Former chief of NVID indicted
By Michael Pollick
STAFF WRITER
Robert Bunte, former president of Sarasota-based NVID International, has been
indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that he defrauded hundreds of investors
of $3.2 million-plus, using the Internet and other means to make unrealistic claims
about a disinfectant product that was only in development.
Bunte will be arraigned Wednesday in Tampa federal court on 11 felony counts that
carry the possibility of 35 years in prison and $2 million in fines.
Bunte and fellow NVID promoter Matthew Klenovic were arrested in an April raid by
agents of the FBI, the U.S. Postal Service, and the State Comptrollers Office, Division
of Securities.
Klenovic pleaded guilty in late August to six felony counts including conspiracy to
commit wire and mail fraud, securities fraud, mail fraud, interstate transportation of
property taken by fraud, and making a false statement to an agency of the United
States.
As part of his deal, Klenovic agreed to make restitution. He faces sentencing in
December.
Because Bunte didn't plead guilty, evidence in his case was heard by the grand jury,
which handed up the indictment, a formal charge that a defendant has violated
federal criminal law.
Between November 1994 and April 1997, Bunte defrauded investors by soliciting their
investments in NVID with false claims about the company's potential disinfectant
product, according to the indictment. The product, previously called Microsafe, is now
called Axen.
In addition, Bunte and others looted NVID of more than 80 percent of the investors'
funds, the indictment says. They used the money to buy ``extravagant residences,
certificates of deposit and expensive lifestyles,'' according to the U.S. Attorney's
Office in Tampa.
The plea agreement that Klenovic signed says that NVID had its own investment
Web site on the Internet and ``was touting the value of its stock. Investors would be
attracted to the stock purchase and call a number provided on the Internet.''
When potential investors contacted NVID, Klenovic would provide them with
materials containing false information, the plea agreement says.
About 1,000 investors were drawn into the scheme, according to the plea agreement,
and they handed over from $100 to more than $90,000.
While investors thought their money was going to research, develop and market
products related to purification and disinfection, much of the money was going
straight out the door.
``In reality,'' the plea agreement says, ``the investors were turning their money over to
Klenovic and others who placed it into clearing accounts and then converted to their
own purposes. In addition, the products they were touting were not available for
marketing and would not be available for several years, if ever.''
NVID is still in business. It has moved to Clearwater from Sarasota.
An NVID officer, Mike Redden, says that despite the statement Klenovic signed,
``Axen is real, and something is probably going to happen with Axen. There is interest
in that product by some Fortune 500 companies.''
Attorneys for Bunte and Klenovic did not return phone calls.
NVID, which has not released audited financial statements for 1996, plans to hold an
annual shareholders' meeting in Clearwater on Oct. 17. The meeting will be at 10 a.m.
at the Quality Inn (Suncoast Room, third floor), 20162 U.S. 19 N.
NVID in June succeeded in getting a judge to release the company's assets, which
had been frozen since April as part of a pending civil suit by the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
NVID recently announced that the Sarasota residence that had been earmarked for
ownership by the inventor of Axen, Andrew Arata, was deeded back to NVID and
sold for $240,000. The company intends to use part of the proceeds, after
commissions and closing costs, to pay off creditors.
Story Filed By The HERALD TRIBUNE, SARASOTA, FLORIDA
NYT-09-25-97 2116EDT |
