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Non-Tech : Auric Goldfinger's Short List -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pilapir who wrote (9718)	4/24/2002 1:10:47 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

IN THE MONEY: Investco And The Missing Insurance Company By Carol S. Remond 04/24/2002 Dow Jones News Service (Copyright (c) 2002, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) A Dow Jones Newswires Column NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- It was an important acquisition for Investco Inc. (IVSOE). By issuing $100 million in restricted stock, the startup provider of financial services was hoping to use the purchase of Mercury Surety & Insurance Co. Ltd. in March of this year as a springboard for bigger and better things. "The additional assets will now allow us to move even faster to begin generating revenue to start building shareholder value based on profits and not promises," crowed Joseph Lents, the company's chief executive. But there's only one little problem. The acquisition never went through and the company has never bothered to tell anyone that not-so-insignificant fact. It is even uncertain whether there really is a company called Mercury Surety & Insurance. In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, the finance minister of Costa Rica, the country where Mercury is supposedly based, said the company doesn't exist. "There is only one insurance company (called the National Insurance Institution) in this country and it's owned by the government," Costa Rica Finance Minister Alberto Dent said. He added there is no insurance company called Mercury Surety & Insurance licensed to do business in Costa Rica. And the plot thickens. Hernan Carazo, the owner of Capitales Tres De Americas S.A., the Costa Rican company identified in Investco press releases as the seller of Mercury, agreed with the finance minister. Mercury "doesn't exist in Costa Rica," Carazo said in a phone interview from San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Nonetheless, Carazo said that Capitales and Investco did have negotiations over the purchase of Mercury by the U.S. company but that these talks fell through earlier this year. He wouldn't say if it exists elsewhere. Carazo declined to comment on his relationship with Karen Carazo, the corporate secretary of a private investment company called First International Finance Corp., or FIFC. That company, run by Michael Zapetis, a man who has had a few run ins with the law, claims it owns 94.4% of Investco. Zapetis is married to Karen Carazo. "She asked me not to talk about it," Hernan Carazo said. Florida Department of State documents show Karen Carazo as corporate secretary and registered agent for an inactive corporation called Mercury Insurance Agency Inc. The company was dissolved in September 1999 for failing to file an annual report with the state. Neither Investco CEO Lents nor other Investco officials could be reached for comment. Karen Carazo and her husband Michael Zapetis were also not available for comment. Investco's stock surged to $8.50 earlier this year after this tiny Florida-based company was taken over by FIFC. Investco and FIFC quickly announced that the company would focus on providing financial services and forgo its former voice recognition business. It now trades at $2.09, which is nearly 19% higher on Wednesday. An "In The Money" column earlier this month highlighted some interesting facts about Investco that the company hadn't disclosed via press releases or regulatory filings. One was the seeming discrepancy in the number of shares the company really has outstanding. Different filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed different numbers. Another was the fact that Zapetis, FIFC's chairman, had been convicted in the 1980s for drug distribution charges and that he had run-ins with Florida regulators for illegally collecting fees upfront from would-be-borrowers. He was convicted on a petty theft charge but received a withhold of adjudication on the more serious advance fee charge for which he was put on probation and forced to make restitution. But let's go back to Investco's "purchase" of Mercury from Capitales Tres De Americas S.A. Key to Investco's new incarnation as a financial services provider were some $100 million in certificates of deposits that Investco said were on Mercury's balance sheet. These were going to be used to provide guarantees to potential borrowers in the U.S. Commenting on Investco's purchase of Mercury, Investco's Lents told investors in a March 14 press release announcing the close of the Mercury acquisition: "The market has been very stable and we have had an overwhelming request for proposals for our asset guarantee and collateral enhancement services." At the very minimum, it looks like Investco has to find another way to get that business started. By the way, this wouldn't be the first time that Lents and Zapetis were part of a deal that involved mysterious foreign assets. SEC filings show that in 1995 Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (MWD) sued a company run by Lents called International Standards Group in the New York State Supreme Court to recover damages or rescind Morgan Stanley's purchase from International Standards of what turned out to be counterfeit bonds that appeared to have been issued by the central bank of Venezuela. Lents later countersued Morgan Stanley and Zapetis in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, claiming that Morgan's failure to verify the bonds' authenticity led to the rescision of an agreement by a foreign insurance company to take a controlling interest in International Standards Group, substantially damaging his company's interest and that of his shareholders. It is unknown what Zapetis' role was in this case. Morgan Stanley later dismissed its suit without prejudice. The Florida case filed by Lents was settled in October 1996. Morgan Stanley declined to comment citing a confidentiality agreement. By Carol S. Remond; Dow Jones Newsiwres; 201 938 2074; carol.remond@dowjones.com. Copyright © 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

To: pilapir who wrote (9718)	4/24/2002 1:18:31 PM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 19428

SPLAAAT->VistaQuest, Inc. Resigns as Investor Relations Firm for Investco, Inc. BOCA RATON, Fla., April 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- INVESTCO, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: IVSO, IVSOE.OB). VistaQuest, Inc. announced today that it formerly resigns as investor relations for Investco, Inc. a provider of financial services. MAKE YOUR OPINION COUNT - Click Here tbutton.prnewswire.com SOURCE VistaQuest, Inc. CO: VistaQuest, Inc.; Investco, Inc. ST: Florida SU: prnewswire.com 04/22/2002 14:02 EDT

To: pilapir who wrote (9718)	4/25/2002 12:31:48 AM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Venture Capital Corporation LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 24, 2002--In what's believed to be the first such action in U.S. high-tech history, investors in a venture capital company have filed a class-action lawsuit for fraud and are seeking to recover the entire amount raised by the venture capital company in 2000. The suit highlights the increasingly robust efforts by investors in U.S. venture capital companies to recover money they lost during the internet boom of the late 1990s. The class action lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges that investors in San Vicente Group (www.sanvicentegroup.com) were defrauded out of over $46 million by the former board and management of this Los Angeles-based venture capital company. The lawsuit states that the former board and management knowingly engaged in fraud, negligent misrepresentations and securities violations. The lawsuit seeks the recovery of the $46 million invested with the company, together with punitive damages. This could significantly increase the amount awarded to the shareholders. San Vicente Group was established in January 2000 to invest in promising high-tech companies. Instead, the investors found that San Vicente Group wracked up losses by investing in a junk-bond fund and a series of internet companies that have already failed or are on the brink of doing so. The former board and management of San Vicente Group are also accused, in a separate lawsuit brought by the company, of breaches of fiduciary duty, entrenchment, waste of corporate assets and making grossly negligent investments. San Vicente Groups' investors include large European and American institutional investors. Those named as defendants in the lawsuit include the former Co-CEOs of San Vicente Group, Jay Matulich and Christopher Jennings. The former chairman, Stanley Hollander, is named as well, along with the British internet incubator New Media Spark, which is a listed company on the London AIM market. Jennings, Matulich and Hollander were all at one time board members or senior executives at a sister company, GlobalNet Financial.com, formerly listed on NASDAQ. New Media Spark acquired GlobalNet Financial.com, which racked up losses of over $120 million in its two years of operations and whose market value collapsed in 18 months from $700 million to under $10 million, in a friendly deal last year. The lawsuit states that Globalnet Financial.com transferred investments of its own into San Vicente Group, and did so without disclosure to investors, or any outside financial valuation. In a separate deal, Globalnet Financial was given for no consideration a $240,000 stake in a company bought by San Vicente Group. The lawsuit further states that the former board and management failed to tell investors they would establish a lavish and risk-free profit-sharing plan that was well beyond what is normal and customary in the venture capital industry. The effect of this was to restrict San Vicente's ability to sell its investments and generate unreasonable, wasteful and windfall profit distributions to the former board and management. CONTACT: San Vicente Group Peter Fuhrman, 310/477-1227 SOURCE: San Vicente Group Today's News On The Net - Business Wire's full file on the Internet with Hyperlinks to your home page. URL: businesswire.com 04/24/2002 22:48 EASTERN