As I have been out of town for a period with very limited access and time to reply, and having been slandered and maligned, the following is a post I put on AOL Motley Fool the other day. I apologize for the length in advance.
"Wow, leave town for a few weeks and everything hits the fan. Since Zsolt has taken the liberty to respond on the thread, (which I think is an honorable thing to do) I will respond. First from an overtone point of view. Your message did not refute one item of any of my posts but instead chose to make it a personnal attack on myself. I think that is unfortunate for investors who are putting in their hard earned money.
As to the balance, I will answer as directly as I can. My title at BFG was Director of Sales and Marketing for SuperTemp Operations, an advanced composites division making carbon and ceramic matrix composites with the express responsibility to find new markets for these products other than that of the aircraft brakes which we manufactured for our parent division. You can decide the level, high or low, but I reported directly to the Division Manager, one Orel Kiphart whom you (Zsolt) hired as your president and has since left and has a lawsuit against yourself and/or your company. Orel was responsible for over 250 people and managed a $50M business. And for those of you who have a long memory, I have posted my exceedingly high regard for Orel.
I would beg to differ about the terms "poor performance", and "let go". As part of the BFG/Zoltek Development Agreement , which we wrote and negotiated while I was still a full time BFG employee, I was to perform certain product and market development tasks relative to creating new markets for certain defined and undefined products. I can't be more specific as I have a Non Disclosure Agreement with BFG that is still in force but I think it's fair to say that the rotory project failed after being neglected after I left and that Zoltek consummed most of the other as part of the agreement. The rotory project was your idea, one which I agreed with, but did not work for technical reasons, which appear unsurmountable, but the knowledge gained has provided insight into numerous other projects.
Our contract was specifically for 11 months, from Feb 1 until Dec 31, 1995. As I recall, we had a few drinks my last evening in St. Louis, on the subject of my becoming a full time employee. At that meeting I provided yourself with a new rate schedule for consulting, considerably raising my rates, and indicating that I did not wish to become an employee, to neither of which you responded. By January 10, 1996 I signed a consulting contract with another fiber manufacturer and Zoltek was removed from consideration due to conflict of interest. In all your conversations, or in any writings or other communications, you gave myself one negative comment in those 11 months and that was relative to my providing your VP of Sales with a copy of a strategic marketing document, a person whom I understood I was to be working with, not against. So be it, I never provided him another.
Having said the above, I have no real axe to grind. I have been long the company when undervalued, short the company when overvalued, and traded options when I thought that was the thing to do and I have posted my positions when I had them. I know one friend who sold short and one who bought puts. I know nothing about a so called "unholy alliance" with short speculators other than from posts and e mails which probably originated from your or Mary's office. Myself and my friends have talked about doing a large short but I think our definition of large would get lost in the rounding of the 3M shares currently short. And the price is almost to volatile with the big money players and we have become to uncertain about taking a position. That's why the last friend used options, to limit losses.
My first post started when your former employees (I was never an employee) started calling me looking for assistance and started talking. Since then many people from all walks of life have made contact with myself, including employees who seem to have been made aware of the posts by yourself and they got hooked up to the internet to read them for themselves. If nothing else AOL and the internet owes you a debt of gratitude. If there is an axe to grind it is the way you treated your people. It was after that, and upon reading the available literature and company propaganda that I started posting to let people know another opinion. I feel you have not been totally honest with the investing public and have made that known on this thread as well as on SI. And where I could, I have specifically pointed out those points where I disagreed. If you so strongly feel that my information is so out
of date or erroneous, point out the errors.
Finally, I still recommend your fiber to my clients. I understand their usage is climbing nicely and your products provide benefits they cannot easily acheive with products purchased elsewhere. And your marketing vision is superb. I would admonish you however that the ends don't justfy the means.
Best of Luck
Bill>
Now for a response to some of the posters on SI. Yes, my real name is William Tarasen. I knew when I signed up and used my name as my e-mail address that one could quickly determine who I was, and others have and corresponded directly. This was done on purpose so people would know who they were talking and or writing to.
I am not in the least concerned about an SEC investigation as whenever I have had a position, I have posted such and will gladly provide brokerage records to responsible persons. Further, I am not concerned about a lawsuit. The reason is that nothing posted that I know of that is untrue. Since I have no position, or have been open when I have had, and a lot of items have since been verified publically, what would a suit accomplish?
The earnings warning was a statemet made by Dan Greenwell in the conference call which stated that earnings would be "about 10% below analysts expectations of $1.20 to $1.25." During this same conference call Dan was quirried about information in my posts concerning the GE problems. His first three responses were that it was "pure poppycock" and later indicated that the problem had existed and that it was "old news", later still indicating it was 18 months old and was metal contamination which originated from a milling machine. Two other independant sources have since told me that the problem is recent, within 30 days of the conference call, and product variability was the major issue.
For those of you who want to do some further research, Zsolt's inuendo with regard to "poor performance", "disgruntled former employees", "unholy alliance", etc can be found in Performance Materials, a weekly rag where he used similar words to describe others who dealt (worked for) with him. If Zsolt felt that I have "minimal information out of date, . . . comprehension of the carbon fiber industry, markets, and technology is very limited." , why would he hire myself to perform new product development in a highly technical market? In summary, all of us who have worked for (consulted or employed by) Zoltek are idiots or he is the worst judge of potential employees ever. Without regard for myself, Orel Kiphart, while at BFG, sales on non-aircraft brake composites (he had no control over aircraft brake sales) doubled for 4 years running. As his head of marketing, I hope I contributed to that.
As far a Marerick's hysteria about actual insiders, I never was one. Remember, I was a consultant, not an employee. And obviously not an officer of the company and never had access to information relative to earnings prior to release. My first purchase of Zoltek was after the BFG contract announcement was made. As I had insider information (being part of the negotiations) BFG ethics would not allow myself to purchase until after the announcement was made. I waited and bought shortly thereafter. I will have to check for sure, but I believe that I have never held shares in Zoltek since posting. Short yes, long no.
And Maverick, no apology needed. I posted information when it was provided to me and at least verified by another source. I wouldn't make a trading decision based upon one person's posting information, but I certainly check the info out. I have bought and sold stocks based upon these boards. Finding out that the news is false, irrational or irrelevant has lead me to buy stocks. You're a big boy, make your own decisions. And keep your subscription to Zacks (or however else you get the info).
Since this board is not a place where information can be posted and appreciated, I will stop posting here. Good luck to you all
Regards
Jake (Bill)
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