Here's some recent posts from AOL that I'm SURE all will be interested
in:
Subj: Memory Lane
Date: 97-06-20 16:12:12 EDT
From: DMD209SV
How interesting to go back to the posts from the Brandon regime to current!
I'm one of the people whole passed on a lot of information to the SEC and FBI
regarding the dummy company known as World Wide Purchasing. I have moved,
changed phone numbers, and kept a low profile since I genuinely worry for my
safety. (Mr. TL Brandon created documents trying to set me up as part of his
scam. Who knows what else he might do?) The final chapter for me will to be
receive my next subpeona to testify against the whole family (and have no
doubt - most of the original employees were family members and close friends.
Guaranteed loyalty) when the SEC finally files charges.
Subj: Re:Memory Lane
Date: 97-06-23 10:00:23 EDT
From: JerryR1000
Amazing how this story unfolds...
Any new interest?
This mystery book is cheap. And perhaps best purchased for its entertainment
value.
Jerry
Subj: Re: Memory Lane
Date: 97-06-23 12:27:35 EDT
From: SRESERCH
DMD209SV,
It is interesting to hear from the parties that were closely involved with
Thomas L. Brandon and his business partners. I applaud your effort in
joining this forum. Any information that you could provide would be greatly
appreciated. For those of us, (the vast majority of the PUBLIC investors)
we never stood a chance with that SCAM operation. As a matter of fact, I
would welcome the opportunity to meet with both the OLD & NEW INSIDERS. Now
there is an idea. How about it INSIDERS? Why don't we get together, maybe
on a National Business TV Network. I would like to gaze deep into the eyes of
a WORK RECOVERY INSIDER! How about it?
Subj: Re: Memory Lane
Date: 97-06-27 13:11:24 EDT
From: SRESERCH
DMD209SV,
How are you? Are you allowed to discuss the issues concerning the SEC, FBI
and NASD investigations or are you required to keep silent until the
investigations are complete? By the way, just what is the status of these
impending investigations? There never seems to be any closure on the crimes
committed against an unknowing and manipulated PUBLIC INVESTOR. Furthermore,
would it be possible for you to encourage "the other involved parties" to
join our humble online forum (although at times it does become a little
rough) but isn't that true with respect to all facets of life. A little
pain, a little gain and oh yea some major LOSSES.
Subj: new contract
Date: 97-06-27 15:54:56 EDT
From: RocBack
I hear that WORK has signed a major contract with the largest Medical
supply marketing firm in the world to market ERGOS. They have the largest
sales force in the world, I am told and have committed a lot of resourses to
it. I'm told they are really sold on the product. This could be what we
need. On the other hand, if this doesnt work it spells trouble.
Can anyone confirm this?
Subj: Re: Memory Lane
Date: 97-06-28 12:34:35 EDT
From: DMD209SV
SRESERCH,
I thank you for your kindness in response to my original posting. I was
quite nervous when I first posted in anticipation of the kind of response I
might find. I don't recall the SEC placing me under a gag order, and most
likely what I know could easily be public knowledge. Allow me to first
correct one assumption - I am not an insider in the terms you think I am. I
happen to be someone who was hired to set up a company which I believed was
legitimate. I did have a connection to Work Recovery through my fiance;
that's why I was hired. I personally believe it was a way to help guarantee
continuing loyalty to the Brandon family. I was hired by Martha Greenlee,
the executive in charge of Work's manufacturing dept to set up a new company
for her. (She is also Tom Brandon's sister) I was told this was a new
company, NOT affiliated with Work. In fact, Work was to be World Wide
Purchasing's (WWP) customer. WWP was a company that did purchasing of ERGOS
related parts, then in turn was to sell to Work. Martha told me that she was
only managing the company for a friend who was currently living in Alaska;
and by the end of the year she would resign from Work, and move to WWP to run
it. I thought it was a conflict of interest for her to be involved in both
companies under these circumstances. Perhaps the one thing that should be
understood throughout this story is the powerful loyalty Tom had from his
family and friends. There are still people today who maintain that he's a
wonderful human being, despite glaring information to the contrary. He
treated everyone exceptionally within his circle, in essence buying their
loyalty. Unfortunately, my fiance was one of those people for a very long
time. He was privy to information that he didn't realize was pertinent until
everything came to a head. After I was working for this company a few weeks,
I began to sense some things weren't quite right, like 2+2=5. Since Martha
is known to be very controlling, every time I voiced my concerns to my
fiance, I was assured that Tom had made a bad mistake putting his sister in
charge. I never understood fully what was going on, just had a sense of
something not right. Because of my fiance's loyalty to the family, I
continued putting aside my concerns. One day, Martha came in, panicked as
usual, and had me sign some papers. I signed them, understanding that I was
signing on behalf of the owner in Alaska. After she left, I looked over the
papers and realized I had signed indicating that WWP was to hold 61 ERGOS
until the two companies known as Carat International and Al-Sabah Trading
were able to take delivery. The strange part was these documents were dated
during the course of the prior two years when I was NOT living in Tucson.
Within a week or so of signing those papers, one of the auditor's came to
visit our warehouse and questioned me on signing those papers. I told him
what I truly believed; I had signed as the agent for the owner. When coupled
with the knowledge that most of the inventory WWP held was originally brought
over from Work, I finally realized that Martha (or whoever) was creating
documents to make the inventory we had seem legitimate. One of my co-worker's
knew Tom personally, and would see him occasionally at Tom's bar, Brando's.
( I noted someone earlier within these posts questioning the bar's
connection. Fifth Street Fitness is also another company owned by Tom.
However, rumor control says that he has transferred his ownership to his
wife.) When my co-worker questioned Tom regarding our inventory, he was told
that it was for accounting purposes only. I understood it this way: The
machines had been sold to these 2 companies, but because buiding renovations
had to be done before the units were housed, they could not be shipped.
Apparently, the auditors did not understand that even though Work supposedly
had documents verifying the sale of these units, still having the units on
hand didn't qualify as a sale.
Subj: Re: Memory Lane (cont)
Date: 97-06-28 13:08:39 EDT
From: DMD209SV
Sorry - this is a long story. Anyway, the units were shipped to WWP to be
held until these companies could accept shipment. It seemed logical at the
time. Shortly after the auditor's visit, Ernie Brandon (Tom's brother,
though I'm not positive what department he was in charge of at Work) came
over to WWP, and instructed us to rearrange the inventory to make it look
like it was being prepared for shipment. Because we had loose inventory, not
completed units, he said that the auditor's were having trouble reconciling
our inventory with the 61 units to be shipped. So our inventory was
rearranged into sections for each shipment. Not long after that, the
auditor's came back and looked again, this time taking pictures. Somewhere
around this time, the FBI began investigating on behalf of the SEC, and
Martha freaked, closing us down occasionally so the FBI couldn't get into the
building. She instructed me to make a copy of the hard drive on my computer
then erase the hard drive, so if someone did get in, they wouldn't be able to
find any inventory, payroll, or other accounting records. We were in and out
of the building sporadically when Martha thought it was safe. I kept
updating my disk - to this day I don't know why. Just instinct, I guess.
Some time in October, the owner from Alaska finally showed up, supposedly to
put a stop to the harrassment by the auditor's. Her name is Margaret Snider,
was on all of the corporation documents, and the daughter of one of Work's
accounting employees. Upon her arrival, she cleaned out all of the papers I
had at WWP, then closed the business until she could get things straightened
out. When we were supposed to return to work, she had decided to close
permanently, so I found myself out of a job abruptly. I was told by Martha
that she and Ernie had both tryed to convince Margaret to hold on a little
longer and everything would be resolved. But Margaret decided to close
anyway. Right before Thanksgiving I was approached by the FBI, and told them
everything I knew regarding this company, though it didn't seem like much.
It was after my conversation with them, that I began to peice things
together. Ours wasn't the only company that was set up to funnel assets
through. The FBI was investigating other companies as well. There were
allegations of stock manipulation. Also, two of Tom's brothers raced stock
cars locally, and extraordinary funding was written into advertising on these
cars. And Tom Brandon was car owner. (We have pictures of the cars with his
name proudly displayed as owner.) At that time I was also informed that
Margaret Snider maintained that WWP never had employees. She considered us
to be personal employees of Martha. Funny thing, since the bank account was
issued on an Alaskan or Washington bank (I can't remember), Martha felt that
some WWP employees would have trouble cashing their checks locally, so she
wrote our payroll from her personal account. So I know found I would be
facing problems with the IRS since I was fairly sure that Margaret would not
issue W2's or make our payroll tax deposits. Fortunately, I still had my
disk, so I had proof I had worked there. After talking to the FBI, several
months passed. Teflon Tom (as he's come to be known in our house) left Work,
and the TEAM came in. My fiance was spared in the layoffs - which was
remarkable since he was a member of the racing team and had gotten his job
due to Tom's appointment. In March, I received a subpeona from the SEC, and
took a copy of my disk, and printouts of it's contents to the SEC. Because
my fiance's name came up during my testimony, he agreed to speak to them
also. Because what he told them would be hearsay on my part, I can't really
go into it since I wasn't in the room at the time. My concern here is to
state the facts as I know them only. I have not heard from the SEC or FBI
since then, so I don't know the status of the investigations. I hope they do
move forward and prosecute - this whole ordeal has been a nightmare. |
