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Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StockDung who wrote (61445)	10/25/2000 7:42:39 PM
From: Smartypts	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 122087

Probe finds few leads in murder of traders 10/25/00 BY JIM KRANE STAFF WRITER One year after two stock promoters were shot to death in a Colts Neck mansion, investigators are prying clues from potential witnesses by marching them before grand juries to pressure them to testify. "This is the only way we can get them to talk," said Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye. "These are people who aren't the target of our investigation, but they feel compelled not to talk." Albert Alain Chalem, 41, and Maier Lehmann, 37, were gunned down in a Colts Neck mansion on Oct. 25, 1999. Two visitors found their bodies on the dining room floor early the next morning. Chalem, a resident of the mansion, which is owned by his girlfriend's father, and Lehmann, a husband and father of five from Woodmere, N.Y., probably were killed by a professional assassin, according to authorities. "We've always felt it was a professional attack," said Kaye. "It's not a guy off the street who did this. Whether it was paid for or done by people who were defrauded, we're not sure." In their search for leads, detectives have waded deep into the two victims' tangled financial histories. Officials said both men had backgrounds involving questionable stock operations and both have been linked to dozens of business partners, including organized crime figures. Although a motive for the killings still has not been established, authorities theorize that Lehmann and Chalem may have informed on other penny stock promoters -- and may have been killed as a warning to others -- or they may have defrauded investors. But authorities have little physical evidence to go on. One lead, according to officials, was a blood sample found at the crime scene inside the white brick mansion at 3 Bluebell Lane. The blood's DNA didn't match either victim's, said Kaye. The DNA was used to clear the chief suspect in the slayings, the prosecutor said. "We had a target," he said. "We thought all the evidence pointed directly at this male. But the DNA excluded him conclusively." The blood didn't appear to have been shed during any struggle between Chalem or Lehmann and their assailants, according to the prosecutor. Kaye said he suspects someone may have been injured while firing one of two handguns used to slay the men. The FBI is working with Monmouth County on the investigation, according to Special Agent Sandra Carroll of the bureau's Newark office. In a separate investigation, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark is conducting a grand jury probe into Chalem's and Maier's financial dealings, according to authorities. Identities and statements of grand jury witnesses usually are kept secret, but the information can be used in indictments, trials and investigations. Chalem and Lehmann operated a now-defunct Internet stock trading site, www.stockinvestor.com, that promoted so-called "penny stocks," nearly valueless securities of small companies that often are used in fraudulent marketing schemes. The business was registered in Panama, but the Web site was hosted on computers in Hungary. According to authorities and published reports, Chalem was linked to organized crime through two now-defunct brokerages, A.S. Goldmen & Co. and Toluca Pacific Securities. Both brokerages dealt in highly speculative "micro-cap" or penny stocks, and had been cited by regulators for illegal tactics used to promote the shares. Lehmann was convicted in 1994 for filing false insurance claims, which earned him five years' probation and four months' home detention, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. In 1998, Lehmann paid a $630,000 fine to the federal Securities and Exchange Commission for an illegal stock manipulation that cost investors $12 million. Published reports said Lehmann -- and possibly Chalem -- worked as government informants in other cases. Attempts to interview family, friends and associates of Chalem and Lehmann were unsuccessful. In similar cases in which authorities suspect the work of professional killers, criminologists say police usually are unable to solve them until a wiretap garners enough evidence or prosecutors can "flip" a turncoat witness and compel him to testify against his compatriots. "They're tough cases," said Robert Buccino, retired deputy chief of the New Jersey Attorney General's Organized Crime and Racketeering Bureau. "It usually gets solved when somebody cooperates. Very few were solved because somebody left fingerprints. It could take years until someone flips."

To: StockDung who wrote (61445)	10/25/2000 7:46:42 PM
From: RockyBalboa	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 122087

Wednesday October 25 06:15 PM EDT Feds Close Down Alleged Boiler-Room Officials Say Workers Scammed Seniors Into Buying Service State and federal agents are in the process of closing down an alleged telemarketing boiler-room company Wednesday after more than 60 people complained to the attorney general's office about being scammed. Jackie Dowd, an assistant attorney general from the Florida attorney general's office filed a lawsuit against Advanced Consumer Services that claims the company scammed senior citizens into buying a consumer credit card protection service for $349. The company is located on State Road 436, south of the East-West expressway. The telemarketers told the seniors that they were calling on behalf of the federal government and that the service was required by law. Officials say that the service is not required by law and could be purchased for a nominal fee or free. The people who purchased the service received a bound folder that contained a CD-Rom and a couple of sheets of information about the service, but nothing else according to the attorney general's office. The owners of the company, Anthony and Tracey Andrews, have not been arrested. Officials say that arrests are pending in this case. They estimate that there are thousands of victims across 45 states. dailynews.yahoo.com