Check this out on Boots and Coots:
From: Phil Scott (philscott88@hotmail.com)
Subject: Dick Cheney and Reed Slatkin the scientology ponzi schemer..linked
This is the only article in this thread
View: Original Format
Newsgroups: misc.invest.stocks
Date: 2003-03-17 16:22:03 PST
On Mon, 17 Mar 2003 22:16:12 +0100, Zenon Panoussis <spamtrap@provocation.net>
wrote:
>
>Someone suggested that this should be posted here:
>http://majorbarbara.blogspot.com/2003_03_16_majorbarbara_archive.html#90805292
Thanks for the link Zenon. I read it with great interest.
[ to answer barbara's final question, "what else is to be discovered", I notice
in her article below that Arthur Anderson was involved with Haliburton and of
course with Enron...and she also points out that it is very unusual that this
strange and unusual, almost worthless company of Reed Slatkins turned out the be
vehicle these major players used in founding the Haliburton/Boots and Coots
venture...... These links to Dick Cheney are very interesting, especially with
his role in the Enron mess and the rip off of California for over 10 billion
dollars. **About 6 months before the energy shortage fiasco began to unfold
there was a post to ars, that I failed to save or value correctly, a news report
clipping, that a 27 year old scientologist had been retained by the State of
Calif for $250,000 a year to advice the state on its energy purchasing strategy.
I think as this mess with Cheney now connected to Reedie boy the felon Slatkin
via this bogus tin indian company in Sedona will get more interesting by the
millisecond. ... Phil Scott ]
Here is the full text copied below.
Monday, March 17, 2003
YOU NEVER CAN TELL
Click on today's title for current Boots & Coots stock price!
Click here for a snapshot of how the stock has traded before today!
It's "the moment of truth." The invasion of Iraq could begin at any time. Bombs
may drop. Oil wells may erupt in "hellfire."
And Arthur Andersen is no longer doing the books for Boots & Coots.
But wait! What about that secret group of oilmen who are using a company
registered in Panama to try to take Boots & Coots away from its shareholders?
Frenzied stock speculators are scurrying for information about the only
stand-alone publicly traded oil well firefighting company: Boots & Coots IWC,
Inc.
I know this because they're hitting this site with Google! searches like
checkpoint+business+inc. (Go ahead and try it some time.) I followed one of the
searches to Don Penny's Hot Tips bulletin board, which reflects the desperate
thirst for information about the company Checkpoint Business, Inc. "i continue
to watch this site for news and developments on war play stocks," posts an
investor dubbed "wargames."
Remember Checkpoint? The "shadowy group of Texas oilmen" who might wrest control
of the company? They're the cause of heaps of uncertainty right now.
In fact, it's a good bet that, but for that added uncertainty, the stock price
of Boots & Coots -- a feast-or-famine services company that's likely on the
brink of some very brisk business -- would be higher than it is right now. These
guys only really make money fighting hellfires.
And lots of people are absolutely certain we're going to have a run on them
soon.
But so much uncertainty! Recall that these shadowy oilmen loaned a million bucks
to the company back in December -- and the company's in default -- and all of a
sudden there's talk of bankruptcy -- and a takeover by this mysterious company
that was incorporated in Panama! Gamblers on penny stocks want to know: Buy or
sell?!
Never mind the panicky speculators. What about the poor shareholders?
Information is perilously thin.
So what is the CEO of Boots & Coots -- a former long-time Halliburton man --
doing to help achieve a degree of helpful transparency for concerned
stockholders?
"You know, I think we can comment when we can," says President Jerry Winchester.
"I think we're going to do what we can with respect to the disclosure, and when
we can comment, we'll say what we can."
Is that stonewalling, stockholders? Not to worry. There's a shareholder
protection plan already in place!
More wary small investors may want to know a bit more about the company anyway.
Many small investors rely on EDGAR for documents that inform their business
decisions.
What to make of this document? The one filed four days later, on August 13,
2002, is about replacing accountant Arthur Andersen. Now that's certainly of
interest to shareholders. But the preceding form doesn't tell much about what
the problem with Arthur Andersen really was. In fact, the document makes it seem
as if there was no problem at all.
There's at least one interesting bit of information that has been shrouded in
the EDGAR index: alleged fraudster Reed Slatkin's name. Try scouring this list
of names of all the people (supposedly) listed on Havenwood Ventures (now Boots
& Coots) index maintained by EDGAR. Go ahead and scour. You'll find all the
players except Reed Slatkin and Mark & Alice Leibovit.
What's interesting about that? Those three names are the only names listed on
Havenwood's 1996 annual report to the SEC, the last before it became Boots &
Coots. Those three people were Havenwood -- but interested parties relying on
EDGAR's index might not be able to find that out. And alleged Ponzi-fraudster
Reed Slatkin's name ought to be posted like the warning on a pack of cigarettes.
Shouldn't it?
Especially when there are interesting insider trades being made. Analyzing these
transactions is beyond me, but some things stand out: current Chairman of the
Board K. Kirk Krist has sure unloaded a lot of stock in the last couple of
years; hellfighter Danny Ray Clayton has made a number of moves in just the last
few weeks.
A clump of three insider trades cry out just because of the names of the
companies. On December 3 -- the very day before the fateful loan documents were
signed with that secretive Panamanian company -- three entities which seem
somehow related appear to have dumped stock: Special Situations FD III, Special
Situations SITS PR EQFDLP and Special Situations CAY FDLP.
Talk about special situations: CAY? Cayman Islands? (Remember "The Firm"?)
Just to make the similarities in the companies more striking, two of them had
exactly the same amount of Boots stock: 162,790 shares were "awarded" on June 9,
1998 to two Special Situations companies. On December 3, 2002, identical sums
were withdrawn from two of those accounts. The value of the sales, combined with
the third: $98,000.
That's chickenfeed to some, but one heck of a holding for others. For Special
Situations -- which holds millions of shares of different companies -- it's beer
money.
"Could a small group of businessmen swoop in at a company's most promising
moment and take it away from its shareholders?"
Penny stock guru Don Penny has been digging for leads about Checkpoint. He may
not have been able to crack the secret Panamanian incorporation laws, but he's
located their representatives: "The resident agent is 'Patton, Moreno & Asvat'."
So take that information and run with it, shareholders!
After all, it's the moment of truth. Boots & Coots' most promising moment.
posted by Major Barbara | 12:32 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, March 16, 2003
MISALLIANCE: The Dianetics of Dick Cheney
What does hellfighting have to do with animatronic Indians and a loopy would-be
theme park in the Sedona, Arizona desert?
And what does Dick Cheney have in common with Reed Slatkin, the minister of
Scientology accused of running one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in history?
[No need for tinfoil hats. Follow the links to public records and -- believe it
or not!]
A lot.
In fact, that's part of the very foundation of the company allied with Dick
Cheney's Halliburton to fight oilfield fires.
Yes, this is weird. But there's no denying it. It's all spelled out in this SEC
filing. And it's one of the more bizarre SEC papers you might stumble across.
July 29, 1997: Dick Cheney's Halliburton seemed to be on board with expanding
its "alliance" for "total well control," because International Well Control
sewed up more of the limited talent pool of oilfield firefighters (mostly former
Red Adair men) with new partnerships. Cornering the market? Not really -- but a
big new umbrella company, publicly held, was formed to bring several companies
together -- led by Boots & Coots and International Well Control. In fact, that
was the name of the new company: Boots & Coots International Well Control, Inc.
But the SEC 8-K filed a couple of weeks later seems just plain weird.
"ITEM 1. CHANGES IN CONTROL OF THE REGISTRANT... Boots & Coots International
Well Control, Inc. (the "Registrant") was incorporated in Delaware in April 1988
as Havenwood Ventures, Inc."
Havenwood Ventures?
Havenwood intended "to develop a theme attraction in Sedona, Arizona, the Sedona
Spirit Theater." After raising nearly half a million dollars in their initial
public offering, and sinking a good chunk of change into desert land, a decision
wasmade in about 1992 to "discontinue development of the Theater as a result of
its inability to attract financing." Investors weren't flocking to the
animatronic Indians idea. The company had "no assets", no "revenues," "no
backlog," and "made no expenditures" (1996 SEC report).
What to do? A merger, of course!
"THE MERGER. The Registrant acquired IWC Services in a transaction structured as
a "reverse triangular merger" (the "Merger") between Havenwood Acquisition
Corporation, a Texas corporation ("Newco"), which was a wholly owned subsidiary
of the Registrant formed for the sole purpose of consummating the Merger, and
IWC Services."
Huh? A "reverse triangular merger"?
Might as well just say abracadabra!
Presto-changeo: Havenwood Ventures, Inc. became Boots & Coots International Well
Control, Inc. At the end of fiscal 1996, Havenwood reported all of $1358 in
assets. The Company's 1997 report showed assets worth around $86 million. (And
the changeover happened after the end of fiscal 1997. I'm still puzzling over
that one.)
And scientologists?
At least one: Reed Slatkin, a bankrupt "minister" of Scientology and alleged
fraud, "acquired 20% of a company called Havenwood Ventures Inc. that planned to
build a theme park and theater in Sedona, Ariz., public records show. The
project, tentatively named the Sedona Spirit Theater, was to feature live actors
interacting with animatronic American Indians. The theater apparently never was
built."
Slatkin is listed prominently as a "vice president and director" in the 1996
annual report to the SEC.
The president of Havenwood was Mark Leibovit, an investment guru known for his
"Volume Reversal methodology" and his occasional TV appearances. (Leibovit and
his wife are listed on SEC documents for Havenwood; to be fair, there is no
evidence that they are Scientologists.) Leibovit partnered up with Reed Slatkin
on at least one other venture, Lizardhead Partners, with which they intended "to
buy and sell stock."
You may now reasonably ask: Did Dick Cheney know this stuff?
Well, he should have. After all, he was CEO when Halliburton got in bed with
International Well Control -- and he was still in the big chair, "allied" with
IWC when they did their magic incantation and transformed Havenwood Ventures
into Boots & Coots IWC, Inc. Due dilligence should have turned all this up in a
blink. So the question, of course, is: Why?
Why did Dick Cheney's Halliburton have anything at all to do with this weird
business move? Couldn't another umbrella company be formed to bring together
IWC, Boots & Coots and the other various companies involved?
If they wanted to form a publicly traded company, why do it with a shell company
which once set its sights on American Indian animatronics?
And why does "a shadowy group of Texas oilmen" want to change it from public to
private now?
What else is waiting to be discovered?
If anyone has answers, please let me know.
posted by Major Barbara | 7:22 AM
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archives
03/09/2003 - 03/15/2003
03/16/2003 - 03/22/2003
current
links
Bartcop
Conflict Of Interest
Corpwatch on Halliburton
Halliburton's "Alliance"
Boots & Coots IWC
Contract Announced!
Cheney At The Trough
Secret Takeover?
E-Mail Major Barbara
>I made a local copy in case it disappears.
> |
