Found this also (posted it a minute ago but then accidently posted over it with the Elizabeth Fantetti info), don't know if this is old news to you, or if it's relevant.
VALLEY FIRM ACCUSED IN SECURITIES PROBE
Published on SATURDAY, May 30, 1987
© 1987 The Arizona Republic
Byline: By JOE COLE , The Arizona Republic
Arizona's chief securities-law enforcer Friday accused a prominent Valley company of trading in unregistered securities and of blocking a state investigation.
The Securities Division of the Arizona Corporation Commission seeks to
revoke securities licenses of two firms, formerly known as Century Capital Corp. and First Affiliated Securities, and of eight officers and employees or former employees of the firms.
The complaint, signed late Thursday by the division's chief, Matthew Zale, and made public Friday, gives the securities dealers and salesmen 10 days to request a hearing on the allegations in the 16-page document.
The complaint seeks to revoke:
* The registrations as securities-firm principal and sales representative of James S. Cole, president of Century Capital Corp., a prominent Phoenix investment-banking firm, and registered principal in the Phoenix office of First Affiliated Securities, a stock-brokerage office that was owned by Century Capital.
* The securities licenses of Lee R. Christian, former office manager of the FAS Phoenix office and a former registered principal in the office.
* The securities sales-representative licenses of FAS Phoenix salesmen
Sanford Barry Venitt, John Alexander Schroeder, Stanley James Allen,
Michael Patrick Fantetti, James Roe and Paul John Robinson, all Valley residents.
* The Arizona securities-dealer license of First Affiliated Securities Inc. of San Diego. The firm's Phoenix office was owned and operated by Century Capital.
Tom Canham, an attorney with Streich, Lang, Weeks and Cardon, said
Century Capital, First Affiliated Securities Inc. and Cole would oppose the proposed orders and would request a hearing.
Martin R. Galbut, an attorney representing Venitt, said the allegations involving his client focus on ''very technical'' details of exemption from registration of securities and that ''even the inclusion'' of his client in the complaint is unfair.
None of the individuals named in the complaint returned telephone calls Friday.
The civil complaint also seeks to:
* Impose a penalty of up to $5,000 for each of an unspecified number of alleged violations of state laws prohibiting sales of unregistered securities.
* Recover unspecified profits and commissions from the alleged illegal
transactions, as well as costs for the investigation.
First Affiliated and the officers have ''engaged in a pattern of delaying tactics'' and failed to provide requested and subpoenaed documents and information concerning the transactions, the complaint said.
Century Capital, founded in 1982 by Cole and others, has underwritten the initial public offerings of stock of El Pollo Asado Inc., StatesWest Airlines, America's First Home Stores, Intermark Gaming Inc., Go-Video and Arizona Commerce Bank, among others.
Century Capital and the FAS Phoenix office were acquired early this year by Fitzgerald, DeArman & Roberts, a large securities dealer based in Oklahoma City. They are operated under the Fitzgerald, DeArman name from the former Century Capital offices, 722 E. Osborn. Cole is senior vice president and head of the investment-banking division of Fitzgerald, DeArman.
Officials of Fitzgerald, DeArman in Oklahoma City withheld comment Friday, saying they had not seen the complaint.
Michael Brown, vice president and general counsel of First Affiliated Inc. of San Diego, said that his firm had not seen a copy of the complaint and that he could not comment until he had.
The allegations, said Michael Salcido, chief enforcement attorney in the ACC division, and James R. Cannon, an investigator, center on three stocks traded last year on the Vancouver Stock Exchange.
Century Capital, and in some cases Cole, acquired shares in the companies at 12 to 30 cents a share and sold the stocks at higher prices. Some of the stocks were trading at $4 to $7 a share at the time, the complaint alleges.
The stocks also were offered at low prices to First Affiliated's sales representatives as prizes in sales contests, the complaints said.
The stocks, in Brentwood Resources Ltd., American Biodynamics Inc. and
Canadian Pawnee Oil, were not registered for sale and were not exempt from registration in Arizona during the period alleged in the complaint, from April through October or later, Salcido said.
Salcido said some of the sales representatives have contended that the securities had a ''manual exemption'' from the state requirement for registration for sale in Arizona because they were listed in stock directories published by rating services recognized under division rules and state securities law as over-the-counter stocks registered in other states.
The complaint also alleges that Cole and Christian altered sales tickets to indicate that orders for the three stocks were unsolicited rather than sought by First Affiliated sales representatives and that the two officials admitted they had altered the tickets.
Such unregistered stocks can be sold if clients request them without being solicited, Salcido said.
The complaint says that unspecified FAS Phoenix sales representatives also offered or sold securities in states in which they were not licensed and falsified records to show that the securities had been sold by a representative licensed in that state and that FAS then transferred the sales commission to the unregistered representative. |
