Glenn, my real name is Vladislav Zubkis. I must run before they put me in jail.LOL
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San Diego, Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Vladislav Zubkis, a 40-year- old immigrant from Ukraine, succeeded in America the old-fashioned way -- peddling shares in companies he says were into everything from coffee and bagels to drugs and phosphates.
Nor is he shy about his exploits. As a stockbroker, ``I was a million-dollar producer,' says Zubkis.
Another success story lies in how Steve Zubkis, as he likes to be called, pulled in millions of dollars while fending off securities regulators, the FBI, the IRS, and local police -- even as his family fell victim to mysterious acts of violence.
Now, banned from the securities business, Zubkis has transformed a money-losing company named International Brands Inc. into an online retailer, in the process awarding himself 250 million shares. On paper, that might make him a billionaire.
``My company is skyrocketing right now,' Zubkis boasted last month at a Las Vegas trade show. Its shares, then trading at 4, would increase 100-fold because of Internet business, he said.
``He's a very smooth talker,' says John Boudreaux, 59, a retired U.S. Army officer who says he lost most of the $5,000 he invested with Zubkis after being fed ``a constant pack of lies.' Says Richard Thwing, a retired San Diego police detective: ``He's been thumbing his nose at the law since the mid-80s.'
In 1997, Zubkis was accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of defrauding 1,000 shareholders of more than $10 million. The SEC expects a federal judge to rule soon on its effort to bar Zubkis from being an officer or director of any publicly traded company. Zubkis says the SEC doesn't have authority in the case.
Urge to Merge
Zubkis showed his mastery of regulations in January, as International Brands faced delisting from the OTC Bulletin Board after failing to file financial reports. He arranged a merger with Tele Special.com, a Las Vegas-based shell company with no business, a transaction he says cost $130,000 and 25,000 shares. The move bought Zubkis more time to furnish the requested reports -- and delayed his company's threatened delisting.
For the present, Zubkis seizes any chance to promote his Internet business -- even bad news. When hackers crashed Yahoo!, Amazon.com, eBay and other sites, Zubkis declared that his WorldBestBuy.com site also was disrupted for ``two to three hours' on Feb. 8.
``Certain similarities were evident,' the company said in a press release -- one of 40 it has issued since January -- to ``reassure customers that we are taking every protective measure possible to prevent such attacks from occurring in the future.'
That's difficult for outsiders to assess. Media Metrix Inc., which tracks 20,000 Web sites, says WorldBestBuy.com gets too few hits from visitors to bother monitoring. The company claims it got 2 million unique visits in December.
Stella Bella
WorldBestBuy.com doesn't overwhelm visitors with choices, though some stuff it offers won't be found everywhere: a white marble sink ($1,099); an ergonomic cigar cutter ($43.99); three types of Gucci sunglasses, ($98.99 each) a 1987 Bentley auto ($39,000). All purchasers are promised a free pound of Stella Bella coffee.
Stella Bella Corp. was the company's name from 1993 to 1997, when Zubkis changed its name to International Brands. While running Stella Bella, the SEC alleges, Zubkis illegally sold more than $10 million in unregistered shares to small investors like Boudreaux, then siphoned off the money through offshore companies in the Bahamas with names like Rose Blossom Corp., Trenton Guarantee Corp., Kirachi Corp. and Sumatra Investments Ltd.
``Stella Bella received little or no proceeds from these transactions,' the SEC alleges.
The SEC also accused Zubkis of running a network of unlicensed salesmen who made false claims about Stella Bella's earnings, revenue and stock performance. The National Association of Securities Dealers banned Zubkis for life for refusing to cooperate with investigators.
In response, Zubkis sued the SEC and NASD in federal court. His suits were dismissed. ``It was a big mess,' says Zubkis, who maintains his stance put regulators on notice that he wasn't a patsy. ``I can do in court what no lawyer can,' he says, adding that lawyers put their own interests ahead of those of clients.
Busy, Busy
Zubkis was 16 when he arrived in the U.S. in 1976 with his family from Ukraine. He grew up in Brooklyn, along with thousands of other new immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Though his parents became U.S. citizens, he didn't.
``The reason that I didn't go through that process is I was always too busy,' he says.
Zubkis says he studied computer programming at night at New York University and worked in various computer jobs before finding employment as a stockbroker.
Working in small brokerages, he switched firms an average of once a year during an eight-year career. In 1993, he paid $65,000 for 85 percent of Stella Bella, a chain of four San Diego coffee shops. Within two years, the SEC charges, Zubkis falsely claimed Stella Bella had 150 coffee shops in Russia and said he was applying for listings on the American, Nasdaq and Toronto stock exchanges; he never did apply.
Zubkis says the problems of being in the coffee business are now behind him. ``For this company to be in the coffee business was a rat race,' said Zubkis. 'In the Internet, it's different. It's just a dream come true.'
Before entering the Internet, Zubkis announced in 1998 that International Brands would acquire 40 percent of the former Soviet Union's phosphate industry in Kazakhstan. In 1996, he said Stella Bella would distribute pharmaceuticals in Russia. Nothing was heard of the ventures since.
Money Launderer?
He blames rivals -- mentioning a former Russian associate -- for his current problems with regulators, as well as for what he describes as a traumatic police raid of his San Diego home. ``Somebody called the FBI and SEC and told them I'd done something wrong,' he said. ``Some people on Wall Street saw (me as) a big competitor. They sent government agents after me.'
In February 1995, armed police, FBI and IRS agents raided Zubkis's three-story house in a San Diego suburb on a search warrant alleging securities and mail fraud, as well as money laundering and income tax evasion.
``Through a convoluted trail of wire transfers and other transactions, Zubkis has laundered the proceeds of his criminal activities,' said IRS agent Robert Lange in an affidavit. ``In total, he has withdrawn several million dollars in cash from bank accounts under his control.'
Zubkis failed to file tax returns from 1984 to 1993, according to Lange, who said Zubkis ``received over $1,000,000 which should have been reported by him on federal income tax returns for the years 1988 through 1992.'
Although ``boxes and boxes' of documents and computer records were carted away, according to ex-detective Thwing, the raid didn't produce an indictment or any formal charges against Zubkis. Authorities say their investigations are continuing.
Pig's Ear
Following the raid, however, the Zubkis household and his business appear to have been targets in what police and other officials call a series of ``bizarre' incidents.
One year after the raid, Steve Zubkis's 70-year-old mother was stabbed at his home by his father, according to a coroner's report, and died three weeks later in hospital. Zubkis told investigators his father had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and was depressed. No charges were ever filed.
On December 8, 1998, three mail bombs were found in San Diego addressed to Stella Bella. An investigation is still underway.
Last June 16, Zubkis's two-year-old daughter Maxine suffered a near-fatal stabbing in the neck. A babysitter was in the house; Zubkis blames an unknown ``intruder.' The San Diego sheriff's department says the case remains under investigation.
Zubkis, a muscular 170-pounder, says he also received a pig's ear in the mail last year and lives in fear. ``I keep my doors locked,' he said. ``What am I supposed to do?' Zubkis's wife Alla, and three sons and another daughter, aged 4 to 16, also live in the house.
`Billions and Billions'
``They picked the little one so she couldn't talk,' says Zubkis. People familiar with the case speculate that the violence may be linked to his stock-promotion activity.
Whoever is behind the attacks, Zubkis remains upbeat about his company's future. At the Las Vegas trade show, he promoted his Web site lavishly with circus performers, a rock act and a red Indianapolis 500 racecar.
``I believe in five years, our sales will be in the billions and billions of dollars,' he said, adding this was a personal belief rooted in faith and not based on hard figures.
He also believes the SEC will come around to seeing things his way. ``I think we're going to come to a settlement,' he says. ``They'll see it's in the best interests of the stockholders for me to be chief executive of the company.'
Feb/18/2000 |
