TV host got your goat?
Baillargeon's "MoneyTV" was a strange choice for Anselmo, given that Baillargeon was one of two officers sued by the SEC in a multi-million dollar micro-cap fraud case.
The SEC charged Peter Norman and Baillargeon touted a company called "Alliance" on the Internet and used Alliance's website to make materially false representations about businesses in which various Alliance subsidiaries were supposedly engaged, including the cultivation and sale of fast-growing "paulownia" hardwood trees, the breeding and selling of live goats and goat carcasses, and the development of a nationwide chain of chiropractic clinics.
The complaint alleged that, contrary to the representations, Alliance owned no paulownia-tree technology or plantations, did not own or operate a goat business, and was not developing a chain of chiropractic clinics.
Nonetheless, according to the complaint, Norman and Baillargeon projected that Alliance's various businesses would generate $4.8 billion over a projected ten-year period and that the paulownia-tree business alone would bring Alliance more than $l billion in annual revenue by 2006.
The SEC charged the pair carried out a wide-ranging manipulation of Alliance's stock from January to November 1996, causing investors to lose millions of dollars.
Baillargeon submitted to a final judgment in the case in January of 2002. The agreement permanently restrained and enjoined him from engaging in fraudulent activities and required him to pay a $10,000 fine. In addition, the court ordered Baillargeon to cooperate with the SEC in its further inquiries into the case, including testifying in all its investigations and judicial proceedings.
Last month, co-defendant Peter H. Norman was found liable for $2.2 million dollars including a $110,000 civil penalty.
An SEC attorney familiar with the case labeled Baillargeon a "fraudster." "That's what we call repeat fraud offenders," he said. "It's amazing. And that TV show has had so many names."
"MoneyTV" is described as a weekly syndicated financial TV show. It is part of Emerging Company Report, a promotional service used by Silverado in the past. As WND previously reported, the SEC instituted public cease and desist proceedings against Donald A. Baillargeon, individually and doing business as Emerging Company Report in 1998, for failure to disclose that ECR had received compensation and stock for promoting securities.
Baillargeon received, directly or indirectly, compensation ranging from $2,500 to $17,000 for each guest appearance package sold and did not disclose the amount of money he had received from the issuers to publicize their companies and stock.
Baillargeon subsequently submitted an offer of settlement, which the Commission accepted. The SEC reported, "Without admitting or denying the findings herein, Baillargeon has consented to the entry of this Order Instituting Public Proceedings … and to the imposition of the cease-and-desist order."
That case was part of the SEC's first Internet securities fraud sweep. WND recently has learned that the SEC has launched a major new investigation of Internet stock promoters. The investigation has been launched from its San Francisco Pacific Regional office. |
