Pugs, You ever read the street.com story on Mother Theresa Humanitarian Organization. Hardly shows that Elgindy was fronting for terrorists as you say:
thestreet.com
Elgindy had made an urgent plea for donations last April for the Mother Theresa Humanitarian Organization. The money, he said, was to help refugees of fighting in Kosovo.
But the charity story was full of holes, said David Jarvis, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Elgindy in the fraud case in Texas. "None of that money from the American people was ever given to the Mother Theresa fund in Macedonia," Jarvis said. "He [Elgindy] was not the transformed man that they made him out to be."
Elgindy, in an interview, said he never gave the $14,000 he collected to the Mother Theresa organization because he was concerned it might be misspent by the group, and because the organization didn't have a valid tax-exempt status.
He said he returned the money to the 50 or so contributors within the past month, and on Friday, posted an explanation of the whole matter on SI. He also said he's spent $127,000 of his own money helping Kosovo refugees.
Elgindy has been ordered to check into a federal prison on June 11, and begin serving his sentence. He says he's angered that someone like Pluvia is pelting him with renewed criticism.
The person behind that alias is far from a saint himself, at least according to Elgindy and court records.
A lawsuit filed against Pluvia last year charged the message board poster is actually Steven Alan Keyser, a man with a list of legal difficulties that includes a shoplifting conviction, an IRS lien for back taxes and an outstanding arrest warrant in Las Vegas.
The suit was filed by Sabratek Corp. (SBTKE:OTC BB - news), which accused Pluvia of disparaging the company while holding a short position in its stock.
A federal court judge in Manhattan gave the company until May 15 to serve Keyser, or drop him from the suit. The deadline came and went, and no one was served.
Pluvia posted a jubilant message on Silicon Investor on May 16.
Sabratek's New York lawyer, Stu Jackson, said he can and will add Keyser back to the suit when he's able to serve him. "We keep an eye out for him," he said.
Silicon Investor's Munden said she knows what Elgindy looks like only from a magazine photo. "I haven't met any of these people in person," she said.
But Elgindy, who says he has met the real person behind Pluvia, says it is indeed Keyser.
In interviews, both Elgindy and the man claiming to be Pluvia have complained that questions about their individual legal difficulties and possible criminal backgrounds detract from the core of their message about stocks.
Elgindy, however, said there's a big difference between himself and Pluvia.
"I'm a much better person than he is, even though I have a conviction," Elgindy said. "I care about people."
Pluvia, in an email response to questions from TheStreet.com, said of Elgindy: "I think his behavior is pathetic -- we're talking about money donated for a charity."
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