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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Green Oasis Environmental, Inc. (GRNO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Martin Savitska who wrote (11729)	7/17/2001 1:46:33 AM
From: Jack Kanak	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13091

GRNO SEEKING $25 MILLION IN DAMAGES FROM FORMER LAW FIRM Regulators, Charleston, S.C., Environmental Firm Reach Settlement in Lawsuit Jul 12, 2001 (The Post and Courier - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via COMTEX) -- A final settlement has been reached in a lawsuit brought by securities regulators against Green Oasis Environmental Inc. and individuals who allegedly profited from a scheme to manipulate the Charleston company's stock price. The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission will receive a pittance of the $2.5 million it stood to collect from the 3-year-old case. The SEC announced this week that U.S. District Court Judge P. Michael Duffy entered an injunction March 26 against William Carraway, chief executive officer of the locally based marketer of oil-recycling machines. In a written statement, Green Oasis described the final settlement as "extensively negotiated" and "favorable." The company blamed its SEC woes on bad legal advice it received from its former lawyer. Carraway consented to Duffy's order without admitting to or denying the allegations. Under the injunction, he agreed not to violate a host of securities laws. Also, Carraway was barred for five years from serving as an officer or director of any public company that must file reports with the SEC. That does not affect his role at publicly traded Green Oasis, which because of its size does not have to submit reports to the commission. In addition, Carraway was ordered to "disgorge" more than $1 million, including $229,085 in interest, that he made by selling shares in his company during the stock-manipulation scheme. The SEC said it waived the disgorgement and did not impose any civil fines "based upon Carraway's demonstrated inability to pay." At the same time, Carraway's wife, Mary Ann, agreed to an order to return $633,926 in gains she made from the sale of Green Oasis stock. Her disgorgement was waived because she, too, was unable to repay, the SEC said. Miami securities attorney Barton S. Sacher, who represents the Carraways and Green Oasis, said the basis of the couple's defense was that they "meticulously followed" the advice of a Georgia attorney who had been working as the company's outside counsel. Green Oasis is now suing the attorney and his former firm for malpractice, seeking $25 million in damages, Sacher said. The trial is set to start in Charleston in October. The SEC filed its lawsuit in July 1998, alleging that shares of Green Oasis had been manipulated between May 1996 and May 1997 by individuals who touted the company through misleading press releases and upbeat messages posted in an online chat-room. As a result, the thinly traded stock soared to $10 a share from less than $2, the commission said. For example, news releases trumpeted sizable sales deals that never materialized. Also, individuals were paid "to publish purportedly objective descriptions about the company in Internet news groups," the SEC said in 1999. During that period, the Carraways and others sold Green Oasis stock valued at more than $2.3 million, according to the SEC. Sacher said the couple plowed their stock proceeds back into the business through loans and direct investments. Also, the company owes the Carraways more than $1 million in deferred compensation, he said. The SEC previously settled litigation against Green Oasis and the two other individuals named in the case. One defendant's disgorgement of $892,761 in stock profits was waived because the Chicago resident was unable to repay. The other, a Virginia man, paid a $10,000 fine, less than 1 percent of the $2.5 million SEC stood to collect from the four individuals. It is unclear why the commission waited more than three months to announce the final settlement. SEC attorney Alex Rue declined to comment Wednesday beyond the written statement. Reached at his Greenleaf Street office, Carraway would say only that Green Oasis will continue to seek buyers for its technology, which the company says can convert used motor oil into low-grade diesel fuel. "We're still in business ... We're one of the few companies that has ever survived something like this," he said. By John P. McDermott To see more of The Post and Courier, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to charleston.net (c) 2001, The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. -0- News is provided by Financial Insight Systems, Inc.