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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Zia Sun(zsun) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank_Ching who wrote (6892)	2/25/2000 11:52:00 PM
From: Francois Goelo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10354

FC, he is getting just as LOONEY as Flo-Flo BUT being an SSB, he enjoys... full protection on SI... That's why its Message Board has degenerated to where it is NOW and most of the serious posting now takes place on RB... Just compare volumes between threads and you'll know what I mean... JMHO, F. Goelo + + +

To: Frank_Ching who wrote (6892)	2/26/2000 8:53:00 PM
From: Sir Auric Goldfinger	Respond to of 10354

Is IAM next? Will Interpol be assisting? "Deposing the King. Hedge-fund chief said to admit massive fraud. Unrepentant The end came early last week with brutal finality and dispatch for Naples, Florida-based hedge-fund manager David M. Mobley, just 10 days after a skeptical Barron's cover story entitled "King of Naples" had hit the street. On Tuesday, February 22, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an emergency enforcement action against Mobley and his Maricopa funds complex in Federal District Court in Manhattan. Simultaneously, agents of the FBI and IRS raided Mobley's offices. The agents worked late into the evening, securing the premises and carting off records after Mobley earlier that day had agreed to a freeze of Maricopa's assets and agreed to cooperate with the SEC in a continuing investigation. The Naples Daily News described the sad tableau of several retirees, who had much of their net worth invested in Maricopa, sitting stunned in their luxury cars in the firm's parking lot, as federal agents bustled to and fro. A receiver is expected to be appointed soon to try to find and preserve any remaining assets of the various Maricopa funds so that investors may receive at least partial restitution. Likewise, Barron's has learned, a criminal referral has been made to the U.S. attorney's office in nearby Fort Myers. So Mobley, in addition to facing likely penalties including disgorgement of illegal profits on the civil fraud charges he is accused of and, investigators say, has admitted to, could also face a raft of federal criminal fraud charges. Especially in light of the damaging admissions that, the probers maintain, he made in sworn testimony at the SEC's Washington office last week. Mobley confirmed to investigators what Barron's had expected, namely that he was running a Ponzi scheme, in which he phonied up fancy investment returns of better than 50% a year supposedly earned by trading sophisticated stock-index instruments. He told investigators that he'd taken in some $140 million over the past seven years, according to knowledgeable persons. The $450 million in assets under management that he'd previously claimed apparently was just a figment of his febrile imagination. In actuality, the SEC found only about $33 million in Maricopa's coffers, mostly in a Morgan Stanley Dean Witter account that Mobley used as a piggy bank. As to what happened to the rest of the $140 million, Mobley told investigators that some $60 million of it had been dissipated in failed personal investments in a cigar bar, real-estate projects, a shuttered sports bar restaurant, a defunct market-research firm and a failed mortgage company. And a large amount had simply paid for his free-spending lifestyle, which provided him with $3 million in personal remuneration last year, a $98,000 Porsche and more than $4 million spent on fancy homes for himself, his estranged second wife and his sister and daughter. He also gave some $3.5 million to charities. Mobley said in his confession that some $48 million had been eaten up in account redemptions to maintain the illusion of Maricopa's financial soundness. SEC officials said the Barron's story had prompted their investigation, although the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which filed similar charges against Mobley and Maricopa last week, had been investigating Mobley for possible registration violations. A three-person team under William Baker, associate director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, was formed and sprang into action on February 14, two days after our story was available on newsstands. By late that week, Mobley began to crack under the investigators' aggressive questioning. Adding to the pressure were a slew of redemption requests, which would have more than wiped out his funds if they had been honored some 30 days later, as stipulated in the funds' agreements. Mobley flew to Washington a week ago Sunday, making a sometimes tearful confession over two days of aggressive grilling. All of his ill-gotten gains will likely be liquidated soon to provide recompense to injured clients. And some investors who are congratulating themselves on having gotten out early will be in for a nasty surprise. They probably will have to return any gains, even if they have already paid taxes on them, to facilitate an even-handed settlement for all Mobley clients. One can't accuse the hedge-fund operator of lacking a devilish sense of humor, however. Last December, his funds reported a bogus investment gain of 6.66%. -- Jonathan R. Laing"