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Pastimes : Investment Chat Board Lawsuits -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (18)	5/27/1999 2:27:00 PM
From: Henry Volquardsen	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12465

do the anonymous posters include Bloomberg quote.bloomberg.com

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (18)	6/15/1999
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12465

Carnegie International Sues Web Users Over Chat Room Messages Baltimore, June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Carnegie International, a telecommunications holding company, has accused Internet users of posting defamatory messages about its executives to drive down the company's stock price and spark a lawsuit by shareholders. A Carnegie lawsuit said the messages -- by a Texas businessman, a Maine lawyer and a California Internet user identified only as ''Indianhead'' -- claimed company officials engaged in insider trading with shares awarded under a bonus program. The messages also exhorted shareholders to consider ''a major class-action lawsuit,'' Carnegie alleged. The Carnegie suit, which seeks more than $1.1 billion in damages, is one of the first in which a company has struck back at Internet surfers who use the World Wide Web to question executives' actions. Securities and Exchange Commission officials wouldn't comment on Carnegie's suit, although regulators are looking into similar allegations of stock manipulation through Internet chat rooms and message groups, said John Reed Stark, head of the SEC's Internet enforcement unit. ''We haven't brought a pure cyber-smear case as of yet, but we are very concerned about the issue,'' Stark said. Complaints of false Internet messages have increased in the last year, Stark added. Last month, The M.H. Meyerson & Co. filed a nearly identical suit against Internet users who sent out messages accusing the brokerage's chief executive of stock manipulation, insider trading and money laundering. Bonus Shares In Carnegie's suit, filed in federal court in Baltimore on May 28, executives of the telecommunications and information technology holding company accuse officials of Ark Capital Inc. of intentionally publishing false and misleading statements about the handling of more than 1 million Carnegie shares. In early May, the Owings Mills, Maryland-based company examined some of its accounting procedures at the SEC's behest and agreed to restate earnings for 1997 and 1998, according to a release. Trading in the company's shares has been halted while talks with regulators continue. The earnings restatement meant that shares awarded to Carnegie executives and officers as part of a bonus plan had to be canceled, according to the suit. Carnegie officials agreed to relinquish the shares for no compensation, the suit said. After the Carnegie executives and directors filed SEC reports noting they'd ''disposed'' of the stock for no compensation two days before the trading halt, messages were posted on Internet chat rooms about the bonus shares, the suit said. Coincidence? ''Does it seem a little coincidental that these guys sold all their shares two days before a halt of trading?'' asked Kelley Allen, vice president of Corpus Christi, Texas-based Ark Capital in an e-mail. The two-person factoring company buys debts owed to other companies and then collects them. Allen intentionally forwarded that false message to more than 300 Internet users in hopes of driving down Carnegie's share price, the suit said. Allen and Ark Capital officials also ignored Carnegie's demand that it retract the message and apologize, the suit added. Allen refused comment on the suit today. Carnegie officials also contend that Maine lawyer G. William Higbee sent out defamatory messages about the handling of the shares in hopes of whipping up a class-action suit against the company. In response to Allen's message, Higbee asked: 'Has anyone heard when this will be resolved? No doubt the price will plunge if it ever reopens. Time to consider a major class-action suit.'' That message was sent ''for the sole purpose of reducing (Carnegie's) stock price and creating an environment to initiate a class-action suit,'' Carnegie's suit contends. 'Indianhead' Higbee failed to return several calls for comment. No Internet provider is listed as a defendant in the suit. One of the users sued is identified only as ''Indianhead,'' care of Yahoo! Inc. Carnegie may have a difficult time proving that Allen and Higbee intentionally spread falsehoods about the company based on their misinterpretation of how the bonus shares were handled, said Charles R. Merrill, a Newark, New Jersey lawyer who specializes in Internet and e-commerce legal issues. ''Carnegie is going to have to do some uphill sledding to win this one,'' Merrill said. ''There doesn't seem to be much of a showing of intent to state a mistruth designed to hurt the company.'' If either Carnegie's or M.H. Meyerson & Co.'s defamation suits are successful, more companies will use them to strike back against Internet critics, said Louis Thompson, president and chief executive of the National Investors Relations Institute. ''These suits are designed more to discourage people from using the Internet to smear these companies than to recover damages,'' Thompson said. ''The idea is to put a stop to this kind of activity.'' Carnegie's shares were valued at 6 7/8 when they were last traded on April 30.

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (18)	6/15/1999 12:03:00 AM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12465

Hitsgalore.com Files $20 Million Lawsuit Against Internet Posters Business Wire - June 14, 1999 13:39 RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 14, 1999-- Hitsgalore.com, Inc. (OTC BB:HITT) today announced that it has filed a Complaint against one identified and five anonymous Internet posters for Libel, Tortious Interference With Business Relations and Civil Conspiracy in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. The Complaint, entitled Hitsgalore.com, Inc. v. Janice Shell, et al., Case No. 99-1387-CIV-T-26C, seeks damages in excess of Twenty Million Dollars ($20,000,000.00). The Complaint names Janice Shell, John Doe No. 1 a/k/a "Paul Kersey," John Doe No. 2 a/k/a "Mayor," John Doe No. 3 a/k/a "Mr. Pink," John Doe No. 4 a/k/a "mshater," and John Doe Nos. 5-100 as Defendants (collectively the "Defendants"). The Complaint alleges that, beginning at least as early as May 1999 and continuing through to the present, the Defendants intentionally and maliciously published and republished a variety of false and defamatory statements about Hitsgalore.com in a nationwide "cybersmear" campaign on electronic bulletin boards on the Internet maintained by Raging Bull, Inc. ("Raging Bull") and Silicon Investor, Inc. ("Silicon Investor"). These statements either explicitly state or imply that Hitsgalore has engaged in illegitimate, illegal, dishonest, fraudulent, and criminal business operations, when, in truth and fact, the Defendants knew or should have known that such statements were false and libelous per se. Steve Bradford, the CEO of Hitsgalore.com, believes that it is absolutely essential that all responsible parties be held fully accountable for their activities, and this action is the first formal step for Hitsgalore.com in taking the offensive against those seeking to destroy the reputation, damage the market value of the Company's common stock and undermine the business affairs of the Company through anonymous posting activity. Steve Bradford stated that: "the Company intends to issue subpoenas to Raging Bull and Silicon Investor to ascertain the identities of the John Doe Defendants, and to aggressively undertake discovery in this case." The Company's attorneys are also investigating possible defamation charges against David Evans, a Bloomberg reporter, for certain negative news articles which the Company believes are misleading in nature. Jeanette Wilcher, the Trustee of The Life Foundation Trust with whom the Company has various business relations, stated that: "I applaud, commend, and fully support the efforts of Hitsgalore.com in bringing the anonymous Internet posters to justice." The Company would also like to gratefully acknowledge the substantial assistance it has received from various persons throughout the country in investigating the Internet activity by the Defendants and others, and welcomes further contact from individuals with knowledge of this cybersmear campaign. If you have any information which you believe would be helpful to the Company in prosecuting this matter, please contact Carl F. Schoeppl, Esq., or Daniel J. Becka, Esq., at Schoeppl & Burke, P.A., the Company's litigation counsel, 4800 North Federal Highway, Suite 210-A, Boca Raton, Florida 33431-5176, Telephone: (561) 394-8301, Facsimile: (561) 393-6541, and E-Mail: Schoeppl@aol.com. CONTACT: Hitsgalore.com, Inc., Rancho Cucamonga Danny Gavin, Investor Relations 800/300-5388 Investor@Hitsgalore.com go2net.newsalert.com

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (18)	8/1/2002 1:08:40 PM
From: Arcane Lore	Respond to of 12465

From the SEC site: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Litigation Release No. 17646 / July 31, 2002 Court Orders Arizona Trust and Trustee to Pay $2.1 Million for Role in Internet Pump and Dump Scheme SEC v. Hitsgalore.com, Inc., Stephen J. Bradford, Life Foundation Trust and Jeanette B. Wilcher, Civil Action No. SACV 01-1133 GLT (ANx) (C.D. Cal.). The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that a federal judge in Southern California ordered Life Foundation Trust and its trustee Jeannette Wilcher to pay $2.1 million in combined disgorgement of illegal profits and penalties for their role in a pump and dump scheme involving the stock of Hitsgalore.com, Inc. Hitsgalore was a publicly traded Internet company located in Rancho Cucamonga, California, that maintained a website providing an Internet search engine and leasing advertising space to consumers. On November 28, 2001, the Commission filed an action against Wilcher and Life Foundation Trust along with Hitsgalore and its former president, Stephen J. Bradford. The complaint charged Hitsgalore and Bradford with fraud in connection with several press releases issued by the company between April 16 and May 10, 1999 that contained false and misleading statements about a purported investment in Hitsgalore by Life Foundation Trust. The fraudulent press releases caused a dramatic rise in the price of Hitsgalore's stock, quoted on the OTCBB, from $6.3125 to a high of $20.125. The complaint also charged Life Foundation Trust, a Scottsdale, Arizona, for-profit trust, and Wilcher, a resident of Scottsdale, Arizona, with aiding and abetting Hitsgalore's fraud and illegally selling Hitsgalore stock. The Commission previously settled its claims against Bradford and Hitsgalore. On July 29, 2002, the Honorable Gary L. Taylor, United States District Judge for the Central District of California, resolved the case against Life Foundation Trust and Wilcher on summary judgment without the need for trial. The Court (1) permanently enjoined Life Foundation Trust and Wilcher from further violations of the antifraud provisions of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder and the registration provisions of Sections 5(a) and 5(c) of the Securities Act of 1933; (2) held Life Foundation Trust and Wilcher jointly liable for disgorgement of the $1,024,418.50 that Life Foundation Trust made in profits on the illegal sale of Hitsgalore stock; (3) ordered Life Foundation Trust to pay a civil penalty of $1,024,418.50; and (4) ordered Wilcher to pay a civil penalty of $110,000. sec.gov