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Pastimes : Business Wire Falls for April Fools Prank, Sues FBNers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Andrew Vance who wrote (3699)	3/26/2000 2:03:00 PM
From: Janice Shell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3795

Here's something that Pugs and Wacko Jacko (of AZNT) are sure to find extremely sinister: Webnode made the Russian press. infoart.ru The translation, which you can click on, is priceless: Business Wire brings an action against manufacturers of the false press release News agency Business Wire has brought an action against three persons who as affirms, have distributed the false announcement through this service. In the statement of claim of the company it is spoken that Dzheffri Mitchell Jeffrey Mitchell, William Ul'rih William Ulrich and Dzhenis SHell Janice Shell have presented to this news service for distribution the false press release. In the text of this message it was spoken, that firm WebNode has received the exclusive state contract on attraction of means for development of more high-speed technology for Internet. On Web-unit WebNode the message that the given press release is a April Fools' joke is published - and about it "was clearly declared" already April, 2. News agency Business Wire, however, had time to distribute news worldwide already April, 1 - before it was revealed, that she(it) is "joke". Almost 2 thousand persons, having believed this news, have given WebNode the personal data. In statement of claim Mitchell, Ul'rih and SHell are accused of infringement of the legislation on trade marks, and it is offered to collect the not named sum from them as indemnification of damage, and besides claimants demand imposing a judicial interdiction on their activity. Source InfoArt News Agency And I always thought Slavs were natural linguists. So much for stereotypes...

To: Andrew Vance who wrote (3699)	3/28/2000 4:39:00 PM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 3795

Econnect Stock Benefited From Unknown's `Buy' Recommendation By David Evans Econnect Stock Benefited From Unknown's `Buy' Recommendation Los Angeles, March 28 (Bloomberg) -- Econnect Inc., which has been charged with issuing bogus press releases by the Securities and Exchange, on Feb. 29 used the Internet to publicize a research report from an unknown source that predicted a huge rise in eConnect's stock price. Manny Vavolizza, eConnect's chief information officer, said that when he received the report published under the name of Independent Financial Reports, ``I said, `My God, this is wonderful.' The company promptly posted the recommendation on Ragingbull.com, a popular Internet investment information site, though Vavolizza said, "I knew absolutely nothing about" Independent Financial Reports. Econnect shares rose from $1.39 on Feb. 28 to $21.88 on March 9. That put a stock market value of more than $3 billion on eConnect, a company that says it is developing Internet banking products but which in its latest filing with SEC said it had no significant revenue. The SEC halted trading in eConnect shares on March 13 and later charged the company and its chief executive, Thomas Hughes, with securities fraud. The accusations didn't refer to the recommendation from Independent Financial Reports. Yesterday, when trading resumed, eConnect fell to $1.75 from $8.25 after trading as low as 25 cents. At midday, the stock remained at $1.75. The report eConnect publicized came from Stephen Sayre, who describes himself as an occasional actor and film producer who is trying to break into the investment advisory business. Earlier, on Feb. 9, Sayre had issued a release that appeared to be from Lithium Technology Corp., claiming its lithium batteries may be used by wireless phone makers Ericsson AB, Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp. Lithium's shares almost tripled that day, rising from $1.02 to a high of $2.75 on trading of 10.5 million shares. Lithium issued a press release the next day disassociating itself from Sayre's release. "He made it sound like we had customers lined up," said David Cade, Lithium Technology's chief executive. Actually, the company hasn't sold any batteries since it was founded in 1989, and isn't even developing batteries for the wireless phone market, said Cade. Sayre, 43, who runs a tree surgery business from his rented two-bedroom home in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, said he has no financial training and has never invested in the stock market. Sayre said he has a Ph.D in psychology from Kensington University, a correspondence school shut by the state in 1996, and filed for personal bankruptcy protection in 1997. Sayre said he was interviewed last week by an SEC attorney investigating eConnect. His reports on Lithium Technology and eConnect were first carried by Business Wire, a press release distribution service that transmitted it to 1,100 databases, including those maintained by Bloomberg LP and Yahoo! Inc. Independent Financial Reports paid Business Wire $395 to distribute each recommendation. Sayre said he received no compensation for writing the eConnect report and that he owns no eConnect stock. He said he published the recommendation because he was trying to build a record as a successful stock-picker to attract investors to a Web site he's developing. Asked about Business Wire's role in disseminating Sayre's reports, spokesman Dan Savio said. "We are a distributor of information, we're not the SEC or the police. He said Business Wire is in the process of developing rules to better scrutinize such content." ¸2000 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. quote.bloomberg.com ----- Compare what the spokesman said to what the President has said: Business Wire's Mr. Lokey says he's not familiar with the Uniprime case, but says the wire service carefully screens press releases before they're distributed. "We don't just sit still. I can tell you that anyone in the future that moves a false story on our wire is going to get sued and we're going to win it," says Mr. Lokey. "We probably do as well or better a job of weeding out this stuff than The Wall Street Journal does," he says. Message 12211338 - Jeff