Wow... someone I spoke to by chance the other day told me my name popped up here. I can't believe this thread is still here... in answer to the question:
<<what happened to lew green>>
My last post years ago, if you look back is when i got really disillusioned that ipm management was not just incompetent, but thieves... it had to do with doyle selling a buncha worthless namibian shares to ipm, hence raiding most of it's last cash... and then I found out from someone inside the co. about literal orgies of spending by furlong and menzer and that paul's 4 cars were all leased by ipm and it all started to depressingly fit badly...
I stopped posting then because I had nothing good to say, and the shorts had won at that point and there was little point in posting. I was also keeping a low profile because I was trying to do something behind the scenes. I tried it because i still thought the property was viable and gold was there, bla, bla, bla... So i had the phone numbers of all these huge investors who because of my posts regularly called me for scoop... but mostly to nervously hold each others hands (as we all did most of the time) Anyway, this one broker in the UK had something like 25% of ipm's shares in his institutional client's accounts... and I hooked him up on the phone with all the other big ones I knew, including finally cap guardian. I got them all talking to each other, and tried to get them force furlong and doyle out in a proxy fight... The UK broker finally confronted doyle but, i don't know, somehow doyle backed him down... and at that point I gave up hope.
And it was time to back to (real) work.
As time went on i saw it had been like an addiction... and it was also very damaging to self-esteem. I kept telling myself, well, I was an idiot right along with PHD's (I followed one into the dd's after hitting on a stock, CNXS, and feeling like a genius) and all these fund managers I was talking to all the time at these prestigious firms, and lawyers, and even PHD engineers at Intel. There were some really, smart and really, really good people in the damn thing -- most who never posted here. But O.H. finally hit it right on -- ipm was like a cult (and it's so funny, cause the crazy tactics of the shorts actually increased the cult factor, by rallying the blind loyalty of the longs like myself) So i tried to say to myself, well, i'm not so dumb, coulda happened to anyone... look at all these smart people I got sucked in with, but still i was pretty depressed over it for quite a while... I couldn't face even reading the thread -- worse than loosing that much money was it cost a year of my life I spent obsessing on it, night and day, wearing a quote beeper, reading and writing all the posts, not to mention email and phone calls.
I haven't bought a share of any stock since then and probably never will for the rest of my life. It's obviously not my forte, and I don't like the lifestyle (watching a ticker)and I'm gonna focus on doing what I know and enjoy.
Since IPM, I wrote some scripts for hire, did some corporate web writing and design (an online user manual for a y2k fix it company) and I'm halfway through my first novel. I'm also launching a small business that's media related. And I ain't drivin no viper! Toyota pickup like before.
I'm almost sad I did look at the thread but couldn't resist. I read some of the innuendos. For what it's worth, I never disappeared, just didn't want to spend time in futility posting. About 100 IPM investors, many on SI, had (and still have) my phone number and it hasn't changed. My e-mail was the same for about 2 years after, but i finally dropped primenet for earthlink. I'm still living in the same 2 bedroom apartment in LA and I never got anything out of IPM in the end but grief -- but also finally, some painful knowledge of taking responsibility. It was my own fault, no matter who I want to blame. It was all our own fault. The warning bells were right under our noses. Most of us "visited" with these people. The rich houses, the fancy cars, the huge salaries based on no performance, the meals and lavish parties at the AGM -- the ritz-carlton for a penny stock that didn't have a dime of real equity or income. Who cares if gold was there? They were obviously not the kind of people who would ever make it happen; they were having a party. The red lights were flashing right in front of my eyes, but the hypnosis of greed made me blind. My fault. So i have to let go the blame, and know somehow this will help my life by learning from it.
Anyway, that's what I've been up to. I may have been naieve and I may have been wrong, but I have always been and will always be upfront.
No, I've never posted here since then. Not under another name. I wouldn't bother.
I still have my old IPM shares in my unopened statements, anyone who wants to visit can take a look. I also have a certificate of 1500 MGAU private placement shares I bought when I was a believer. I can't deal with the paperwork it takes to get em unrestricted and sell em. Anyone can have em at 50 cents on the dollar if they can handle it. I just don't have time.
Again, I've moved on in life and won't respond to anything here. I just don't have time. As to the people who curse, goad and accuse people when it's convenient, I don't care anyway. But as for some I remember, really nice people caught in a bad stock, like Furry Otter, Roger, Rick, Karl,Chuck B, Chucka, Howie, and a lot of others -- man, I hope you've gone on to better things -- and that life brings you better things -- and you all still have my number any time you want to talk.
Lew Green |
