To: T A P who wrote (8542)
From: Zhivago
Tuesday, Aug 10 1999 11:02PM ET
Respond to Post # 8543 of 8545
Tap:
You respond because you want to keep your scam going, ripping off the unknowing. You
speak of your beloved, James Tilton, who you scam several of his "cardboard"
companies. The following is not slanted or biased its fact. Lets hear your explanation on
this one.
Miami Firm, Owner Accused By SEC of Sending Fake Fax (Update1)
Miami Firm, Owner Accused By SEC of Sending Fake Fax (Update1) (Adds details of
allegations, list of
12 stocks touted)
Washington, July 16 (Bloomberg) -- A Miami marketing firm and its owner, a convicted
felon, were
charged with fraud for sending out stock-touting fax messages made to appear that they
came from
well-known financial institutions such as Prudential Securities Inc. and Merrill Lynch &
Co., regulators
said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Globus Group Inc. and its owner
Bruce Gorcyca,
also known as Anthony DiMarco, with sending fraudulent fax messages from 1997
through last month
that recommended a dozen microcap company stocks. Globus and DiMarco also were
charged with
issuing false press releases about six of the small company stocks and for posting a
fraudulent stock
offering on the Internet, the SEC said in a complaint filed in federal court in Miami.
Two of the companies touted by Globus and people associated with those companies
also were cited
by the SEC, which said they issued false releases prepared by Globus and DiMarco and
haven't
corrected the statements. The SEC charged China Food and Beverage Co., of Kew
Gardens, New
York, and its chief executive, James Tilton; and Des Plaines, Illinois-based Trans-Global
Holdings Inc.,
and Trans-Global director Jacques Verhaak.
U.S. District Court Judge Alan S. Gold in Miami ordered Globus and DiMarco to stop
the alleged fraud
and froze some of their assets, said Dan Shea, the SEC's regional director in Denver. The
SEC did not
seek emergency relief against the other defendants.
A secretary at Globus' Miami offices said the firm is no longer in the building.
Nothing Wrong
A New York lawyer for China Beverage and Tilton said he hasn't seen the complaint, but
expects the
company to contest the charges. Tilton doesn't believe he or his company has done
anything wrong
and has been working with the SEC on the matter, the lawyer said.
Trans-Global's CEO John LaMonica also said he hasn't seen the suit, and has been
working with the
SEC for three days to revise news releases at the commission's request. ``We hired
Globus to do our
marketing, we had no control over what they did,' LaMonica said.
SEC officials in Denver said they began investigating who sent the faxes after the agency
got calls
from investment advisers who received the messages and thought something seemed
wrong. The
messages appeared to be correspondence between two friends and were signed ``Frank'
or ``Bill,' the
SEC said.
At least one letter was on Prudential Securities' letterhead and was marked ``confidential'
at the top,
according to a copy of the message. That letter begins: ``Ask me no questions and I'll tell
you no lies,
so get off your butt and make these buys ... ' Prudential earlier this week said the
message, which
touted shares in China Food, Trans-Global and TMANglobal.com Inc. didn't come from
the firm.
Phony Faxes
Merrill Lynch and Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank also disclaimed involvement with similar fax
messages that
purported to be from those firms, the SEC said.
The commission acted quickly to charge the defendants so it could stop the fraud, though
its
investigation of the matter continues, Shea said. ``We're finding a lot of impersonation
cases,' Shea
said. ``This case should make it clear that we police the phone lines as well as the
Internet.'
The 12 microcap issues touted in the fax message, which were all traded on the
over-the-counter
Bulletin Board are: China Food, Trans-Global, TMANglobal.com, North Wave
Communications Corp.,
Lasertec International Inc., Chill Tech Industries Inc., Micromem Technologies Inc.,
Converge Global
Inc., Juniper Group Inc., LaJolla Diagnostics Inc., Aquagenix Inc., and Top Image
Systems Ltd.
Other than China Food and Trans-Global, the companies whose stocks Globus touted
were not
charged by the SEC.
Many of the faxes, sent to financial institutions, lawyers and individuals throughout the
U.S.,
recommend buying large quantities of these microcap stocks, the SEC said. Some of the
faxes said the
sender had inside information about the companies being touted and other letters said the
companies'
stock price would soon increase dramatically, the SEC said.
Many of the faxes caused the price and trading volume of the touted issuers' stocks to
increase
significantly, the SEC said in its complaint.
The SEC also alleged that Trans-Global and Verhaak disseminated three other press
releases last
month that falsely said the company had bought or agreed to acquire valuable Florida real
estate, the
SEC said.
DiMarco was convicted and sentenced to five years' probation in October 1984 for
receiving bribes
while working at the Internal Revenue Service, the SEC said.
NYSE/AMEX delayed 20 min. NASDAQ delayed 15 min.
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