I didn't know where to post this because Starnet and VGE are both mentioned. Please don't turn me in again. LOL
__________
uniontrib.com
September 19, 1999
Escondido's Virtual Gaming Enterprises, or VGE, wants to jettison relationships with people of dubious repute.
It's not going to be easy.
That's particularly true because last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission, investigating the company for stock sale fraud, announced that U.S. district court has found the company in contempt for not providing documents. VGE is being fined $5,000 a day until it complies.
The company is a cyber-gambling operation, licensed in Dominica in the Caribbean, with several casino sites and an emphasis on pro sports gambling.
Virtual Gaming Enterprises is not affiliated with Virtgame.Com Corp., which was formerly known as Virtual Gaming Technologies Inc.
VGE's chief executive, Virgil Williams, has direct ties to convicted stock manipulator Melvin Lloyd Richards, who was sentenced to 27 months in prison in late 1997, 10 years after a Los Angeles conviction. Virgil Williams' son, Joseph, former VGE chief executive, also has Richards ties, as does the company's former attorney.
More on the Richards relationships later. A number of other people with questionable backgrounds have been filing papers with the SEC, saying they intend to dump their shares in VGE.
This is at the very time that these people have run afoul of the SEC.
Some history is in order. In May of 1998, the company, then named Interbet, filed a 10-K statement with the SEC. The document noted that Interbet in its founding had relied heavily on a company headed by Burton Vishno, who utilized the expertise of Stanley T. Deck Sr., Edward Durant (aka Durante) and Walter Zink.
The document noted that Durante had been barred by the National Association of Securities Dealers in 1975, and had been convicted of grand larceny and forgery, among other things.
Vishno had been convicted of wire fraud in 1983 and had signed a consent decree with the SEC barring him from the securities industry in 1987.
Zink was under a consent decree barring him from selling business opportunities, and Deck had been disciplined by the NASD.
The company wanted to cleanse management of "persons with prior criminal convictions," said the document. Later that year, as recorded in an SEC filing on June 16, the Vishno group resigned and the company got its new name.
On Aug. 31 of this year, the new company filed another report with the SEC. Virgil Williams had replaced his son as chief executive.
Earlier that month, the SEC, as part of a major campaign against micro-cap stock fraud, alleged that Durante (aka Durant) and Vishno, among others, had manipulated the shares of a former San Diego company.
Relief defendants in the matter included Zink, Deck and Edward Durante's wife, Janice Sheeley Durante. The SEC seeks return of proceeds from the illegal scheme by the relief defendants, who don't get hit with some of the other charges.
Lo and behold, right around the time of the SEC charges, these individuals had filed papers expressing intention to dump their shares in VGE.
On Aug. 18, Durante filed his intention to dump 428,250 shares; on August 5, Vishno filed to dispose of 117,473; on June 30, Zink filed to unload 428,250.
VGE's current lawyer, David Jarvis of Las Vegas, doesn't know if these registrations to sell shares have become effective. And he does not believe that the individuals named in the SEC complaint have anything to do with VGE anymore. Further, he is recommending that the Aug. 31, 1999, SEC filing be withdrawn, but he won't say why.
Interestingly, in that filing -- less than a month ago -- the company's lawyer was listed as Jeffrey Bradpiece.
Bradpiece had been the lawyer in the public offering of a San Diego stock, On Queue, financed by Melvin Lloyd Richards' investment group. Bradpiece had also been an attorney for Richards' Palm Springs-based Tampa Bay Corp.
Jeffrey Bradpiece's brother, Sidney Bradpiece, had pleaded guilty in the uranium scam in which Richards was convicted in Los Angeles in 1987. Jarvis says he knows nothing of Bradpiece.
It's Jarvis' understanding that Virgil Williams has had only a "very limited," affiliation with the Richards group, working for Richards' Alco International for a short period.
But I followed the Richards saga closely. One of the more bizarre adventures occurred in 1993, when some investors, calling themselves the Scottsdale Group, announced intention to assert more control over Alco. Skeptics thought it was a ploy to look like a takeover attempt.
In that group were relatives and friends of Richards and of other Alco officials. And one member was Virgil Williams, president of Pathfinder Corp., which had been financed by -- you guessed it -- Richards' San Diego group.
Another member of the group was James S. Ross, who later pleaded guilty to helping Richards and a crony evade taxes in 1991 and 1992. Anthony Elgindy of Pacific Investigations points out that in one VGE news release, the Kingsford Group was listed as public relations consultant. When you called Kingsford, Ross replied on the answering machine, says Elgindy, who has a 200-share short position in VGE stock.
In the early 1990s, Elgindy worked at a brokerage house, Armstrong McKinley, that was concentrating on stocks that the Richards group had financed. Joseph Williams was a broker there, says Elgindy. Later, Joseph Williams moved to Desert Mountain Securities, which also was specializing in Richards stocks, according to NASD records.
According to Gambling Magazine, VGE is a licensee of Starnet Communications, a cyber-gambler that recently switched its headquarters from Vancouver to Antigua, home of its virtual gaming operations.
Last month, after an 18-month investigation, British Columbia police raided Starnet, seeking information on alleged gambling and pornography. Also last month, the company's auditor, Ernst & Young, quit.
"There is no formal relationship between Virtual Gaming and Starnet," says Jarvis, who, however, doesn't say the Gambling Magazine report is incorrect. The two companies use the same software, he says he believes
|
