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Strategies & Market Trends : Stock Watcher's Thread / Pix of the Week (POW) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stock Watcher who wrote (8495)	5/17/1999 8:09:00 PM
From: flickerful	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52051

have another HITT....<g> Another Hitsgalore exec faces criticism By Bloomberg News Special to CNET News.com May 17, 1999, 2:20 p.m. PT URL: news.com update RANCHO CUCAMONGA, California--Hitsgalore.com, which fell 69 percent after it was disclosed its founder committed fraud, now is facing further scrutiny because of an investor relations executive who is accused of cheating clients while working as a stockbroker, state documents show. Frank Pinizzotto, 38, handles investor relations for the Internet advertising Company from Florida. In 1995 he was the target of a complaint by the state's Division of Securities and Investment Banking finding that as a broker for Lew Lieberbaum in 1991, he defrauded customers by selling them shares "at prices which were neither fair nor reasonable." He also was found to have made unsuitable recommendations and to have illegally sold unregistered securities, according to the Florida administrative complaint. In 1992 Pinizzotto was suspended for five days by the National Association of Securities Dealers after being accused of telling a customer he would make money in a stock because the president of the company would move its shares higher. Pinizzotto quit as a stockbroker in 1992 after working for seven different firms over nine years. Asked Friday why he left the stock brokerage industry, he replied, "I have my reasons." Hitsgalore.com's chief executive, Steve Bradford, didn't respond to inquiries seeking comment. The company's shares plunged last week after a report it failed to disclose that the Federal Trade Commission accused its founder, Dorian Reed, of cheating customers at a previous job. A federal judge ordered him to pay $613,110 to 100 customers for false claims made by Internet Business Broadcasting, a failed online advertising company for which he worked. Hitsgalore.com shares fell 1.28 to 5.81 today. That's down 70 percent from 19.5, where they traded on Tuesday as the news about Reed's fraud charge was reported. Reed, Hitsgalore.com's largest shareholder, quit as chief technology officer on Thursday. That day, Life Foundation Trust revised the terms of a $100 million investment in Hitsgalore.com announced last Monday. Trustee Jeanette Wilcher said the per-share price for the investment will be lowered to $20 from $25. The company will get an interest in a joint venture in oil and gas wells in Texas instead of cash. Trust spokesman Bill Wallace said more details about the investment will be disclosed by Hitsgalore.com this week. He declined to provide more information. The company went public in February, and its market value soared from $53 million to $1 billion within three months. At the current price of 6.13, its market value is $306 million. Copyright 1999, Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved.