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

To: tonto who wrote (92788)	10/11/2005 12:17:46 PM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 122087

If a penny stock dude was arrested with a ID and lots of cash, the normal group of scam busters would have been all over him... This would surely be the source of lots of smoke. The question is whether there is a fire. You need both sides of the story to make that determination. OK, here's Tony's side: Tony knew that a critical aspect of the trial prep was locating witnesses, important ones, who had “mysteriously” disappeared, or had become difficult to track down. The simple process of hiring a PI to find these people turned into a circus that went in circles without results. Tony of course was trained as an investigator, and became increasingly frustrated with their inability to track down people who he knew he needed for his trial. By early 2004, he had burned through nearly 1.5 million dollars, and had no lawyer yet prepared to try this case, nor had anyone found many of the witnesses he knew were essential to his defense. Now, as a trained investigator facing a massive criminal trial in a few months, knowing there are witnesses who must be found, knowing you have burned through most of your available money without any significant results, is it not possible that you might think “I have to do this myself, or it will not get done?” Since he knew he couldn’t very well use his own name when looking for people like Ken Cook, a critical SEVU witness, he decided to use a fake ID. As someone who made his living as an investigator, Tony wasn’t about to leave his potential freedom in the hands of someone else. Surely it is obvious that Tony must have traveled frequently, at least enough to get a driver’s license in a state as far away as Montana. Does it not also seem logical that, if he were going to run, he would either leave from Montana, close to the Canadian border, or from Florida, close to so many islands, especially Cuba? Why run after spending upwards of $2 million in legal fees? If he thought he’d be found guilty, why not run the first chance he got? Or the second? Or the third? He was doing everything in his power to defend this indictment. Why on that particular day did he use the fake ID? Another simple yet stupid explanation. Tony had no access to money since his assets were frozen in 2002. The government was consistently late in their court ordered payments, the house was often close to foreclosure, the power had been turned off more than once, bill collectors were calling all the time, health insurance had been canceled, etc. and there was little money for flying home from New York every few weeks. While he needed to be in New York for trial preparation, he also loved and missed his boys and the support of his family, so he would buy travel coupons that allowed him to fly cheaply from New York to San Diego without advanced notice. He had to get permission to travel from the probation office in New York, but that was never an issue. On this occasion, he had planned to depart on Monday. Last minute, he looked at the coupon and realized it expired on Saturday, not Monday, the day he was allowed to travel. He couldn't afford to waste the coupon, and the rest is history. Should he have called to get permission? Duh. But that’s Tony, and that’s how simple and stupid the reason was. Why all the cash? Again, a simple answer. Because he was then maintaining a residence in New York as well as California, he was always short on money, and at one point had to borrow money from one of his lawyers. If you recall, the government finally gave back most of the jewelry that had been seized initially, and Tony took it to NY to sell so he could pay back that loan, and pay some bills at home that were way overdue. The money was on its way home, along with Tony, to pay bills. Why not put it in a checking account? He wasn't allowed to have a checking account or credit cards. That's Tony’s side of it. Like it, laugh at it, shake your head at his ability to do stupid things, but you cannot say he hasn't paid a huge price for what he did. - Jeff