Micky, I have seen the explanation on the board concerning the sanctions by Nasdaq. I have been a Marine Dealer for the past forty-four years and on a number of occasions I have had employees do things that got me in trouble, through no fault of my own and in fact against company policy. When an employee does something wrong, you're guilty just because the business is yours. I recently had a sexual discrimination suit brought against my company by a male forklift driver alleging a man against man charge. We very strongly believe that the party bringing the charges was doing so just to get money, and had no basis for the suit at all. I have always believed that the courts are there to protect the innocent and have believed that they could sort out the truth. It was a great shock to me to find out that it would cost approximately $80,000.00 to prepare the case for trial, and then cost another $20,000.00 during a week long trial. All of this after the EEOC had refused to investigate the claim for my ex employee because they felt there was no evidence of any wrongdoing. So there I was, a guy who considers himself a principled individual, with the choice of spending one hundred thousand dollars or so to prove that my employees and I were not sexual abusers, or not admitting anything and giving this guy and his attorney a total of about $14,000.00. What would you have done? I guess I'm chicken, I paid the guy and his attorney the $14,000.00. This to a guy who had worked at my company for less than two months, stated on his job application that he was a Canadian Citizen, had always been in business for himself, therefore never having a job, etc. If you're thinking we never should have hired him, you're absolutely correct, but it never occurred to my shop foreman that the guy wanted to do anything but work.
The long winded story above is to point out that everything that the firm of David Travis does is ultimately going to rest on his shoulders. I don't know of the things that brought forth the sanctions against his firm and I haven't talked to Davis Travis about the issues. I do have a friend who talked to Kevin Travis, the son of David Travis, and his explanation was much like the story I outlined above. An owner has the ultimate responsibility for whatever goes on in his company. I believe that a fine by Nasdaq of $35,000.00 which was consented to by the Travis organization was done so to keep from spending a ton of money on legal fees, even though they did not believe they had done anything wrong. For $35,000.00 it couldn't have been very serious. Some folks on this thread have characterized David Travis as a guy who breaks the law. I have said that if anyone had information about him or anyone else breaking the law, the authorities should be notified immediately. I said if trading was halted in the stock or the authorities came down on David Travis for doing something illegal, I would apologize. To date that hasn't happened. To those out there who have different opinions than mine, I concede you have that right, please give me the same concession.
You brought to our view the list containing the short selling. I was curious about some of the things reported in this list. Please note that on January 27th, a James R. Solakian sold 2000 shares for a total of $10,000.00, or $5.00 per share. Please also note that three days later David Travis and his son Kevin sold a total of 454,250 shares for $1.00 per share. If this was a pump and dump, why didn't the Travis family take advantage of the then share price, which had to be at least $2.00 per share or twice as much as they received. I have been told that David Travis put up the early money to finance this venture so of course he would have a lot of stock. Please note that the only time David and Kevin Travis have done any short selling was the time listed.
During the time when the stock was attacked by the short sellers, David Travis was supposed to have bought a bunch of stock to thwart the short sellers, I wonder how much he bought, but whatever it was, he did me a favor by not letting the short sellers drive this stock into the ground. He and Goldfinger have opposite reasons for the positions they have, one is holding the price of the stock up, and the other is trying to drive it down. Even though it might seem there are personalities involved, I believe each is conducting his business to benefit himself. The true test of the product will come shortly, as people like Carroll Shelby bring this engine to the market.
Let me once again state my own interest. I am a shareholder who believes in the engine, has seen it run, and believes it has a great future in our society. I have met David Travis only once, (in L.A. at the demo) and have talked to him once since then on the phone. He is not my broker and I am in no way connected to him.
To LIQPLUMBER: Sorry I didn't answer your post of a few days ago. Your question was, "How did you get invited to the demo at Carroll Shelby's". I am in the Marine business and I have a friend in Colorado who is on the board. When I heard there was to be a demo at Shelby's, I called and asked him if I could be included to see the engine demo.
Good night to all, time to go home! |
