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Microcap & Penny Stocks : TGL WHAAAAAAAT! Alerts, thoughts, discussion. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SSP who wrote (53421)	7/3/2000 2:13:43 PM
From: StocksDATsoar	Respond to of 150070

messages.yahoo.com FIBR BW ARTICLE PART 1 by: aireblue 3/17/00 8:12 am Msg: 38836 of 41742 A MESSAGE FROM THE MOB? A slain stock promoter had close ties to organized crime By Gary Weiss in New York 12/20/1999 Business Week Page 142 (Copyright 1999 McGraw-Hill, Inc.) It was late in 1994. In the Seagram Building on Manhattan's Park Avenue, a small brokerage firm called Westfield Securities had two grim-faced visitors. The two men had worked with Westfield in peddling stocks to the public. They were owed money. But they weren't paid--and now they had come to take over the firm. According to people familiar with the incident, one of the men was dark and stocky, about six feet tall. He walked up to the head of the firm, Salvatore J. Mazzeo, and jammed a gun against Mazzeo's head. The man with the gun was a 37-year-old French-born stock promoter named Albert Alain Chalem. After the men delivered their ``message,'' Mazzeo swiftly called for help from the only kind of authority figure who could help him deal with Chalem--an acquaintance in organized crime. For Chalem was not just a hothead with a gun. He was an associate of Mob figures prominent on Wall Street, including reputed mobster Philip C. Abramo. The trouble was resolved. But it required the intervention of a high-ranking member of organized crime to get Chalem to go away. Well, Chalem has gone away now--and for good. On Oct. 26, he and a business associate, Maier Lehmann, were found dead of multiple gunshot wounds in a house in Colts Neck, N.J., a prosperous New York suburb. The killing was vicious, with Chalem--but not Lehmann--shot in the eyes, ears, and mouth. In the weeks since, the press has been rife with speculation as police and the FBI combed through the two's tangled business dealings. They ran Web sites. They sold stocks short. They had accounts at a defunct day-trading firm. They had business deals in Eastern Europe and Israel and were suspected of links to money launderers. But who wanted them dead? And why? That question may never be satisfactorily answered. But BUSINESS WEEK has learned, from persons close to the investigation and others with knowledge of the men, that Chalem was a key link between the microcap world and organized crime. Investigators are probing links between Chalem and Abramo, who has been described by the FBI in court documents as a capo in the DeCavalcante crime family. Probers have linked Chalem and Abramo via their alleged mutual connection to two now defunct brokerages--A.S. Goldmen & Co. and Toluca Pacific Securities. Persons familiar with their activities during the mid-1990s say Chalem and Abramo allegedly manipulated the shares of a California high-tech company called Osicom Technologies. The shooting victims' dealings with a former Osicom director, Barry Witz, are also being probed by law enforcement. The murders of Chalem and Lehmann, are a sign that the law enforcement campaign against Mob infiltration of the Street may be starting to draw blood--and that the Mob is striking back. The double homicide could seriously hamper future prosecutions if witnesses begin to balk. The slayings have already sent a chill through the microcap community, and with good reason. According to persons close to the inquiry, neither Chalem nor Lehmann acted as if they had anything to fear. Both men were planning a business trip that was abruptly canceled. They were, apparently, killed by somebody who was close enough to know their change in plans. RED HERRINGS. Chalem's alleged Mob links are apparently immense. ``He knew dozens of wise guys,'' says a former associate. Moreover, the purpose of the murder is clear. Persons with firsthand knowledge of Mob tactics say it was designed to deliver a ``message.'' It was simple and crude--``Rats die,'' in the words of one person with intimate knowledge of Mob tactics. One or both of the men were either providing information to law enforcement or were perceived as doing so. There are evidently other potential witnesses out there. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------