Tony, is this you?
>>January 16, 2000 San Diego union-trib
From his base in North County, Amr Ibrahim (Anthony) Elgindy is on the prowl for overhyped, overpriced, often fraudulently-promoted stocks.
He is one of the most popular and controversial commentators on Silicon Investor, a discussion site on the Internet, and has his own Web site, Anthonypacific.com.
His company is named Pacific Investigations. His home is opulent.
He has been a witness for government agencies: for example, providing information and testifying on stock fraud for the Securities and Exchange Commission, among other entities.
Now Elgindy -- who is part Egyptian, part French -- faces a problem of his own: a federal fraud indictment in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Ft. Worth.
Elgindy is enigmatic. He is flamboyant, fast-talking and given to hyperbole, which he will often tone down in the next sentence. He loves publicity.
However, I have interviewed him and used his information for two of my own investigations, on USATalks.com and Virtual Gaming Enterprises, and I couldn't find fault with his research. My only problem was that one time I asked him if he was short USATalks, and he said he wasn't. I was suspicious. Later, he called me back and said he did have a short position.
When I have quoted him, I have cited his short positions.
Elgindy says the Ft. Worth indictment is "piddling," and while I would not use that word, I have read the case, and can't figure out why it is a criminal case. It really should be a civil matter, in my judgment.
The government's case, which should go to trial in March, charges that in 1990 and 1991, in taking out a disability insurance policy from MassMutual, Elgindy overstated his income by around 100 percent.
Also, the government charges that in 1993 and 1994, Elgindy, while collecting disability from MassMutual, actually worked for two brokerage firms and didn't let the insurance company know, hence cheated it of $60,000.
Elgindy has pleaded not guilty.
"I was diagnosed with severe depression," he says. His relationship with his wife, which has since re-flowered (they have three children), was crumbling. A private detective pursued him; when the investigator didn't get paid, he turned the information over to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Elgindy claims.
Texas authorities were looking into him for "immigration fraud, drug dealing, insurance fraud," Elgindy,says, adding that while he was in Texas he had helped law enforcement there. At the same time, "I was living the high and fast lifestyle," Elgindy concedes.
"The assistant U.S. attorney in Texas hates my guts," Elgindy says. "The U.S. Attorney's Office (in Ft. Worth) launched an investigation into a million different aspects of my life."
That federal lawyer in Ft. Worth, David Jarvis, says: "His characterization is simply not accurate. The decision to indict Mr. Elgindy has nothing to do with liking him or not liking him."
Both in San Diego and in Texas, Elgindy provided the government with information on a bucket shop brokerage named Armstrong McKinley. It was touting stocks of Melvin Lloyd Richards, the notorious former San Diegan who later went to prison.
Yasmin E. Saide, assistant U.S. attorney here who helped put Richards in prison, wrote a letter in Elgindy's behalf to Texas authorities, stating: "The government could not have made its cases (against Richards and his cronies) without the assistance of Mr. Elgindy."
"I cannot discuss Elgindy with anybody," Saide now says. "I do not want to be quoted."
"They (government agents) use me like a scrub brush; I volunteer, make tapes, risk my life, carry a gun, deal with scumbags and criminals, and then some guy in Texas decides to pull something out," Elgindy says. "I (feel) betrayed."
But, he admits, "I have done some crazy things in my life," and there is little doubt about that. First, he spent his early brokerage career at notorious bucket shops such as Blinder, Robinson (known as Blind 'em and Rob 'em), Thomas James and the aforementioned Armstrong McKinley.
"I ran with some bad people who took advantage of me when I was a young kid," says Elgindy, now 32. He admits that he had extremely high income at ages 22 and 23 and blew money lavishly.
On a 20-20 TV show in spring of 1997, devoted to the Richards scams, Elgindy allowed himself to be photographed firing his handgun at target practice. He had a Texas license for a concealed weapon, but doesn't have one now, he says.
In May, he went to Macedonia to try to help child war refugees, but the State Department frowned on his activity.
The National Association of Securities Dealers, or NASD, has revoked his license because of failure to pay fines from a 1997 action. In 1997, Ohio denied him a registration, saying he was "not of good business repute."
However, in one of its cases against Elgindy, the NASD commented that he "has assisted in bringing (fraudsters' activities) and other potential securities law violations to the attention of regulators."
As to NASD yanking his license, Elgindy says that he resigned from the self-regulatory body. As to Ohio, he says: "I never had any clients in Ohio."
Now, some of Elgindy's enemies are chortling. For example, Steven Gale Trapp of Topeka, Kan., deals out investment advice under the name Hop-Bet. He says Elgindy is hypocritical.
Last year, however, Trapp was barred by the Securities and Exchange Commission for receiving undisclosed compensation from a company for selling its stock to customers. Trapp also pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in what was originally a wire fraud case in Las Vegas in 1997.
Also, his company also owns Virtual Gaming Enterprises stock -- one that Elgindy has consistently shorted and justifiably criticized. |
