he overruled his uncertainties in an attempt to gain the financial backing he needed.
"I was told that Aviation Industries was a new growth company," Oppen-heim said. "I was told Aviation would fully support the company, and they showed me the capitalization and the paperwork."
Oppenheim said he met with Chalem and Joseph Logan, who was Aviation's president. Later, he said Chalem hired Boca Raton lawyer C. Lawrence Rutstein to help consummate the deal.
However, both Logan and Rutstein denied any financial relationship with Chalem.
Oppenheim said that he appeared in an infomercial for the company, and promoted the detoxification services on ABC's "20/20" news magazine. But then the bills started pouring in, and some of the hospitals wanted to know when they would be paid.
At least one New York hospital was owed $211,563 in 1998, according to a letter from New York City Health and Hospitals Corp.
Oppenheim said he resigned in Febru-ary after he was not paid his salary and company officers failed to meet with a California hospital.
Oppenheim said he was interviewed by the federal Securities and Ex-change Commission in June about CI-TAmericas' business dealings, but has not been contacted by authorities in connection with the murder probe. An SEC spokesman declined to comment.
Oppenheim said he still operates a rapid detoxification center with an af-filiation with Pascack Valley Hospital in Bergen County.
"Al (Chalem) was part of the group that bought my business, Al is part of the group that failed to support my business and that's why I'm alone today," Oppenheim said.
But Joseph Dunn, chairman of the parent company of CITAmericas, said Oppenheim is a "disgruntled individu-al."
CITAmericas was later sold to South-western Environmental Corp., now CITA Biomedical Inc., which trades on the penny-stock market as DTOX.
Dr. Timothy B. McDonald, a Chicago doctor with an affiliation to CITA, said he remembers "some confusion" involving payment of fees from the company, but its accounts are now in good standing with his hospital.
Published on November 11, 1999
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