The Reading of the Evidence Against PRAV Continues:
PART 5
GRANT: VERB OR NOUN?
On September 15, 2000, PRAV announced that its subsidiary PowerLOC had received “a grant of CDN$495,000 from the National Research Assistance Program (IRAP).” There is no such organization. In fact, IRAP stands for Industrial Assistance Research Program, which is a division of the National Research Council of Canada (division of the Government of Canada). One wonders who writes these releases, and why it is so difficult to name companies and organizations correctly.
THIS PRESS RELEASE IS MISLEADING AND HIGHLY DECEPTIVE
In a phone conversation with the IRAP representative who was in charge of the PRAV file, it was made abundantly clear that PRAV DID NOT RECEIVE A GRANT. In fact, IRAP had requested that PRAV rescind that press release, as it was inaccurate. The company has failed to do so, and continues to ignore the request of IRAP.
A full description of the IRAP assistance initiatives can be viewed at:
nrc.ca
As stated in the first paragraph, the “initiative provides repayable contributions that share in both the risk and the rewards of high technology development.” IRAP “ will normally reimburse a portion of direct labour, service contracts, and materials and supplies.”
Repayment information includes the following:
“Repayment will normally be based on royalties on company revenues. Repayments will be calculated to return the initial contribution plus an amount appropriate to the program's principle of sharing in risks and rewards of the project. Repayment is not limited to the face amount of the contribution.” In conversation with the representative, it was explained that the IRAP loan to PRAV would reimburse 33% of approved expenses to a maximum of $495,000.
Searching the PRAV press release for words such as “loan” or “repayment” yield no results. The PRAV release is highly deceiving. The NRC/IRAP grant described by PRAV, as a strong endorsement by the Canadian government of PRAV's technology is no more than a loan made on commercially reasonable terms. The most disturbing aspect, however, is that it demonstrates managements willingness to misrepresent information. In this case, it can be easily researched. It causes one to wonder about the veracity of other issues that are more difficult to verify.
NON-EXISTENT PRODUCTS
We contend that PowerLOC has purchased some GPS equipment from an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer), and performed no modifications (or very slight ones) and are claiming it is their own original product.
This conclusion has been arrived at due to the fact that PowerLOC was formed as a company in the year 2000 as Canadian government documents indicate, and as PRAVs own S-8 filing show. It was only after the company was made aware of the fact that investors had realized that PowerLOC was a new company, that PRAV management rewrote history and claimed that PowerLOC was an older Bahamian company.
So, who’s equipment is PRAV trying to pass off as their own?
The PRAV news release of March 30, 2000 contained: “PowerLOC confirms that it has concluded the acquisition of the MML technology from Hunter Pro (notice space between and Hunter and Pro, which is different than in filings and on HunterPro website), a GPS security engineering firm founded by the Zacheo family in South America.”
The 8-K filed on April 14, 2000 has this to say about HunterPro S.A.:
4.12. Hunterpro Agreement - At the Time of Closing, the Corporation shall have entered into a binding agreement with Hunterpro to transfer to the Corporation all of their rights to the Technology and an agreement pursuant to which Hunterpro will continue in a consulting capacity, for compensation of not more than US$5,000.00 per month during an initial period (to be subject to future increase to US$7,000.00 per month commencing June 1, 2000), for research and development services. Reinaldo Zacheo and Pablo Zacheo are the principals of Hunterpro and will commit their services to the Corporation on behalf of Hunterpro to fulfill the consulting agreement which shall be in form and substance reasonably acceptable to Purchaser's counsel.
They re-affirmed the HunterPro relationship in the 10K filed on April 17, 2000:
“The Company has entered into an agreement with HunterPro S.A, an engineering firm based in South America, to provide ongoing development and support of the MML technology.”
It further states: “HunterPro S.A. of Uruguay is the Company's major supplier.”
PRAV claims to have “completed the initial development of its core MML (Miniature Mobile Location) technology and has produced and tested a series of battery operated prototypes” (10K, April 17, 2000). However, it appears from the above that HunterPro is the supposed developer of MML.
There is not a single mention in any press release or trade publications for Hunter Pro,
HunterPro, Hunterpro, or Reinaldo or Pablo Zacheo. If in fact that company exists, it exists in a vacuum unknown to its industry. Search engines which focus on Uruguay find no hits for HunterPro:
searchenginecolossus.com
reduy.com
uruguaytotal.com
A close look at the HunterPro website is very revealing:
hunterpro.com
Zacheo provides the address of a Baptist Pastor in Texas as the Administrative and Billing Contact for hunterpro.com.
register.com
google.com
(search for Cultrera)
The HunterPro website is nothing more than a collage of stolen bits from other company websites. For example, this page:
hunterpro.com
is a copy of an article written by Bill Shuster of Sigma Marine:
google.com
This page:
hunterpro.com
was stolen from:
trimble.com
(scroll down to “Raster”)
HunterPro claims to have developed their own GPS tracking software, named Coyote 5.0. There are no references or traces of earlier versions, and no explanation as to why a version 5 would still have a “patent pending”. From the HunterPro homepage, hunterpro.com click on “Downloads” to watch a HunterPro demo. As anyone who has used Adobe software products will note, the Coyote demo begins with a very familiar splash screen. The following programmer credits are given as the team who developed Coyote:
Thomas Hamburg, Mark Knoll, Seetha Parent, Sean Narayanan, Dave Gilley, Greg Good, Laura Ault, Joe Hoffman, Jason Byer, Scott Bartell, Jeff Costa, Tom Chien, Chris Freeman, Josh Cox, Todor Harris, Jerry Georgiev, Andrei McBrian, Charles Herasimchuk, Marc Rimm, Katja Pawliger, Akiko Williams, Russell Sherry, Adrew Leddy, John Coven, Kevin Yoshumura, Asako Connor, Luanne Johnson, Derek Seymour, Matt Munsey, Grant Foster, Tom Holland, Paul Ruark, Sam Brown, Russell Weiss
Coyote itself does not seem to exist. There are no patent filings for GPS software for any of the names listed, nor for Coyote, HunterPro or Zacheos. The software is not found on any of the many GPS/GIS websites.
THE 35 NAMES ON THE COYOTE SPLASH SCREEN ARE THE EXACT SAME NAMES THAT ARE ON THE SPLASH SCREEN FOR ADOBE PHOTOSHOP 5.0:
Thomas Knoll, Mark Hamburg, Seetha Narayanan, Sean Parent, Dave Good, Greg
Gilley, Laura Hoffman, Joe Ault, Jason Bartell, Scott Byer, Jeff Chien, Tom
Costa, Chris Cox, Josh Freeman, Todor Georgiev, Jerry Harris, Andrei
Herasimchuk, Charles McBrian, Marc Pawliger, Katja Rimmi, Akiko Sherry,
Russell Williams, Andrew Coven, John Leddy, Kevin Connor, Asako Yoshimura,
Luanne Seymour Cohen, Derek Johnson, Matt Foster, Grant Munsey, Tom Ruark,
Paul Holland, Sam Weiss, Russell Brown
THE ARCHITECTS OF THE COYOTE PAGE SIMPLY JUGGLED THE LAST NAMES (they mistakenly forgot an “f” in Jeff and an “n” in Andrew).
THEIR PRODUCTS HAVE ALSO BEEN STOLEN!
motorola.com
hunterpro.com
These spec sheets are virtually identical. HunterPro simply substituted their own name whenever Motorola was mentioned, and then made a few small modifications.
CONCLUSION: HUNTERPRO, WHICH PRAV CREDITS AS BEING THE DEVELOPER AND SUPPLIER OF ITS TECHNOLOGY, IS A SHAM. IN FACT THE EQUIPMENT APPEARS TO COME FROM MOTOROLA, ONE OF THE COMPANIES THAT IS SUPPOSEDLY VIOLATING PRAV’S GOLDEN NUGGET PATENT. |
