Altomare Deposition 26 Jun 08 OCR Transcript Extract 10
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Q. Have you heard of a company called Encore Holdings?
A. Encore Holdings, yes.
Q. How do you know of that company?
A. Well, my wife is the president and bI have been trying to get it started, but I haven't been able to do anything yet. It's just a name.
Q. Is it incorporated somewhere?
A. I think Delaware.
Q. Who did the incorporation?
A. I think it was done on the internet, but I would have to check. Maybe Mr. Gunderson.
Q. Did you ask Mr. Gunderson to do that?
A. I think Barbara asked Mr. Gunderson to do that.
Q. Who paid for the incorporation?
A. Barbara.
Q. Is it a Swiss corporation?
A. No. We would like it to be a Swiss corporation.
MR. TIFFORD: Listen to the question.
THE WITNESS: Sorry.
MR. TIFFORD: Listen to the question. All you have to do is answer the question.
THE WITNESS: Sorry.
MS. HUGHES: I would like the court reporter to mark this as Exhibit 42.
(Plaintiffs Exhibit 42, letter from Prime Office Centers and a business identity agreement, marked for identification, as of this date.)
Q. Mr. Altomare, there is no reason for you to have seen the first letter. This just shows we got these documents from a company called Prime Office Centers here in New York.
A. Yes, ma'am.
Q. The second page is a business identity agreement. Does your signature appear on page 2 of Exhibit 42?
A. Yes, ma'am.
Q. And why did you sign this agreement?
A. Because we needed to have a place to begin our new business.
Q. The third page of Exhibit 42, there is some handwriting on that, "Application For Delivery of Mail." Do you recognize the handwriting on that page?
A. It looks like Mr. Gunderson's handwriting.
Q. Do recognize his signature in the lower right-hand corner?
A. Yes, ma'am.
Q. This document is dated November 21, 2007. Is that roughly the time frame when you began operating Encore Holdings, Inc.?
A. When we started to try to get started, yes.
Q. Was Encore Holdings incorporated roughly in November of 2007?
A. It had to have been incorporated before we began.
Q. I am trying to have a sense, did it happen in 2003 or 2007?
A. No. It certainly happened when we found ourselves having to start our business life over again.
Q. The company who rents this virtual office to Encore Holdings, Inc. sent a series of three checks, which are at the last page of Exhibit 42. Do you know why Mr. Gunderson is paying the expenses for the rental on this office space?
A. One of the reasons would be, I don't have the money. Number two would be he's here in New York, and he believes in our future, trying to start again. But I can't answer that. I just know I can't afford topay it.
Q. What, if any, kind of business opportunities has Encore Holdings pursued?
A. Pursued trying to buy companies and get ourselves going again, but in the past 56 days, nothing.
Q. What companies has Encore Holdings tried to buy?
A. Different types of ecological companies, different types of companies of interests that were available for us to try to raise the money to purchase. Obviously, we can't do it here in the United States if it were public. We'd have to stay private. Or we could -- basically stay private, I guess.
Q. Do you remember the names of any of the companies that you dealt with?
A. Not -- I am sure that -- no, not at this time. I dealt with a few business brokers, but I don't recall the names of them from here.
Q. Did you ask Michael Xirinachs, X-I-R-1-N-A-C-H-S, to invest in any opportunity with Encore Holdings, Inc.?
A. I've asked a lot of people to invest. I don't recall specifically if I asked Michael or not. But I have no problem asking people to invest in future businesses.
Q. Is one of the companies that you were pursuing called SkyPostal?
A. Yes, we were trying to, but they were bought by someone else.
Q. Were you attempting to raise money for Encore Holdings through Mr. Garrahan?
A. I don't believe that I would have ever asked Mr. Garrahan for money, but I don't -- I don't believe so.
MS. HUGHES: I will have the court reporter mark this as Exhibit 43.
(Plaintiffs Exhibit 43, Exhibit B to the receiver's report, marked for identification, as of this date.)
MR. TIFFORD: Let me talk to you a minute before any question is asked about that. Which is your good ear?
THE WITNESS: My good ear is this ear (indicating).
(Witness confers with counsel.)
MR. TIFFORD: Is this my copy?
MS. HUGHES: Yes, it is.
A. May I see the rest of the pages? I see here only one page. I don't know what the first page is.
Q. The very first page, if you look at the top, this is page 2 of 2, is Exhibit B to the receiver's report that was filed earlier this week.
A. Yeah.
Q. This is the only document that she gave us.
A. Yeah.
Q. So I don't know if there was a prior page or a subsequent page. This is all I have.
A. I don't recall -- I certainly – I wrote this, but I -- I don't recall in what context this came. This was what we needed, and we were trying to get the money and we couldn't. That's about all I remember. AndI don't know if -- how -- it's not concluded. I just don't see the next page, you know; in other words, I don't see the signatory. I don't know what else was said here, so I don't know what to say regarding it.
Q. Perhaps I could ask you a few questions. At the bottom of this page, if you turn it upside down, there is part of a fax line, which is -- the top is cut off, but I believe it says DEC 21, '07.
A. I don't -- I think that is maybe where the exhibit is marked.
Q. (Indicating.)
A. I don't know what that means.
Q. Did you send a fax of this document to Mr. Garrahan on or about December 21, 2007?
A. No, I don't believe so.
Q. This is your handwriting?
A. That is definitely my handwriting.
Q. Do you know anyone else named Joe to whom you wrote about Encore Holdings?
A. Yes, but I don't -- I can't say that this was Joe Garrahan.
Q. Can you explain any other reason why Mr. Garrahan possessed this letter?
A. No, I don't see -- and I don't have a problem that he does possess it. It's just a problem that I don't see the rest of it. I would like to see what -- it's just the beginning here and I don't see what follows.
Q. Nor do I.
A. There has to be more than this. I just don't stop in the middle of a sentence.
Q. At this point in December of 2007, was Encore Holdings located at 44 Wall Street in New York City?
A. Yes.
Q. Had they signed a letter of intent to purchase 60 percent of Hook SkyPostal, Inc., located in Miami, Florida?
A. Yes, based upon our ability to raise the money, yes.
Q. The terms of the agreement were basically you were to infuse capital of $6 million?
A. Well, we had to find $6 million, yes.
Q. In exchange for that, you were to receive 12 million shares?
MR. TIFFORD: Or 60 percent.
A. Or 60 percent.
Q. And that event triggered, or would occur, the delivery of the shares, when you pay $3 million?
A. Yes. And we couldn't find the investors.
Q. And 750,000 is due --
A. Was due.
Q. Was due?
MR. TIFFORD: No, is due at contract, the verb is in the present conjugation,is due at contract.
A. This was what we were trying to do and we didn't succeed in doing it. But I would like to see the rest of the document, because I don't know -- you know, I can't make an evaluation on the fact that we're trying to get going.
Q. The last sentence talks about "I would like to have as much of January to pay the" -- I think it says "initial $750,000 and to get my public vehicle trading." Where were you going to get the vehicle trading at?
A. If we had been successful in purchasing it, we would have gone either to England or to Germany to try to list it.
Q. Is there anyone aside from you, your wife and Mr. Gunderson who are involved in Encore Holdings, Inc.?
A. No, we haven't gotten it started yet. It's just an idea and a hope.
MS. HUGHES: I ask you to mark this as Exhibit 44.
(Plaintiffs Exhibit 44, document with the first page being an e-mail from Richard Altomare on or about January 1, 2008 to Michael Xirinachs, and the last page Bates numbered E 0000782, marked for identification, as of this date.)
Q. Mr. Altomare, if you would quickly look to the last page, what is the Bates number on it?
A. Bates number on the last page?
THE WITNESS: Could you read that?
MR. TIFFORD: One second. It's E 0000782.
Q. Mr. Altomare, did you have an e-mail address at RAAltomare@Yahoo.com?
A. I still do.
Q. Did you send this e-mail that's the first page of Exhibit 44 on or about January 1, 2008 to Michael Xirinachs?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. "The foreign Swiss company that will be trading on two European exchanges," what company are you referring to?
A. Well, we had hoped that we could bring Encore, once we had acquired a business, onto the exchanges, which we haven't done yet.
Q. Why do you call it a Swiss company?
A. Well, because it would be a Swiss company. We would want it there first, because a Swiss company could be accepted by the German and the London exchanges faster than if we went through the processes of going through both of them separately. We don't have it purchased yet, but it's a shell that we're hoping to purchase once we have a business to put into it. But we have neither the business nor the investors yet.
Q. When you indicate that you will follow this e-mail with one of the to-be-acquired entities' business plan, did you subsequently send the SkyPostal business plan?
A. Yes, ma'am.
Q. And that follows in Exhibit 44 at Bates number E 794?
A. Yes, ma'am.
Q. At the very end of this document, starting at Bates number E 815, there is a letter of intent.
A. Yes, ma'am.
Q. Did you ever sign the letter of intent on behalf of Encore Holdings?
A. I believe Barbara signed it on behalf of Encore Holdings.
Q. Because the copy we have here isn't signed.
A. I see that. Yeah, yeah. But we have a signed copy with them. Unfortunately, we then have a document where they terminated it, because we didn't -- you know, we weren't able to fund it.
Q. On the internet we found a press release that indicated Omega United, Inc. acquired SkyPostal, and I don't have the date.
A. No, I do know that it did occur.
Q. Do you have any interest in Omega United, Inc.?
A. No, ma'am.
MR. TIFFORD: When you finish writing your note, I would like to ask you a question about the Bates numbered pages comprising Exhibit 44.
MS. HUGHES: Yes.
MR. TIFFORD: Does it start with E 782 or 793?
MS. HUGHES: I think 793.
MR. TIFFORD: Did you mean to give me 782?
MS. HUGHES: No, although I'll look at it for a moment and see whether we'll talk about it in another context.
MR. TIFFORD: The only reason I asked, if it was inadvertently included on your extra copy that you gave me of 44, I don't want--
MS. HUGHES: It is inadvertently included.
MR. TIFFORD: Okay.
Q. Mr. Altomare, we obtained some e-mails that were sent to you by Brian Altomare at Gmail.com. There is one dated February 20, 2008.
(Witness confers with counsel.)
MR. TIFFORD: No.
A. Okay, yes, ma'am.
Q. It indicates here that he's wanting for you to look at something called College Socket PP. What is that?
A. Brian has been writing some different business plans because he'd like to go on with his life, and he had created, as he created Mad Packers, another company called College Socket, which I believe, as I previously testified, was the company that dealt with, I thought either European delivery or it had to do with communications amongst the colleges in the form of a newspaper, but I have...
THE WITNESS: My son's--
MR. TIFFORD: I'll talk to you later.
Q. This was the e-mail I was just referring to, Bates number E 822.
MS. HUGHES: Could you please mark Exhibit 45.
(Plaintiff's Exhibit 45, e-mail Richard Altomare received from his son Brian, marked for identification, as of this date.)
Q. Mr. Altomare, I just wanted to confirm that this was the e-mail that you had received from your son.
A. Yes, no problem.
MS. HUGHES: Let me mark this as Exhibit 46.
(Plaintiff's Exhibit 46, document prepared by Mr. Gunderson and given to Mr. Xirinachs, marked for identification, as of this date.)
Q. Mr. Altomare, have you seen Exhibit 46?
A. Yes, I have.
Q. Who prepared that document?
A. Mr. Gunderson.
Q. Have you given it to anyone, in addition to Mr. Xirinachs, who we received it from?
A. No, ma'am. He was the first – you know what, I can't recall if I sent it to anyone else, but my instincts are that I just sent it to Mike because he was an old friend and I thought he might be interested in getting this new company started with us.
Q. Do you know who are the investors that he works with?
A. No, ma'am. I know they're in England, but that's all I know.
Q. Does he have a hedge fund that he invests on behalf of?
A. I believe he does.
Q. Have you ever had a bank account in Switzerland?
A. No, ma'am.
Q. On May 15, 2003 Universal Express wired $25,000 to Coutts, C-O-U-T-T-S, Bank in Switzerland, and then on June 25, 2003 the second wire of $25,000 to Coutts Bank in Switzerland.
A. If you have any support or bank backup documents on that one, I am sure the receiver has them because that would have been in our corporate records, but I have no recall in 2003 of any bank -- again, we did business all over the place, so I can't tell you who and where that came from.
Q. Those are simply notations that are made on the Universal Express bank account the wires out, so --
A. I don't know.
Q. Mr. Altomare, are there any assets that you have that you have not told us about?
A. No, ma'am.
Q. Is there anyone who owes you money that you have not told us about?
A. No, ma'am.
MR. TIFFORD: Is the word "you," Y-O-U, individual to Mr. Altomare --
MS. HUGHES: Yes.
MR. TIFFORD: -- as opposed to Universal Express, because the pronoun has been used interchangeably in the deposition, but this question is limited to Mr. Altomare personally?
MS. HUGHES: Yes.
A. No, ma'am.
Q. Does anyone hold cash or assets on your behalf?
A. No, ma'am.
MS. HUGHES: Mr. Altomare, I don't have any further questions at this time. Mr. Tifford may have cross-examination.
MR. TIFFORD: I don't. Thank you. The few areas I thought I should act on, I did during the depo for clarity purposes, and you were kind enough to let me ask those questions out of turn, for which I again thank you. Let me say that in the deposition, as Mr. Altomare's attorney, I will look to investigate the few points about which we spoke during the deposition to try and track down some of the documents which were the subject of those limited discussions. If other documents are discovered along the way, I'll supplement.
RQ MS. HUGHES: Along those lines, if I could request the document that shows the termination of the deal with Encore, between Encore and Skynet.
THE WITNESS: No problem. You could get that directly from Skynet. It's right there in Miami. Albert Hernandez sent it to me, sure.
MS. HUGHES: Let's go off the record. Let's not close it yet, but let's go off the record.
(Discussion off the record.)
MS. HUGHES: We're going to close it. We're not going to go back on the record.
(Time noted: 4:42 p.m.)
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