Hi to the thread: I've been following Stamford for some time ,I don't own any,it's history and the exchange it is on,the Canadian Dealer's Network, or CDN are a bit to in question for me. Following are some news releases from
canada-stockwatch.com :
Stamford International Inc -
Stamford becomes a Bobbie Miller story
Stamford International Inc
STFD
Shares issued 27,526,658
1999-06-14 close $0.95
Monday Jun 14 1999
by Brent Mudry
Stamford International's Ontario court settlement agreement with disgruntled shareholder
groups on June 9 came five days after Uruguayan accountant Ricardo Requena, a key
Stamford player, faced a new suit in Vancouver. In a statement of claim filed June 4 in the
Supreme Court of British Columbia, Surrey investor George Hatch sued Mr. Requena's
Stratton SA for 400,000 shares of United States Integrated Optics, renamed Nanovation
Integrated Photonics, a subsidiary of Stamford. In this latest suit, Vancouver lawyer Stephen
Jackson of MacLean Forstrom Jackson claims Stratton reneged on an agreement to swap Mr.
Hatch's 400,000 USIO shares for 200,000 Stamford shares last June.
Mr. Hatch's action is similar to a $295,000 B.C. suit filed by West Vancouver investor
Stephen Cheikes' Storytellers Group Enterprises against Mr. Requena personally last
September, regarding Storytellers' holdings of 216,000 USIO shares. The Storytellers suit also
claimed Mr. Requena failed to deposit $700,000 worth of collateral shares in May, 1998, with
broker Matthew Coleman of Taurus Capital in Toronto. The Storytellers action was set for an
"18A" mini-trial application on May 14, but this was abruptly adjourned generally, with no
new date set.
The B.C. suits and Ontario actions are the latest setbacks for Mr. Requena, based in
Montevideo, and Robert "Bobbie" Hillis Miller, an expatriate Vancouver promoter new
operating out of Miami, Fla. The pair watched an earlier promotion, Crystallex International,
collapse from a high of $11.85 in spring 1998 to a low of 50 cents on Aug. 28 in the wake of a
controversial stock promotion. Mr. Miller and Mr. Requena were especially active in
Crystallex from 1991 to 1995.
In the latest suit, Mr. Hatch notes that in May, 1998, he held a share certificate in street form
for 400,000 shares of USIO. The suit claims that a month later, Mr. Hatch agreed that he or
his nominees would provide his 400,000 USIO shares to Stratton, in exchange for 200,000
shares of Stamford. The agreement called for Mr. Hatch to deliver his USIO shares to
Stratton's agent in Vancouver, Union Securities, which would also handle the delivery of the
Stamford shares. The Union broker is not identified. Mr. Hatch claims that he provided his
USIO certificate on June 4, 1998, to Union, and Stratton subsequently received the
certificate, cancelled it and re-issued the certificate in its own name.
In the suit, Mr. Jackson claims Stratton failed to provide any of the 200,000 Stamford shares
in return, a fundamental breach of the agreement. Mr. Jackson seeks a court for the return of
Mr. Hatch's USIO shares, or an injunction freezing the disputed share certificate. A
statement of defence has not yet been filed.
In the Storytellers suit, the two sides have been busy in recent months, with Mr. Miller,
longtime close Vancouver associate Phil Graves, Stamford's president, and Mr. Cheikes all
filing affidavits. In his April 6 affidavit, Mr. Cheikes notes he purchased his 216,000 USIO
shares at 55 U.S. cents in December, 1996. Mr. Cheikes alleges the main reason he bought the
shares of the private company was that Caisey Harlingten, another of Mr. Miller's Vancouver
associates, claimed he intended to have the shares listed within four months "and that
assets of and the products being developed by USIO had a very positive commercial future."
Mr. Cheikes claims that when the four-month listing target "proved to be incorrect," he
threatened to sue Mr. Harlingten and USIO. "Thereafter, Harlingten told me to expect a call
from a man named Bobbie Miller, who Harlingten represented to be a majority shareholder of
a company called Stamford," states Mr. Cheikes. The West Vancouver investor claims both
Mr. Harlingten and Mr. Miller told him that Stanford was the largest shareholder of USIO.
"Miller told me and I believed that the shares of USIO would not be listed separately on any
stock exchange but would be retained by Stamford as the principal asset of Stamford," states
Mr. Cheikes.
Mr. Cheikes claims that after he threatened to sue again, Mr. Miller arranged for Stamford
director Darren Pylot to work out a settlement. This first agreement called for Storytellers to
indirectly sell its 216,000 USIO shares for $286,000 by Nov. 17, 1997. In this deal, an
unidentified third party would swap Mr. Cheikes' 216,000 shares for 175,074 shares of
Stamford, then worth $286,000 (U.S.) "I have since been advised by Harlingten and believe
that Miller intended to use the lack of liquidity of USIO shares as a lever to induce the
holders of USIO shares to dispose of their shares to him or his associates at advantageous
prices so that he would be able to control USIO," states the Storyteller principal. Stamford
was unable to complete the first settlement deal and Mr. Cheikes claims he and Mr. Pylot
then proposed amended deals, which also failed.
"Recently, I have been advised by Harlingten and believe that the plaintiff's original shares
in USIO will in fact, soon be traded publicly at a value substantially greater than any sum
offered by Stamford or the defendant (Mr. Requena) to the plaintiff," states Mr. Cheikes. The
West Vancouver investor claims that he has been unable to participate in "the active market
for the shares of USIO which has traded as high as $5 in U.S. funds,) claims Mr. Cheikes.
Mr. Miller, the expatriate Vancouver stock promoter, paints a different picture in his May 11
sworn affidavit. Mr. Miller describes himself as a director of Nanovation and a consultant of
Stamford. "I have been a friend of Ricardo Requena for 20 years and a business associate for
18 years. We have helped fund numerous companies in the U.S. and Canada, including
Stamford, several of which are very well known in Vancouver and Toronto," states Mr.
Miller, without identifying any of his previous promotions by name. Mr. Miller notes that
Mr. Cheikes' Storytellers actually purchased 260,000, not 216,000 shares of USIO in June,
1996, but neither he nor Mr. Requena were involved. (Stamford later paid Storytellers $48,400
(U.S.) for 44,000 of its USIO shares.) The expatriate Vancouver promoter claims that Mr.
Harlingten, USIO's founder, told him that he knew Mr. Cheikes from previous deals.
Mr. Miller claims that USIO was investing in a high-tech project at Northwestern University
in Chicago, Ill., which involved the used of photonics and lasers of extremely small sizes.
"USIO owned the worldwide marketing rights to the technology and after raising
approximately $300,000 (U.S.) from investors like Storytellers, USIO had arranged for
$4.5-million (U.S.) in funding from Stamford," states Mr. Miller. The Miami promoter claims
he first heard about Mr. Cheikes in the second quarter of 1997, when the Storytellers
principal was "furious and abusive" with Mr. Harlingten. "Harlingten complained repeatedly
of the treatment he was receiving from Cheikes, including threats not only to sue him
because of the speed to which USIO would go public, but also threats to report Harlingten to
the RCMP and both the US and Canadian regulatory authorities," states Mr. Miller.
Mr. Miller counters Mr. Cheikes' key assertions. "Even though Cheikes' threats did not
appear to have merit, the mere threat of a lawsuit with the company in such fragile condition
could have had dire consequences, a fact of which Cheikes was aware," claims Mr. Miller.
The expatriate Vancouver promoter notes that USIO began unravelling in September, 1997,
after Stamford had already invested almost $3-million (U.S.) in USIO.
"In October USIO had a major dispute with Northwestern University over budget overruns.
The project was behind schedule; Harlingten was fighting with the chief scientist; all of
which resulted in collateral problems," states Mr. Miller. The promoter notes that despite
USIO's troubles, Stamford stayed in a trading range of $1.40 to $2 between December, 1997,
and July, 1998. Mr. Miller does not mention that the support collapsed in early July, with the
stock plunging to a low of 15 cents by Sept. 9.
Messrs. Miller, Graves, Pylot and Requena have spent most of the eight months trying to
restructure their troubled Stamford and USIO deals. Last Thursday, Stamford agreed to settle
shareholder litigation by spinning off its stake in USIO, now called Nanovation, to
shareholders. "The agreement is considered to be a milestone in the evolution of the
company and a significant step forward for shareholder value," stated new director Robert
Wilson in a release. The outlook for taking Nanovation public remains unclear. "Currently
there is a plan to take Nanovation (USIO) public, but it is still possible that this may never
occur," states Mr. Miller in his May 7 affidavit.
(c) Copyright 1999 Canjex Publishing Ltd. canada-stockwatch.com
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