Stockwatch: BCSC's past target Kamerling pleads poverty to SEC
B.C. Securities Commission - Street Wire
BCSC's past target Kamerling pleads poverty to SEC
B.C. Securities Commission BCSEC
Shares issued
Mon 26 Jun 2000 Street Wire
BIG SPENDER IS MADAM SCROOGE TO SEC
by Brent Mudry
After watching veteran Howe Street stock promoter Beverlee Kamerling embark
on a $400,000 spending spree last fall, capped by a $68,000 bidding binge
at the gala Christie's Marilyn Monroe clothing auction and a subsequent
nationally-televised appearance as a generous good Samaritan on the Oprah
Winfrey Show, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has
slapped a broad asset freeze on the repeat securities violator. (All
figures are in U.S. dollars.)
While Ms. Kamerling has flaunted her philanthropic largesse and her evident
spending prowess, the notorious but notable graduate of the Vancouver Stock
Exchange, the exchange formerly known as the Scam Capital of the World, has
not paid a penny toward the $1.5-million disgorgement she agreed to in a
consent settlement with the SEC in the United Fire Technology case. The SEC
disclosed Monday that Judge Barbara Jacobs Rothstein of U.S.
District Court for the Western District of Washington on June 16 extended
her asset freeze on Ms. Kamerling and the promoter's operating company
Bobby D's Slacks Inc. After reviewing Ms. Kamerling's June 14 response, the
Seattle judge declined to drop or alter her broad asset freeze. The
controversial promoter claims she spent virtually all of the money for
clients, of which she names only one, a chap named Morgan Weinstein, who
preferred to pay a 10-per-cent commission to Ms. Kamerling at the
Christie's auction, rather than hold his own hand up to buy a $13,800
cocktail dress, a $9,200 fancy stole, a $4,600 casual dress, five night
shirts for $8,625 and a $23,600 assortment of hats, all belonging to the
estate of the late great blonde bombshell.
The Marilyn wardrobe may not have been destined for Mr. Weinstein's
personal collection, as Ms. Kamerling claims another unidentified client
fronted the money.
Ms. Kamerling now pleads poverty and claims the SEC is driving her and her
family to ruin. "I struggle every day to meet my financial obligations. I
live as they say from hand to mouth," she states in a court-filed sworn
affidavit, declared under penalty of perjury.
Ms. Kamerling, 55, now living in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland and
Victoria, B.C., is well known in Vancouver from her Ultra Glow Cosmetics
days. The promoter, then known as Beverlee Claydon, pleaded guilty in 1987
to six counts of unlawful trading in Ultra Glow shares and was banned from
serving as an officer or director in 1989 by the British Columbia
Securities Commission.
(Ms. Kamerling's broad asset freeze comes as one of her penny-stock
associates, Terry Neal, a fellow fan of obscure painter Sky Jones, fights
his own battles with the SEC. Ms. Kamerling had Sky Jones dealings with Mr.
Neal, the SEC's key Itex Corp. target, according to the Itex prosecution.
Two months ago, the BCSC, on the request of the SEC, froze the busy conduit
pooling account of Exchange Bank and Trust, Mr. Neal's Nevis-based offshore
bank, at Bank of Montreal's main branch in Vancouver.) (While EBT claims
almost all of its 700 clients are fine, upstanding folks, a fast-moving
regulatory probe has turned up a virtual cornucopia of alleged
securities violators dealing with the bank. Dotenhoff Financial Ltd.,
likely related to Dobbins & Dotenhoff Ltd., a Nevis account linked to EBT by
Stockwatch a month ago, moved 2.9 million shares of WAMEX Holdings Inc.
for the New York mob, according to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's recent landmark Mafia penny-stock sweep.) In its asset
freeze application, the SEC claims that Ms. Kamerling has "flagrantly
disobeyed" Judge Rothstein's Aug. 31 judgment to disgorge ill-gotten
gains of $1.06-million and prejudgment interest of $412,600. The
$1.5-million order against Ms. Kamerling was the lion's share of
$1.81-million in disgorgement fines against her and her co-conspirators in
the United Fire case.
"The commission also seeks to freeze Kamerling's and Bobby D's assets, to
order them to repatriate any assets they own outside the United States, to
order them to provide an accounting of their assets to aid in the
enforcement of the judgment, and to enjoin them from transferring their
assets to avoid disgorgement," state SEC New York attorneys Wayne Carlin,
Kay Lackey, Anthony Bosco and John Graubard in the regulator's brief in
support of the asset freeze application.
The SEC claims that Ms. Kamerling has not disgorged any funds since the
court entered the final judgment, although she has the assets to pay at
least a substantial portion of the disgorgement. "For instance, Kamerling
attended an auction of Marilyn Monroe's personal property in October,
1999, after the final judgment was entered, and spent $68,850 to purchase
various items. Kamerling then appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show in
early November, 1999, and displayed some of her purchases," state the SEC
attorneys.
The SEC claims that in September, October and November, $392,617 was
deposited in Bobby D's bank account, and Ms. Kamerling used nearly $350,000
of these funds for her own personal purposes.
In the United Fire settlements, United Fire agreed to disgorge its
ill-gotten gains of $250,000, plus pre-judgment interest of $67,761,
although payment was waived based on the now-dormant company's inability to
pay. South Carolina broker Kenneth Starnes was assessed a default judgment
of $16,650 in disgorgement and interest for his role in the United Fire
affair.
Three others: James Gartland, Michael Hooper and Charles Jones, also agreed
to refrain from future securities violations, without admitting or denying
and wrongdoing. Mr. Gartland, 53, of Kirkland, was United Fire's president
and a director from December of 1994 to at least December of 1995. Mr.
Hooper, 47, of Spokane, a Certified Public Accountant in Washington
State until June of 1995, served as United Fire's accountant and auditor
for the years ending Dec. 31 of 1994 and 1993. Mr. Jones, 64, of Lake
Dallas, Tex., worked with Ms.Kamerling and as an unregistered broker. In a
previous SEC case, Kodiak Energy in 1985, Mr. Jones was barred from future
securities violations by a judge in the U.S. District Court for the
Northern District of Texas.
In its 1997 complaint, the SEC notes that from August of 1994 through 1995,
United Fire issued well over two million shares without any registration
statements. Ms. Kamerling directed United Fire to issue the shares to
entities that were her alter egos and/or nominees, including WWBM, Bare
Track Investments, Bobby D's Slacks and Nik Markovina. The SEC claims that
after the nominees received the shares, Ms. Kamerling directed them to
resell about 580,000 shares to public investors in the U.S. and Canada. The
shares were resold for prices ranging from $2 to $5.50, generating
proceeeds of about $1.35-million. The United Fire case traces back to 1994,
when the company, then known as Ariel Industries, purportedly purchased
the patents and exclusive worldwide manufacturing rights for the Flamex line
of fire extinguishing and fire retardant products from Pyrotec.
Ariel changed its name in July of 1994 to United Fire, which traded on the
OTC Bulletin Board from June 15, 1995, to Sept. 21, 1995, when the SEC
suspended trading amid concerns of numerous securities violations. United
Fire's early troubles included false claims that a law firm
supported the patents and that the patents could be successfully defended.
United Fire, under Ms. Kamerling's direction, also falsely claimed that its
Flamex products were in the final stages of certification by Underwriters
Laboratories, the U.S. Navy Firefighting School and other independent
testing centres in North America, including the Department of
Transportation and the Federal Aeronautics (sic) Administration.
(c) Copyright 2000 Canjex Publishing Ltd. canada-stockwatch.com
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