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Technology Stocks : M&A West, Inc. (OTCBB:MAWI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: investorserv. who wrote (93)	10/25/2000 11:16:11 PM
From: Investor Clouseau	Respond to of 106

>>>"The executives and large shareholders of M&A West are totally committed to the long-term success of the company. Insiders of the company have and likely will purchase the company's common stock in the open market when they believe the stock is undervalued. Needless to say, I felt extremely comfortable with my additional personal investment in M&A West and will consider other purchases of the stock in the open market when I believe the stock is undervalued (or of great value)," says Scott Kelly, president and CEO of M&A West, Inc.<<< Nothing say's "committment" like buying your own shares on the open market, and $200K+ is a non-trivial number. Something good must be in the pipeline IMO. IC

To: investorserv. who wrote (93)	9/7/2001 7:32:44 AM
From: Arcane Lore	Respond to of 106

Stock fraud scheme allegedly defrauded investors $100 million By David Kravets, Associated Press, 9/6/2001 22:32 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) A California couple was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday on charges they profited on investors' demand for Internet stocks by creating shell companies, selling unregistered securities and falsely touting their performance to potential investors. Thomas Eck and Zahra Gilak were arrested Thursday. Gilak was arrested by FBI agents at her home in Pengrove, Calif. Her husband, Eck, turned himself in to authorities hours later. Federal prosecutors claim the couple made as much as $15 million, and defrauded investors of $100 million, from the methodically planned venture that included fraud on nearly every aspect of stock sales for shell companies between February 1999 and January 2001. In a related action, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued the pair and others allegedly involved in the fraud. ''They were capitalizing on the frenzy in demand of dot-com stocks,'' said federal prosecutor Leslie Caldwell. ''At the time, the phrase 'dot-com' was their ticket to wealth.'' Eck's attorney, Bill Goodman, said his client is expected to plead innocent when he is scheduled to appear in federal court here Friday. ''We intend to try the case before a jury,'' Goodman said. Gilak's attorney did not immediately return phone calls. Caldwell said an investigation was continuing, and more arrests were possible. ''There are a fair number of people involved,'' she said. ''There's a core group of key players and some with a more peripheral role not privy to what's going on.'' The indictment also asserts ''stock and cash payoffs to professional stock promoters, and payoffs to securities analysts in return for favorable research reports recommending the stocks to investors.'' Caldwell declined to elaborate on those allegations. The sham companies' stock in question were M&A West Inc., a Liberty, Texas-based company purported to be an Internet incubator to help other start-up companies develop businesses; and its subsidiaries VirtualLender.com, a purported online mortgage broker and Digital Bridge Inc., a purported Web site developer. The SEC sued Eck, Gilak and several others involved in the alleged fraud because, it said, they sold millions of dollars in unregistered stock and reported some of the gains as revenue for non-existing operations with the assistance Scott Kelly of Chandler, Arizona and Salvatore Censoprano, of Foster City, Calif. Those two men were listed respectively as the former president and chief financial officer of the sham companies. Kelly and Censoprano were not immediately available for comment. boston.com

To: investorserv. who wrote (93)	9/7/2001 7:34:44 AM
From: Arcane Lore	Respond to of 106

Couple charged in stock scheme Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, September 7, 2001 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Sonoma County couple has been named in an 82-count indictment on charges of stock manipulation and money laundering through a series of "pump and dump" schemes involving Internet stocks. F. Thomas Eck III, 56, a former attorney previously convicted of wire fraud, and his wife, Zahra R. Gilak, 54, were named in the indictment, which was unsealed yesterday after being handed down by a federal grand jury in San Francisco on Aug. 30. Gilak was arrested yesterday by FBI agents at the couple's home in Penngrove. Eck turned himself in yesterday afternoon. The defendants will plead not guilty today before U.S. Magistrate Bernard Zimmerman in San Francisco, their attorneys said. "Stay tuned, there is another side to the story," said Eck's attorney, Bill Goodman of San Francisco. Gilak's attorney, Cristina Arguedas of Emeryville, said, "We're prepared to defend the case." Eck and Gilak allegedly netted more than $15.4 million in profit -- and lived the high life, buying expensive jewelry and property in Sonoma and Marin counties -- while bilking investors of more than $100 million from 1999 to 2001, prosecutors said. Authorities described the case as classic pump-and-dump schemes, in which promoters push up a stock's price by making false claims about the company and then sell their own shares to make a profit on the artificially high price. Eck and Gilak allegedly inflated the share prices of three publicly traded companies: M&A West Inc., formerly of San Bruno -- which purported to be an "Internet incubator" by creating offshoot Internet companies -- and two subsidiaries, VirtualLender.com and Digital Bridge Inc. M&A West is now located in Liberty, Texas. The couple and others had control of more than 80 percent of the shares of the companies, which they concealed through offshore accounts, prosecutors said. The two created fake investor demand for the companies by writing press releases and Internet postings that promoted the companies' stock to potential investors, prosecutors said. The defendants then allegedly "dumped" their shares by selling them through various brokerage firms before funneling sale proceeds back to themselves through wire transfers. The government is seeking the forfeiture of five parcels of real estate, including the couple's 5.7-acre estate on Acacia Way in Penngrove; an oceanfront property in Dillon Beach; and lots in Santa Rosa, Fulton and Sonoma. In a separate action yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued M&A West, along with Eck and several former executives. The group reaped more than $20 million in illegal profit, the SEC said. Eck, a graduate of the University of Southern California law school who had practiced in Napa and Reno, resigned from the California and Nevada bars after a 1999 wire-fraud conviction in federal court in Kentucky. E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com. sfgate.com