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

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11464)	4/2/2003 9:47:24 AM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

PHOTOGRAPHER SEEING DOUBLE? By TODD VENEZIA April 2, 2003 -- A widely distributed Los Angeles Times photo of Iraqis fleeing the besieged city of Basra appears to have been manipulated to make it appear the crowd of civilians was larger than it really was. A source at the Times wire service said the photo - taken on the Al Zubayr Bridge outside the city on Sunday - was "digitally altered" and that the paper will run a correction today saying so. Editors at the Times refused to comment on the picture, referring all calls to a newspaper spokeswoman, who would not confirm or deny the picture was altered. "We will have something in the paper" today, she said, which will address what may or may not have been done to the photo. The photo, credited to photographer Brian Walski, was moved on wires over the weekend. It shows a rifle-toting British soldier from the Irish Guard directing the movement of civilians who were said to be under fire from Iraqi troops. In the image, a man crouching in the lower left-hand corner appears to have been reproduced just to the right of the soldier. Other Iraqi figures appear to have been duplicated elsewhere. No one at the Times last night would account for these discrepancies. The photo was sent to other papers in the Tribune Co. newspaper group. Among them was The Hartford Courant in Connecticut, which ran the shot on its front page Monday. Both publications, coincidentally, are on the short list of finalists likely to win this year's Pulitzer Prize in feature photos, according to Editor and Publisher Magazine.

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11464)	4/2/2003 11:34:08 AM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

Ex-trader accused of fraud in $11 million loan scheme April 2, 2003 BY STEVE WARMBIR FEDERAL COURTS REPORTER A self-styled financial guru, who once ripped off a newspaper reporter who profiled him, was accused Tuesday of scamming an insurance company out of an $11.75 million loan for a Celozzi Ford dealership in Gurnee. Scott R. Serfling, 52, of Las Vegas, was once a high-flying Chicago commodities trader. More recently, he was listed as an executive producer in 2001 of an unreleased Corbin Bernsen movie called "Quiet Kill." Serfling was sentenced in 1995 to three years in prison for scamming a Wall Street Journal reporter out of his retirement nest egg of $360,000 and for ripping off other victims as well. Serfling was arrested Monday afternoon in Newark, N.J., by FBI agents as he returned from Zurich, Switzerland. He is being held in New Jersey pending a hearing Thursday. Serfling is contesting being sent to Illinois, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew C. Porter said. In the most recent scam, Serfling, a former executive with Celozzi Ford, is accused of working with a loan broker, Mary Capri, to obtain a refinancing loan from Western United Life Assurance Co. in March 29, 2002, for a Celozzi dealership that never opened, authorities said. Capri, 34, of Lake Geneva, Wis., also has been charged in the case. It's unclear where the money went, but it didn't go to the dealership. Serfling got at least $200,000 for his own use; Capri, $58,000, prosecutors allege. Serfling is accused of submitting a phony lease guarantee, backed by Ford Motor Co., to obtain the loan. He also allegedly submitted 1999 and 2000 signed tax returns for himself personally and a company he runs, but the IRS says they have no records that Serfling submitted any tax returns for those years.

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11464)	4/2/2003 4:22:53 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

“Light” Cigarettes Deemed Fraud by Israel Cancer Society The Israel Cancer Society has announced that cigarettes deemed "light" are as just as hazardous to smokers' health as regular cigarettes, and possibly even more so. “Adding the tag 'light' is a sophisticated deception by the cigarette manufacturers," says the Society, "that results in countless victims among smokers in Israel.” Itim News Agency reports that the Society says that the term “light” is used for cigarettes that contain less nicotine, the ingredient that causes addiction to cigarettes. However, the fact that “light” cigarettes contain less nicotine merely causes the smoker to inhale more smoke and to hold it in the lungs longer in order to make up the amount of nicotine the body desires. As a direct consequence of this change in smoking style, the smoker actually takes in larger doses of some of the other 4,000 toxins found in cigarettes, 43 of which are cancer-causing elements. According to published statistics, some 50% of the cigarettes sold in Israel in recent years are deemed “light.” If they were really less poisonous, argues the Society, there would have been a dramatic decrease in the number of smoking-related illnesses - but the reality is far different. Israel's Cancer Society maintains that cigarette manufacturers sometimes defraud the public in yet another way. In order to know how much nicotine is contained in each cigarette, they make use of a “smoking machine.” The cigarette is placed in the machine, and the amount of nicotine and tar that surfaces is measured. Research done in the United States shows that cigarette manufacturers make microscopic holes in the cigarette filter - that which allows air into the cigarette - thus thinning the blend of noxious waste that the machine registers. In reality, however, the smoker holds the cigarette tightly between two fingers and blocks these microscopic holes, and thus, the blend of lethal toxins the smoker breathes into his lungs is much greater and more concentrated than that measured by the “smoking machine.” Even if a smoker is careful not to block the holes, the Society maintains, “light” cigarettes would still not be safer. The Society claims that there is yet a third fraudulent aspect in using the term “light.” It leads smokers to believe that they can smoke more cigarettes, as they are perceived as less hazardous than regular ones. Thus, they end up smoking even more than they normally would of the “regular” kind. Just two weeks ago, on March 21, an Illinois State Court in the U.S. ruled that cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris (makers of Marlboro, Parliament, L&M) must pay $10.1 billion in a class action suit. The company was found guilty of defrauding the public by causing smokers to believe that “light” cigarettes are less dangerous than others.

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11464)	4/2/2003 8:01:48 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

Pre-Paid Legal Announces First Quarter Production 2003-04-02 17:12 ET - News Release ADA, Okla,, April 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. , today reported production highlights for the quarter ended March 31, 2003. Highlights of the quarter included: -- Membership base up 8.3% year over year, .9% from December 31, 2002 -- New memberships increased 5.6% from the 4th quarter of 2002 -- Purchase of 1 million treasury shares -- Modification of bank loan financial covenant to allow more treasury share purchases Production results: Three Months Ended 3/31/2003 3/31/2002 New membership sales 178,820 -10.9% 200,780 New sales associates recruited 29,755 -11.2% 33,493 Active memberships at end of period 1,394,569 +8.3% 1,287,199 The Company's two line of credit agreements totaling $30 million contain, among others, a financial covenant that the Company shall not permit the ratio of its total liabilities to its tangible net worth to exceed 2.50 to 1.00, measured at the end of each calendar quarter. This financial covenant has been relaxed to 3.75 to 1.00, and a new financial covenant was added prohibiting the Company's tangible net worth to fall below $15 million effective March 31, 2003 and each quarter thereafter. These modifications will allow the Company to continue and possibly increase its borrowings for treasury stock purchases. Harland Stonecipher, Chairman commented, "Given some of the marketing changes we made in the fourth quarter of 2002 to improve the quality of business, particularly relating to restrictions we put in place regarding business stemming from the Internet, we are encouraged by the number of new memberships written in the first quarter of 2003." About Pre-Paid Legal Services Pre-Paid Legal Services develops and markets legal service plans across North America. The plans provide for legal service benefits, including unlimited attorney consultation, will preparation, traffic violation defense, automobile-related criminal charges defense, letter writing, document preparation and review and a general trial defense benefit. More information can be located at the Company's homepage on the worldwide web at prepaidlegal.com . Safe Harbor Language Statements in this press release, other than purely historical information, regarding the Company's future plans and objectives and expected operating results, and statements of the assumptions underlying such statements, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements contained herein are based on certain assumptions that may not be correct. They are subject to risks and uncertainties incident to the Company's business that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are described in the reports and statements filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including (among others) those listed in the Company's Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, and include the risks that the Company's membership persistency or renewal rates may decline, that the Company may not be able to continue to grow its memberships and earnings, that the Company is dependent on the continued active participation of its principal executive officer, that pending or future litigation may have a material adverse effect on the Company if resolved unfavorably to the Company, that the Company could be adversely affected by regulatory developments, that competition could adversely affect the Company, that the Company is substantially dependent on its marketing force and that the Company's stock price may be affected by short sellers. Please refer to pages 37 and 38 of the Company's 2002 Form 10-K for a more complete description of these risks. The Company undertakes no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements in this release. Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. CONTACT: Melanie Lawson of Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc., +1-580-436-1234 Web site: prepaidlegal.com

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11464)	4/2/2003 8:09:15 PM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

Crooks use war to work their scam The world wide web is a haven for war scams. You may have already received a letter from someone posing as an Iraqi who needs help funneling millions of dollars into the United States. "They're trying to convey that they have money that they're trying to hide from Saddam, and so they're having to move it to other countries and into bank accounts," says Sheila Crum of the Mid-South Better Business Bureau. The letter writers ask Americans to hold their money for them. But they're really scam artists, looking to get your personal information. "They want your bank account information your social security number they want things of that sort and what they do is drain your bank account," says Crum. What should you do with the letters? Forward them to info@bbbmidsouth.org and then throw them away. Other war related scams are conducted by telephone or appeal for donations for war victims' families or money to send supplies to soldiers. "Any time there's a national or international tragedy of any sort, the charity con artists come out of the woodwork," says Crum. Before you donate to a charity, check with the Better Business Bureau or Tennessee Charitable Solicitation to make certain the plea for help is legitimate. Ask the caller to send information in the mail before agreeing to donate, and never give out bank or credit card information over the

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11464)	4/2/2003 8:33:55 PM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

Iraq bans satellite phones AFP - Iraqis were told on Wednesday to hand over satellite telephones to authorities, who said the equipment could be used by Western spies during the war. Iraqis who use satellite telephones are committing "acts of treason" and "will be held responsible by law, which does not forgive traitors and intruders," an Iraqi security spokesman said in a statement read on state television. "Mobile satellite telephones have been used by American and British intelligence agents to communicate information on vital targets in Iraq," the spokesman said. "A not insignificant number of citizens have such telephones and we call on them to give them back to authorities. They will be given back when the war finishes with a crushing victory (for Iraq) helped by God." He urged Iraqis to give up their satellite phones "before it gets too late." Any Iraqi who turns in someone illegally holding satellite equipment will be awarded five million dinars, about $US2,000 ($A3,320), he said. The channel reported President Saddam Hussein had promised twice that amount to anyone who helped either arrested an Iraqi spy or helped authorities do it. ©AAP 2003

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11464)	4/4/2003 9:54:31 AM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 19428

ISAAC, YOU WILL NEVER GET AWAY WITH IT dnai.com YOU CAN MANIPULATE THIS STOCK LIKE YOUR MANY OTHERS BUT YOU WILL NOT GET AWAY WITH IT. IBUY, FLYB users.rcn.com HUH

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11464)	4/4/2003 3:40:40 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

UBS' OWN GRUBMAN By JENNY ANDERSON UBS Warburg's Ben Lorello April 4, 2003 -- UBS Warburg had Wall Street's most bullish research on HealthSouth - while UBS bankers were raking in millions in fees for deals done for the scandal-plagued company. Analyst Howard Capek waited until March 21 - two days after the SEC accused HealthSouth and CEO Richard Scrushy of "massive accounting fraud" - to downgrade HealthSouth from a "strong buy" to an "reduce," a signal to dump the stock. Capek has since dropped coverage. Capek's belated downgrade and UBS's overall bullishness raise questions about whether UBS Warburg's research was influenced by its all-star healthcare banking group, lead by Ben Lorello. UBS is already a party to Wall Street's pending global settlement over tainted research. Lorello's team has been HealthSouth's principal bankers for more than 15 years, first at Salomon Smith Barney and then at UBS Warburg, where Lorello and his team moved in March 1999 for a reported $70 million payday. Lorello's team managed more than $6.5 billion in mergers and acquisitions, $1.2 billion in equity offerings and $3 billion in debt for HealthSouth since 1990, according to CommScan Dealogic. "It seems like some of the banks didn't learn anything from the past two years," says CEO Kei Kianpoor of Investars, which tracks the performance of analysts' stock picks. "I thought they were done with this." A UBS spokeswoman denied the bankers exerted any undue influence on research. HealthSouth, one of the leading rehabilitation hospital companies, is now the target of a federal fraud investigation. The company has been accused of inflating its earnings by at least $1.4 billion since 1999, and also of overstating its assets by as much as $800 million. Federal regulators investigating the company's accounting fraud may subpoena Lorello and HealthSouth's accountants. "The commission has made it clear in accounting fraud cases it would look at the role of market professionals," says Richard Murphy, assistant district administrator for the SEC's Atlanta office. He would not confirm if the subpoenas had been issued. Lorello's group, and banker William McGahan in particular, was very close to Scrushy and HealthSouth. "When HealthSouth made a request for information," says one person that has worked with the team, "everyone dropped everything." Indeed, McGahan - who is known for belittling his employees and riding around the office on a Razor scooter - counted HealthSouth as one of his top clients. UBS was not the only firm that waited until the last minute to downgrade the stock. Deutsche Bank, which has co-managed a $1.6 billion in debt deals alongside UBS Warburg, also waited to downgrade the stock until late March, and has also dropped coverage. But the majority of firms on the street were far more skeptical about the stock. According to Investars, Salomon Smith Barney downgraded from "outperform" to "in-line" on Aug. 28, 2002, when the stock was at $6.43, and from neutral to underperform on Sept. 7 at $5.30. J.P. Morgan Chase downgraded from a buy to market underperform on Aug. 27, 2002, at $6.50. Lorello is a legend in the healthcare world. Known for being fiercely intense and aggressive, he has been known to put heavy pressure on small and mid-cap companies to do business with the bank. "What always struck me as odd," said one healthcare executive, who asked not to be named, "was that he continued to have high market share even though his companies kept blowing up."

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11464)	4/4/2003 7:31:38 PM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

Deutsche Bank Faces Fraud Allegation, Official Says (Update1) By Ed Leefeldt New York, April 4 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG, Europe's second-largest bank, left itself vulnerable to an accusation of fraud after failing to disclose documents to authorities probing bias in Wall Street stock research, a California regulator said. The bank said it didn't give officials all of its internal e- mails related to the probe, citing an ``inadvertent'' omission. Andre Pineda, deputy commissioner of the California Department of Corporations, said the bank blamed a ``computer error'' for not handing over 80 percent of relevant e-mails. ``Until the present time we hadn't planned to use fraud in the complaint against Deutsche Bank,'' said Pineda in an interview. ``But now that remains to be seen.'' An allegation of fraud by regulators will make it easier for investors and others to collect damages in lawsuits against the firms, securities lawyers said. Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $80 million in a $1.4 billion industrywide accord designed by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to settle charges that the biggest securities firms misled investors with biased research. The final agreement, which is ``99 percent'' complete, will say some of the firms' actions constituted fraud, Spitzer said yesterday. The firms may include Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse First Boston and Merrill Lynch & Co., which will pay the biggest fines. Spokesmen for the three declined to comment. In the settlement, the firms probably won't admit or deny guilt, regulators have said. Agreement Delayed The Frankfurt-based bank's participation in the final agreement will be delayed as regulators resume their investigation, Pineda said. News of Deutsche Bank's failure to provide e-mails was earlier reported in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Pineda said that after repeated inquiries by California regulators who couldn't find many e-mails, a Deutsche Bank information technology officer told him last week that the internal communications hadn't been disclosed. ``It was either very sleazy or very stupid,'' said Pineda. ``They haven't told us when we will get them.'' Deutsche Bank spokesman Jezz Farr said the failure was unintentional. ``We immediately informed the regulators and are cooperating fully to provide them with the additional information,'' he said. He declined to comment further. Earlier this week, San Francisco-based Thomas Weisel Partners LLC, pulled out of the agreement, according to California regulators who had been negotiating a $12.5 million settlement with the closely-held investment bank. Thomas Weisel spokeswoman Amanda Duckworth declined to comment. `Biggest Fraud' In a speech to a lawyers group in New York yesterday, Spitzer called the admissions by the biggest Wall Street firms that they published misleading research to win investment banking work ``the largest fraud ever perpetrated on the investing public.'' Wall Street securities firms have reserved more than $3 billion in 2002 and 2003 to pay the expected cost of the global research settlement, along with legal fees and potential civil liabilities, according to the Securities Industry Association. Pineda said Deutsche Bank's admission indicates that others among the 11 banks in the settlement may not have been totally forthcoming with their files and e-mails. Deutsche Bank was among five securities firms that agreed in December to pay fines totaling $8.25 million for failing to retain e-mails sought by regulators investigating analysts' conflicts of interest. Deutsche Bank, Citigroup's Salomon Smith Barney unit, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, and US Bancorp Piper Jaffray Inc. agreed to pay $1.65 million each in fines imposed by the SEC, the NASD and the New York Stock Exchange. No `Smoking Guns' ``Quite possibly the reason we haven't seen more `smoking guns' in this investigation is that the other states weren't that far along in their investigations,'' Pineda said. The probe of each firm was led by a different state. ``The Wall Street firms had an incentive to wrap this up soon and this may be the reason they wanted to -- for fear that more may come out,'' he said. The settlement is likely to be signed by the investment banks, all 50 states and the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the New York Stock Exchange and NASD within a few weeks, according to regulators. Spitzer's spokesman Mark Violette said his office had no comment on the California probe of Deutsche Bank. ``We are letting California do its job and take the lead on this,'' said Violette. ``We are not going to meddle.'' Pineda said there would be no quick end to California's investigation of Deutsche Bank. ``Picture a room full of boxes,'' he said. ``That's what we'll have to go through.'' Last Updated: April 4, 2003 15:36 EST

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11464)	4/8/2003 7:35:10 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

Oilmen's burning wish to help spurned By Mike Seccombe April 2 2003 Danny Clayton, operations manager for the delightfully named United States firm Boots and Coots, is a disappointed man. There has not been nearly enough destruction in Iraq for his corporate liking. Clayton is cranky because the Iraqis had set fire to just nine oil wells in the south of the country. Unless they somehow torch a whole lot more, Clayton's Texas-based company will likely go bust. A couple of days ago, in comments to The New York Times, he lamented the situation. "It's as easy to destroy 90 wells as it is to destroy nine," he whinged. "But there's still a good chance [of more fires]. They have several more oil fields, and I'm sure that they are not all secured yet." You can understand his frustration. The 1991 Gulf War was much kinder to his company. That time, there were about 700 well fires set on the Kuwaiti fields by retreating Iraqis. Boots and Coots put out about a third of them, thereby earning somewhere around $US100 million. But times have been getting tougher ever since. As the NYT explained, improved engineering makes accidental fires increasingly rare. Boots and Coots (named after its founders "Boots" Hansen and "Coots" Matthews, who left the employ of Red Adair in 1978) was under pressure from creditors in February to file for bankruptcy. But that changed on March 6, when the Pentagon announced its plan for fighting fires in Iraq. Well, actually, the plan came from Halliburton (which is almost the same thing), the giant oil services and defence logistics group formerly run by Vice-President Dick Cheney. Boots and Coots was part of it. It looked like the Texas/Republican/oil network had saved them, particularly as the Pentagon promised to prefer US companies. Boots and Coots shares, which had been trading around the 47¢-to-70¢ mark before the war, shot as high as $2.55. It looked like a case of oil's well that ends well. Last Friday, however, due to lack of fires, they were down to 83¢, and the creditors were closing in again. Three days before the war even started, The Wall Street Journal reported that 100 pages of confidential contract documents had fallen into its hands, relating to $US1.5 billion ($2.5 billion) of work being offered to US companies. Just $50 million was earmarked for multilateral, non-profit groups.

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11464)	4/8/2003 8:13:35 PM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

DON’T CALL US It will soon become easier to avoid annoying telemarketers – including brokers who are hawking services or stock. Starting this summer, consumers can sign up for a national “do not call” list which will block unwanted sales calls. The national list is the creation of the Federal Trade Commission which plans to offer online registration for the list beginning July 1, 2003. The F.T.C. also plans to establish a toll free telephone number for consumers who wish to add their name to the “do not call” list. Telemarketers who ignore the list will incur heavy fines - $1,000 for each violation. Those telemarketers will be required to purchase the list, and to check it every three months. Consumers who wish to remain on the list must renew their registration every five years. Telemarketing firms are up in arms about the new rules, claiming that it infringes upon their First Amendment right to free speech. Despite such protests, the plan is scheduled to be introduced on the West Coast in July and to become available nationwide by the end of August. One state, California, is off to a head start. A state run website, launched in late March, allows Californians to make their telephone numbers off limits to telemarketers. As many as 5 million Californians are expected to register; 180,000 signed up in the first two days. California will add those names to the F.T.C.’s national list once it becomes active. The national “do not call” list is likely to rein in many legitimate telemarketers. Unfortunately, unscrupulous individuals behind unlawful telemarketing schemes – including those using teams of telemarketers to “pump and dump” stock – are unlikely to respect the list or be deterred by potential fines. Stay tuned for more information. (4/8/2003)

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11464)	4/8/2003 8:13:35 PM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

DON’T CALL US It will soon become easier to avoid annoying telemarketers – including brokers who are hawking services or stock. Starting this summer, consumers can sign up for a national “do not call” list which will block unwanted sales calls. The national list is the creation of the Federal Trade Commission which plans to offer online registration for the list beginning July 1, 2003. The F.T.C. also plans to establish a toll free telephone number for consumers who wish to add their name to the “do not call” list. Telemarketers who ignore the list will incur heavy fines - $1,000 for each violation. Those telemarketers will be required to purchase the list, and to check it every three months. Consumers who wish to remain on the list must renew their registration every five years. Telemarketing firms are up in arms about the new rules, claiming that it infringes upon their First Amendment right to free speech. Despite such protests, the plan is scheduled to be introduced on the West Coast in July and to become available nationwide by the end of August. One state, California, is off to a head start. A state run website, launched in late March, allows Californians to make their telephone numbers off limits to telemarketers. As many as 5 million Californians are expected to register; 180,000 signed up in the first two days. California will add those names to the F.T.C.’s national list once it becomes active. The national “do not call” list is likely to rein in many legitimate telemarketers. Unfortunately, unscrupulous individuals behind unlawful telemarketing schemes – including those using teams of telemarketers to “pump and dump” stock – are unlikely to respect the list or be deterred by potential fines. Stay tuned for more information. (4/8/2003)