CEO's a no-show, his company a disaster
Don Bauder
February 20, 2003
On Feb. 13, Lyle Wardrop, chief executive of El Cajon's World Transport Authority, solemnly certified that under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, his company's 10-QSB statement for the quarter ended Dec. 31 did "not omit any material fact."
Superior Court in El Cajon should be so lucky. According to records of Judge William Joseph Howatt, Wardrop failed to show up for a debtor's hearing on Jan. 13 in a case filed against WTA by a former president, Thomas Bowers.
An arbitrator had ruled earlier that the deeply troubled company owed Bowers more than $100,000. "Mr. Bowers was president of WTA, and the short end of it is that they didn't pay him," says Bowers' attorney, Sean O'Bryan.
The arbitration award moved on to Superior Court, explains O'Bryan. After Wardrop was a no-show, the judge issued a warrant of attachment for $25,000. If Wardrop fails to show up at the next hearing, the bench can issue a warrant for his arrest, says O'Bryan. The $25,000 is a bond that could be forfeited if Wardrop fails to make the scene next time.
A clerk at World Transport confirms that sheriff's deputies tried to serve the court papers several times, but Wardrop was never there.
"I didn't think the appearance (in court) was that serious that I would have to appear," says Wardrop, who spends most of his time as a car dealer in Vancouver. He hasn't been in El Cajon for eight or nine months, he says.
Besides, Bowers "knows the money is not there. It has never been there," says Wardrop.
That is definitely a true statement. The company says it has developed a Worldstar utility vehicle for Third World countries. It is designed to run on gasoline, propane or natural gas, and there are plans to run it on hydrogen-on-demand.
WTA attempts to license the manufacturing of the vehicles in Third World countries.
The business is a disaster. The company had no revenue for the six months ended Dec. 31, 2002. It lost $371,912 in the period. It has been losing money for a long time: The cumulative deficit is a staggering $13.7 million, according to the 10-QSB.
Woes accumulate. A company that is licensed to make the auto in Colombia has refused to provide sales and production reports, according to the 10-QSB. The Colombian company operates a fleet of Worldstar vehicles equipped with refrigerated units, but WTA hasn't heard from the company for almost a year, with the exception of requests for replacement parts.
WTA stock, which hit 75 cents in late 2000, closed yesterday at 7 cents, unchanged.
The founder and largest shareholder of WTA is Douglas Norman, a childhood friend of Wardrop. As revealed early this year, Norman is walking around with an electronic bracelet these days, so the District Attorney's Office knows where he is – particularly, so that he doesn't go to WTA's operation in the Philippines.
Norman is being held as a material witness in the long-delayed criminal trial of penny stock touts Harold Bailey "B.J." Gallison and William "Billy" Daniel. According to Steve Davis, the deputy DA who is prosecuting the case, the defendants, in peddling an initial public offering, stashed more than a million shares in the names of nominees in offshore tax havens – including a Cayman Islands bank owned by Norman.
"He still has an electronic surveillance device on him," says Davis of Norman. The trial is scheduled to begin March 3.
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Union-Tribune library researcher Beth Wood assisted with this column.
Don Bauder: (619) 293-1523; don.bauder@uniontrib.com |
