Who is Our-Street.com, really?
our-street.com
There is more and more speculation on the message boards about the person or people behind Our-Street.com and a lot of speculation about who controls or influences it as well.
As has become apparent over the past year that the supporters and, at times, the principals of the companies or transactions I have been featuring here on Our-Street.com would like to divert your attention from the allegations and substantial documentation we put forth and have you focus instead on the author and contributors and their motives instead. I have resisted discussing personnel simply because I wanted to keep the focus where it belongs, on the due diligence information we provide.
In May 2003, I stopped trading stocks entirely for that very reason. I didn't want the fact that I traded stocks to interfere with the substance of my reports. Now that my name and my past are being thrown around on the internet message boards and in emails by corporate executives and people claiming to represent ethical and independent analysis in an apparent attempt to once again divert your attention from the substance of our reports, I felt it was time to introduce myself to you and share my background with you.
My name is Timothy Miles. I am in my mid 50's so I have a lot of relevant experience to draw on as I conduct my research.
Since the early 70's I have been involved in business management in a wide variety of industries, and almost always with companies grossing less than $100 million per year. I have been involved in turn-around situations as well as start ups and been both a consultant, a hired gun and an entrepreneur. I have been quite successful in this area and have quickly taken numerous companies from situations where their revenues were at record lows to record highs in less than a year. I developed the ability to go into a situation in a company and very quickly determine the problems that were causing their economic difficulties and to implement strategies to quickly correct the problem so the company could move forward successfully. Through these experiences, I developed the ability to analyze a company, its personnel and its activities with a certain degree of accuracy. I also started several profitable companies myself and returned profits to the investors who funded the projects.
I have been an investor since the late 70's and in 1988 I entered the securities industry on a full time basis as a stock broker. I had a pre-existing idea of what the brokerage business was like and was shocked to discover it was nothing like I imagined it to be. I innocently walked into the offices of Power Securities, one of the more notorious penny stock brokers and was both shocked and horrified to discover what this end of the business was really like. I left there within about a month and found a more suitable firm where I could actually work for my clients and not against them.
I discovered over time that the best way to make my clients and myself money was working with companies as they were going public and in 1993, I left the brokerage business and started Pratt, Wylce & Lords, a public company that focused on helping small companies enter the public market. Through this company we helped several companies enter the public market, among them Applied Cellular Technologies (now Applied Digital Solutions NADSAQ ADSX) and Gaming Venture Corp (now Casino Journal Publishing OTC BB CJPG). I also worked with a not so successful company, Level Best Golf LBGF.
In 1997, I shut down the company's operations as a result of my inability to comply with the SEC's stringent 40 Act requirements. Organizationally wise, I had bitten off far more than I could chew and I knew it.
From 1997 through 1999 I continued working with companies wanting to enter the public market. I worked with Redneck Foods RDNK and with Global Foods (now Global Diversified GDVI).
Throughout this entire period, I never had a blemish on my record as a stock broker or as a consultant. Then in 1999 that I made a mistake I am not at all proud of. I was working with a company called Auric Enterprises, Inc. and had structured a 504 offering for the stock. A number of my friends wanted to invest but lived in California and Ohio, states that had not been approved for the offering. I was told that if they drove to a neighboring state like Nevada where the offering was approved, they could invest. Rather than having them do this, I made the mistake of telling them instead to put down addresses in approved states and filed these inaccurate documents with the NASD. I also was not accurate as to the relationships of some investors as well. This was wrong to do and I deeply regret having done it. I have admitted this to the SEC in testimony and stand fully accountable for my actions.
Subsequent to these actions, Auric executed a reverse acquisition with Freedom Golf Corporation and when they became dissatisfied with their investor relations people they called me and asked me for referrals. I didn't have any but asked around and was given the names of two people who were supposed to be honest who I then referred to Freedom Golf. I also had agreed in the initial merger arrangements to contribute some of my retained shares to compensate the company's chosen promoters and did so with the new promoters. What followed was a significant promotion based upon false and/or misleading information and an SEC investigation.
I was so dismayed and disillusioned at what had happened, not only at my own actions but the actions of others, that I quit the consulting business and set about rebuilding my life. I traded stocks for a while but soon discovered first that I wasn't very skilled at trading stocks yet my knowledge of business and the markets based upon years of experience in working with emerging growth companies, in reading and preparing both financial statements and disclosure documents and in researching investments for myself, my company and my clients had given me the skills necessary to conduct superior due diligence. I also discovered that, as a result of seeing literally hundreds of pump and dump schemes over the course of my investment career, that I could ferret out these activities and document them.
My decision to start Our-Street.com was based in part on my desire to make amends for my mistake and part in the hopes that I could make an honest living doing what I do well and discovered I like to do, exposing corruption in the public market. I have come to find out that this end of the business is not nearly so profitable as pumping stocks and I could make 10 times as much as I do if I put together a site that effectively pumps a company's stock. Still, I am convinced that the work I do is important and I am committed to continuing it as long as I can.
In addition to Our-Street.com, I have built a website which deals with another love of mine, fine art. It is OTCart.com. I have developed a real time quotation system for limited edition art. I introduced it to the world at Art Expo 2002 in New York. I was very encouraged by the response from the industry but realized I needed to add some additions in order to make it more attractive to publishers and galleries alike. I am finishing up working the bugs out of the improvements and am preparing to launch a new marketing program to build membership and usership.
I also have built another website which is inter-connected to a novel I am writing. I have been an ordained Christian minister since 1970 and the book is spiritual in nature. It is about the meaning of life. It is fictional and the website is appropriately titled www.themeaningoflife.net. The website is not a commercial site but rather an integral part of the book and is supported entirely by me. There is no opportunity for anyone to purchase anything, donate anything or to be presented with any point of view about the meaning of life. There is simply an opportunity for people to provide an email address so that they can be notified if and when the novel (I call it a manuscript on the site) is released. It is not intended to do anything but be passive and sit there and only be visited by people who have an interest in the meaning of life.
This site does not even begin to share the philosophy that will be contained within the novel and the novel will clearly be sold as a fictional story. I believe my writing skills and insight on the subject are both interesting and profound and those who have read the part of the book already completed, praise it highly. I can truthfully tell you that I have been both inspired and driven to write this book as a way to share some deep personal, spiritual beliefs and, hopefully, cause people to reflect on their lives and their priorities and perhaps make some changes that will benefit themselves and those around them. The decision by others to publicize this site, whether favorably or by mocking it, is certainly nothing I would have supported as that was not the original purpose. Additionally, it has absolutely no bearing on my work as a financial watchdog any more than my art site does. Both were created long before Our-Street.com. Still, who am I to judge if this isn't simply another event which further generates interest in the book? Only time will tell.
I will gladly go into other worthwhile and charitable projects I have been actively involved as an adult if you care to ask but feel no need to list them here. Our-Street.com's reports are self contained and stand on their merit and what I did for this cause or that one will hardly change a single fact.
Now you know who the person behind Our-Street.com is. You know my history and my qualifications. I have aired my dirty laundry in public for all to see. I am accountable for my actions and am remorseful for my failings. I have always believed the bulletin board and NASDAQ small cap markets were the breeding ground of the American Dream and the entrepreneurial spirit. I am disillusioned by the corruption that continues to infect the market and those who involve themselves in it and I certainly am not proud that I found myself swept up in it to the point where I personally did things I knew were wrong. This corruption exists within the brokerage community, the companies and those who promote their stock. It exists within the analyst community and those who hire them. At the same time, there are honest, decent people in each of these industries who are only interested in doing what is right for their shareholders, for their clients or for the investing public.
My agenda is exactly as I state on this website. My disclosure here hasn't changed it one bit. There never was and there isn't now a hidden one. Now that you know me, one thing is still true, the issue is not now nor was it ever who was writing these reports. The truth does not change with the person telling it. The relevant issue for discussion is the information provided in my reports and my complaints. Discuss me if you must but discussions about me will not change relevant information I have posted here nor will it effect your stock's future. And, finally if you want to discuss me, at least get the facts straight. If you are unsure, ask me. I will respond honestly to any reasonable inquiry.
copyright Our-street.com 2004 |
