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The Dark Side: Internet stock manipulation
(The following is the third in a series of articles by Les French relating to MAXX International and other
companies related to Michael Solomon and Jeremy Schuster.)
One wonders how seasoned Entertainment businessmen like Michael Jay Solomon, or the aggressive young lawyer
Jeremy Schuster, choose their business associates. Perhaps, when it comes to developing investment markets for
corporate shells, they look for aggressive promoters who have a quality for building recognition in the market
place, and driving the price of the stock to profitable margins for large insider shareholders...
In the case of Sector Communications, Mohamed Hadid, who is listed as the chairman, and who also receives the
greatest amount of compensation from Sector in the form of Sector stock, recently appointed Michael Zwebner to
his board, of which Schuster was already a member. A glance at Sector's SEC filings just going back the past five
years reveals an entrepreneurial adventure that never got off the ground. Sector, which wanted to enter the
telecommunications business in Bulgaria, formerly had its telecommunications license revoked, for no apparent
good reason, by the Bulgarian authorities several years ago. Now Sector is back in business in Bulgaria again, but
according to SEC filings only has five commercial customers, all resort hotels, connected to its telephone network,
with a grand total of nine employees.
Sector '"Communications has a history of legal problems which makes the company "not too attractive" for
investors. It's SEC statement reveals, for example, a $40,000 cash judgment, among other judgments, which was
later negotiated down to $15,000 cash, which the company admits it will pay only as soon as "it is able". And to
make matters worse, its chairman, Mohamed Hadid, whose background is in five-star hotel properties, recently
filed for personal bankruptcy, according to the SEC filing.
Hadid isn't the only director at Sector on the public company's board with a bankruptcy history. According to
court documents, Michael J. Zwebner, who is chairman of TVCP, was an undischarged bankrupt as recently as
January 1997. These kinds of legal disclosures would prevent a company such as Sector from becoming eligible for
membership on Nasdaq or other public stock market, which should bring concern to financial enterprisers such as
Solomon or Schuster. Further, Zwebner has not disclosed on any SEC filing the facts of his bankruptcy history.
Still, Solomon may have good reason for wanting to keep Zwebner around.
Zwebner was formerly the CEO of a private enterprise which, through reverse merger, acquired what was
essentially a defunct shell company, Legacy Software, now known as Talk Visual Corporation (TVCP). During the
past year since the merger, Chairman Michael Zwebner has shown a remarkable ability to develop and promote the
market for TVCP's stock, which about a year ago traded at about seven cents last year, and peaked as high as $4.00
late last February. The stock of TVCP is now trading at around fifty cents. TVCP's SEC filings demonstrate that it
has little revenue from its operations, has few assets outside of real estate holdings and investments, and suffered
net losses in excess of $5 million in the past fiscal year. So why is this stock so popular?
Zwebner seems to have spent a great deal of effort promoting TVCP's securities on the internet, particularly on
anonymous message boards. In my last article, I described an "inner circle" of individuals, known as "Zwebner's
List", who Zwebner regularly emailed with information relating to TVCP. Some of the persons on the List were
bulletin board "regulars" who frequently touted the stock of TVCP. The tactic of Zwebner and these posters is
worth examining at close range.
One of the "anonymous" posters, who remained in close contact with Zwebner for at least the past three years, was
a TVCP investor using the aliases "ClearThinker", "John_Quinlan", "PointInCase", and various other aliases, at
least eight in all, who would frequently appear on Raging Bull's popular message board and post information
which purportedly had just been indicated by Chairman Zwebner in a phone conversation. Numerous times, during
the period that TVCP made its meteoric climb from seven cents to four dollars, this individual held
"conversations" with his "other aliases" online, in order to give the impression to viewers that numerous persons
were endorsing and buying the stock of TVCP, and to lend credibility to the poster.
Not only did "John_Quinlan" manufacture conversations on the Raging Bull message board, he also redistributed
information to his own e-mail list of about 500 recipients, also using the "John_Quinlan" alias, in an effort to
further promote and tout the stock. On February 25th, only 11 days after TVCP sued "the_worm06" for
defamation, the person using the alias "the_worm06" politely pointed out that at least four aliases were one and the
same person. Quinlan and the other aliases immediately and mystically "disappeared" from any further
appearances on the board.
John_Quinlan would also "leak" out previously unreleased information from the Chairman, in an effort to cause
viewers to run out and purchase the stock prior to TVCP's formal announcements. Further, many casual viewers
would be "duped" into joining in and participating in these manufactured conversations. On one occasion, the
John_Quinlan "character" actually discussed having to go to the hospital to tend after his sick grandson. Viewers
responded to the hoax with generous accolades of sympathy. Zwebner never once denied the authenticity of the
posts, or the fact of his relationship with the poster.
If the John_Quinlan character knew and conversed with Zwebner only as a matter of casual coincidence, yet
another online touter on Zwebner's List was and is actually employed by TVCP and Zwebner. This individual,
employed in one of TVCP's local offices, regularly posts, masquerading as a casual investor, purportedly with no
paid relationship to the company. Not only is this person a paid agent of the company, but is also privy to
confidential information from Zwebner, and frequently participates in the discrediting of any critics, known as
"bashers" by the touters, who dare to speak ill of either Zwebner or TVCP.
And then there is the strange case of another touter on Zwebner's List, a southern California psychiatrist who posts
aggressively on the internet, often threatening Zwebner's critics with "death threats", and vulgar comments
threatening vulgar "anal" punishment and other intimidating threats. On at least one occaision this touter falsely
accused Zwebner's critic, "the_worm06", of being a convicted child molestor. One would not normally expect to
find a licensed practitioner of mental health sciences in the business of threatening, harassing, and otherwise
verbally and socially abusing his victims. This particular touter also claimed to have made significant business
introductions for Zwebner.
The list of touters goes on, however a pattern becomes evident. The Chairman, either by telephone, or through the
"inner circle" e-mail list, would share "confidential" information which would soon be reported by the touters.
This information, regardless of its significance, would soon find its way leaked out on the message boards by some
of the same individuals. The price would immediately spike, even prior to the formal announcement by the
company. This pattern continued for weeks until TVCP finally hit $4.00.
Zwebner denies that anyone was on the list other than "directors of companies" that he wanted to keep apprised of
news releases while they were out of the country. Zwebner otherwise denies that the list exists altogether. But a
close examination reveals that many touters are on the list, besides those mentioned above. In addition to directors
and touters, the list also contains a large category of attorneys.
Besides the touters, Zwebner would occasionally appear on the boards himself, interacting with the posters. On one
occasion, he actually confirmed a fictitious "appearance" by one of the touters at a investment gathering in which
Zwebner made a public appearance. The appearance was fictitious because the individual was actually employed by
Zwebner himself, and was not an unrelated investor who was casually attending the meeting.
There is a dark side to Zwebner: not all online appearances by Zwebner are for self-promotional purposes.
Zwebner, who frequently tangles with his critics, utilizing the public message boards as a sort of lock-stock to
brutalize his enemies. As mentioned above, Talk Visual Corporation filed a lawsuit against the_worm06, an online
critic, and obtained discovery identifying the individual's true name, address, and phone number. "the_worm06"
was never served with the lawsuit, however Zwebner published the_worm06's identity and business background
online. "the_worm06" soon found himself subject to malicious, threatening phone calls, unwanted visitors at his
door, and numerous "hate" messages threatening death or personal injury.
The investor market of Sector Communications, like Entertainment Internet, Inc., and MAXX International, all
companies directed by Jeremy Schuster and/or Michael Jay Solomon, continue to flounder. With Michael
Zwebner's proven history in promoting TVCP's stock to levels in which Zwebner and other insiders were able to
earn millions of dollars while dumping millions of shares into the market, Zwebner could prove to be just the burst
of energy needed to keep Solomon's and Schuster's investments alive.
(To be continued... Next time, "Bear Mating Season, Baer Bribes, Behr Disclosures, and other Bare Facts from the
Dark Side")>>>
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