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Swiss Air 111,Global Technologies and the Wolfson,Talansky Connection
by Tony Ryals Tuesday, May. 27, 2008 at 10:06 PM
wolfblitzzer0@gmail.com

Below with link is from swissair111.org that discusses
some of those involved with Global Technologies and Interactive Flight Technology pump and dump scams that may have been part of Ehud Olmert's illicit gains from bribery or 'political donations' given by Morris Talansky.It may be that Talansky's Jerusalem apartment is named Wolfson after the New York Wolfsons father and sons whose names appear below and on SEC filings with them on the Global Technologies penny stock scam that some still believe brought down the Swiss Air 111 on September 2,1998.
Note mentoion of Tom Foley and Newt Gingrich below and the penny stock promoters D.H Blair that Moriss Talansky and the Woilfsons were also connected with.
And Sulphco the fraudulent still ongoing penny stock pump and dump that claims to develop sulpher free petroleum instead like so many Israeli-Jewish penny stock pump and dump ops incorpoated in Nevada and the U.S. insteadonly defrauds American investors in order to fill the accounts of scum like Talansky and the Wolfson father and brothers who in turn run more scams to defraud investors launder mnoney into offshotre accounts and bribe politicians both in Israel the U.S. and no doubt elsewhere.
Note Alexander H. Walker former SEC attorney and long time money launderer for well connected penny stock criminals through his Nevada Agency and Trust Company or NATCO was also an insider to Sulphco fraud.And note the cynicism of the Wolfons and Morris Talansky who although feigning to be 'orthodox jews',
'invest' in a fraud where the crook Gunnerson who presides over the Sulphco fraud claims to be the illegitamte son of Hitler' !
Alexander Walker has also aided Olmert connected Michael Zwebner and his many penny stock frauds since it got too hot for him in England and he retired to Miami to launder money through scams such as Air Water Corp where Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is mentioned as an insider in SEC filing.Endovasc of the Israeli Grin brothers,James Dale Davidson of National Taxpayers Union and David P Summers of the Nothern Virgina Bank Bancshares and Dominion
Bancshares are just a few of those Mr.Walker has aided and abetted in penny stock fraud over the years - so he is also connected to the Wolfson father and sons should not be surprising.


http://forums.swissair111.org/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/322103945/m/900104945/r/900104945


DH Blair was the investment group who underwrote the IFT (Interactive Flight Technology) IPO. Here are some articles regarding the brokerage firm DH Blair. As most of you know, IFT was the company that created and manufactured the IFEN (entertainment system) that last I heard was still suspected as a possible cause of the sr111 crash.
D.H. Blair brokerage, ex-employees indicted on 173 counts of stock fraud
By Colleen
Debaise
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK, July 27 — D.H.
Blair & Co.'s retail-brokerage unit and 15 of its
officers and employees have been indicted on stock-fraudcharges, two years after the unit ceased
operations. Among the IPOs that Blair fraudulently sold wereAmerigon Inc. (ARGN), Telepad Corp., Premier Laser Systems Inc., Interactive Flight Technologies Inc., Sepragen Corp. (SPGNA), Food Court Entertainment Network Inc.,
Titan Pharmaceuticals Inc. (TTP), Digital Video Systems Inc. (DVIDE), Conversion Technologies International Inc. and Advanced Aerodynamics & Structures Inc.(AASI), according to the indictment. See Full
Article at http://www.msnbc.com/news/438541.asp#BODY (link no longer works)
There were about 51 security holders that held
stock with IFT around the time the IPO was issued. Most were not listed as being involved with other
Blair-underwritten companies. A source has provided me with a short list of those initial investors in IFT who have been involved in other Blair under-written companies and a biography on each one that have appeared in the press. This list does not imply in any way wrongdoing in regards to these individuals. -brothers Morris Wolfson, Aaron Wolfson, and Abraham Wolfson.-E. Donald Shapiro -Richard A. Nelson and Elaine M. Nelson -Marc Roberts -Andrew Bressman -Leonard Keller and Eileen Keller -Ron Cantor -Jules H. Dreyfuss -Robert A. Boisie -Lenny Corp The biographies will follow in the next few posts.
Morris and Abraham Wolfson:
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/97/0224/5904114a.htm (Article must be purchased)
"Why
would Harriton deal with a clearly disreputable
bucket shop? Was it as a favor to Morris and Abraham
Wolfson, sons of New York real estate magnate Zev
Wolfson—developer of One State Street Plaza? Morris Wolfson has sizable accounts at Bear, Stearns. He was also a big player in Baron's house stocks. And Wolfson Investment had bought $400,000 worth of A.R. Baron's privately issued convertible preferred stock. As a special client of Baron he would be Entitled to allotments of hot issues before the suckers were invited in. Bressman told people that the Wolfsons asked Harriton to take on Baron as a clearing firm again.
Bressman told people that Harriton asked the Wolfsons if the family would guarantee the firm. The family declined, but Harriton took Baron back anyway. Morris Wolfson, 38, is infamous as co-owner of a Harlem apartment building that collapsed in 1994, killing three people. Wolfson was not found liable for the deaths."
Joseph Morton Davis:
http://securities.stanford.edu/complaints/dreyfus/98cv04318/010.html (link no longer works)
D.H. Blair & Co ("D.H. Blair"), a now defunct company
run by "penny stock king" J. Morton Davis. D.H.
Blair was notorious for boiler-room tactics such as
cold calling, overcharging customers and high
pressure sales tactics. In 1997, for example, D.H. Blair
agreed to pay $4.9 million in fines and restitution
as part of a settlement with the NASD arising out
of allegations that it overcharged customers who invested in public offerings it underwrote. Also in 1997, D.H. Blair paid a $25,000 fine to settle improper-trading charges brought by the NASD. Currently, D.H. Blair is reportedly being investigated for sales practice violations by the SEC, federal prosecutors and a task force of state securities regulators.
D. H. Blair
Aug 18,
1997
http://207.197.132.133/alerts/v3/ALRTV3N29.html (link no longer works)
The September issue of Money magazine highlights the personal financial gains of Marianne Gingrich, House Speaker Newt Gingrich's (R-Ga) wife. Mrs. Gingrich reportedly made a quick $5,000 from three initial public offerings (IPO) underwritten by D.H. Blair Investment Banking. The Money report recalled Rep. Gingrich's outraged reaction when word spread of former House Speaker Tom Foley's (D-Wash) use of IPOs to make a fast profit. Gingrich asked Foley "how he made more than $100,000…dealing in new stock issues not available to most investors." The owner of D.H. Blair Investment, J. Morton Davis, and his wife, Rosalind, made more than $83,000 in individual contributions in the 1996 election cycle -- including $10,000 to Gingrich's leadership PAC, the Monday Morning PAC. Rosalind Davis gave the Monday Morning PAC $5,000 on Oct. 25, 1996, around the same time that Marianne Gingrich was buying
and selling stock underwritten by Davis' husband. According to a list by Mother Jones, J. Morton Davis was also a charter member of GOPAC when it was in
Gingrich's control and gave the group $20,000. Recently,Davis successfully lobbied Congress to include a provision in the tax bill benefiting investors who help support the type of companies D.H. Blair Investment often underwrites. The Davis family is no stranger to the campaign finance world. In 1996, D.H. Blair & Co., a brokerage firm partly owned by Davis' children, paid a $100,000 penalty to the Federal Election Commission(FEC), which alleged the company illegally used contributor lists to solicit clients. One of the lists requested from the FEC by D.H. Blair & Co.?
Newt Gingrich's. Andrew Bressman
http://www.sec.gov/enforce/adminact/34-42103.htm (link no longer works)
Andrew
Bressman, age 34, resides in Norwood, New Jersey.
On December 15, 1997, Bressman pleaded guilty to
and was convicted of New York State felony charges
of enterprise corruption and grand larceny in the
first degree arising from his activities as a broker and chief executive of Baron. In his plea, Bressman admitted to defrauding his customers by more than $1,000,000. He is presently awaiting sentencing on those charges. From January 2, 1990 through August 17, 1992, Bressman was a registered representative at Blair. In August 1992, Bressman left Blair to become a registered representative and president of Baron. In February 1993, Bressman became a registered principal at Baron and in September 1993 he began serving as Baron's chief executive officer.
Bressman ceased employment with Baron in July 1996. While employed at Baron between August 1992 and July 1996,and while engaged in the manipulative schemes and abusive sales practices described above, Bressman received $6,038,412 in compensation from Baron.
Bressman's compensation arose in whole or in substantial part from the illegal activities described
above.
A R. Baron & D. H. Blair
Sept 22,
1997
http://www.nasdr.com/1420/goldsmith_02.htm
In May, the Manhattan District Attorney
announced the indictment of A.R. Baron & Co., Inc. and
the arrest of 13 individuals for cheating
thousands of investors out of more than $75 million.
The individuals and the firm, which is now defunct, were charged with participating in a pattern of criminal activity. Included in that pattern were lying to investors to induce them to buy certain low-priced securities; manipulating the markets in certain micro-cap stocks to benefit themselves and their favored customers; making unauthorized trades in the millions of dollars; refusing to honor its customers' directives to
sell securities in their accounts; outright thefts
from investors; and forging documents to prevent
detection of their crimes. Four NASD Regulation
examiners from our Chicago office worked closely with
the Manhattan DA throughout this important investigation.
Robert Fosie Feb 17,
1998
http://www.sec.gov/enforce/litigrel/lr15642.txt February
17, 1998, the Commission filed a
complaint in the United States District Court for the
District of Columbia against Robert Foisie ("Foisie").
The complaint alleges that Foisie, a resident of
Old Saybrook, Connecticut, failed to file thirty required forms reporting his securities ownership with the
Commission.
J. Morton Davis
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/98/0824/6204055a.htm
"Morty
Davis, 69, is a Brooklyn-born Harvard hundred
million dollars. He got rich by raising money in the
private and public markets for companies that tonier
firms wouldn't touch. Since that kind of paper
is hard to sell, Davis demanded and got top dollar from
the outfits he served, collecting big fees and
getting hunks of equity in those companies.
E. Donald Shapiro was a Director on three
Blair-related companies named in the indictments alone.
Priemier Laser Systems, Telepad, and Food Court
Entertainment Network
Inc.
In an S-3 on 10/11/1996 made by Interactive
Flight Technologies: "The Company has agreed not to solicit Warrant exercises other than through D. H. Blair Investment Banking Corp., the underwriter of the IPO."
D.H. Blair & Co. (August 1997)
Fraudulent and excessive markups in sixteen securities as to which the firm dominated and controlled immediate aftermarket trading Fines and restitution of almost $5 million
Significant fines and suspensions for the firm's CEO and Head
Trader." http://www.nasdaqnews.com/news/pr/invinit.html
Clearing House Practices (Scroll
down until you reach
D.H.
Blair) http://www.oag.state.ny.us/investors/microcap97/report97d.html

GODFATHER IV MEETS BOILERROOM II
The United States
Attorney for the Eastern District of New York has charged
that representatives of four Mafia families teamed up
with Russian mobsters in a multi-million dollar stock
scam involving several "boiler room" brokerage
firms. A four-year investigation by federal authorities
has culminated in the indictments of nineteen
individuals, including six alleged mobsters or associates of
organized crime families. The allegations focus on
activities at four brokerage firms: White Rock Partners
(later renamed State Street Capital Markets Corp.); J.W.
Barclay & Co.; A.R. Baron & Co., Inc.; and D.H. Blair &
Co. All four firms specialized in the sale of
microcap stocks.
http://www.stockpatrol.com/radar/radar2000.html
A Favor to One
. . .Which brings us to one
great irony in the new law. Buried deep in its bowels
(Title III, Sec. 313) is a remarkable tax break that
could provide the key to reforming the entire
system--even though it certainly wasn't meant that way. The
break was the result of the efforts of one man, J.
Morton Davis, who built the investment firm D. H. Blair
& Co., Inc., and who is well-connected in
Washington. Among other things, he owns part of the parent
company of The Hill, a newspaper that covers
Congress. http://www.aei.org/oti/oti8079.htm
D.H. Blair to refund up to $2.25M regulators say.
Wednesday, October 7, 1998 By DAVID EVANS, Bloomberg
News NASHVILLE -- D.H. Blair & Co., a New
York-based penny stock underwriter that ended retail
operations in April, reached an agreement with state
regulators to set up a $2.25 million restitution fund for
customers who think the brokerage made inappropriate
trades http://www.naplesnews.com/today/business/d408263a.htm "While at UBS, Schonberg worked closely with D.H. Blair
& Co ("D.H. Blair"), a now defunct company run by
"penny stock king" J. Morton Davis. D.H. Blair was
notorious for boiler-room tactics such as cold calling,
overcharging customers and high pressure sales tactics. In
1997, for example, D.H. Blair agreed to pay $4.9
million in fines and restitution as part of a settlement
with the NASD arising out of allegations that it
overcharged customers who invested in public offerings it
underwrote. Also in 1997, D.H. Blair paid a $25,000 fine to
settle improper-trading charges brought by the NASD.
Currently, D.H. Blair is reportedly being investigated for
sales practice violations by the SEC, federal
prosecutors and a task force of state securities
regulators." http://www.lawssb.com/Dreyfus/complaint.htm (link no longer works)
__________________________________
Fifteen officers from the now-defunct D.H. Blair
& Co. - including its three top men - were indicted
in Manhattan yesterday for running the
problem-plagued securities firm as a corrupt enterprise.
Among those facing up to 25 years prison if convicted
are Kenton Wood, the former Wall Street firm's
chairman, and Alan Stahler and Kalman Renov, its vice
chairmen.
http://www.nypost.com/07282000/business/34020.htm (link no longer works)
EX-D.H. BLAIR BROKER GUILTY IN IPO PRICE SCAM
By LARRY CELONA and DAREH GREGORIAN A stockbroker from the now-defunct
Manhattan securities firm D.H. Blair pleaded guilty
yesterday to conspiring with several brokers in a scheme to
artificially inflate IPO prices. Vincent Poliseno, 32,
pleaded guilty to securities fraud and attempted
enterprise corruption in front of State Supreme Court Judge
Bernard Fried -- the first arrest and conviction stemming
from a lengthy, sweeping investigation into corruption
charges against Blair and some of the companies it did
business with.
http://www.nypost.com/02052000/business/24186.htm (link no longer works)
_________________________________
D.H. Blair,
the booming Wall Street brokerage house,
is being investigated for allegedly defrauding
thousands of investors through manipulative sales and
trading practices, The Post has learned. As part of
the investigation, the Manhattan district attorney's
office is focusing on a team of Blair brokers whose
clients include organized-crime figures - among them,
John Gotti's son-in-law, Carmine Agnello, sources
said. The main thrust of the probe, sources
said, is Blair's financing, promotion and trading of
new stock issues that resulted in artificially
inflated prices for customers."
http://208.248.87.252/113097/1291.htm (link no longer works)
D.H. Blair And Top Officials To Pay $4.9 Million In
Fines And Restitution August 13, 1997
"The 16
securities involved were: Amerigon Corp. common stock;
Telepad Corporation units; AquaCare System units; Symbollon
Corporation units; Skyline Multimedia units; Linda's Flame
Roasted Chicken units; Skysat Communication units;
Video Update units; U.S. China Industrial
Exchange units; Montbatten common stock; U.S. Diagnostics Labs
units; Premier Laser System units; Infosafe System
units; In-Time System units; Interactive Flight
units; and Sepragen Corporation units. There is no
suggestion that the affected companies knew of, or were
involved in these
violations."
http://www.nasdaqnews.com/news/pr/ne_section97_58.html

Greed is NOT good
Pump and Dump:
The Inside Story of D.H. Blair
By Timothy Harper Inside story of DH
Blair Section 1: Greed is Not Good Throughout most of the 1990s,
pretty much
everybody who worked on Wall Street knew that D.H. Blair & Co. was a brokerage
house that played
fast and loose with the rules. It was the kind of place where young brokers
could make a
lot of money fast -- especially if they weren't bothered by ethics, or by
losing money for
their clients. Consequently, it was no surprise last month when 15
former executives
and brokers at the now-defunct D.H. Blair were indicted by the Manhattan
district attorney on charges of enterprise corruption -- a polite legal term for using a supposedly legitimate company for fraud and racketeering. What was shocking was that it
took so long for authorities to bring criminal charges against Blair's shady practices.
The indictments against D.H. Blair and some former employees -- including the chairman, two vice chairmen, the
head trader and 11 brokers -- alleged that Blair was "a criminal enterprise" from 1989 until 1998, when it was closed. The 173-count indictment accuses Blair and its
brokers of
cheating clients out of tens of millions of dollars in a number of ways. Among
the alleged
illegal acts were stock price manipulation, insider trading, high-pressure
sales tactics,
selling shares for more than their market prices and stealing client lists from
other
brokerages.
http://netbank.onmoney.com/Editorial/Investing/harper/pump_dump_step1.html
http://netbank.onmoney.com/Editorial/Investing/harper/pump_dump_step1
http://www.nasdaqnews.com/news/pr/ne_section97_58.html
http://www.nasdaqnews.com/news/pr/ne_section97_58.html
http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Exec/Securities/releases/dhblair.html
http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Exec/Securities/releases/dhblair.html http://www.nypost.com/07282000/business/34020.htm
http://www.nypost.com/07282000/business/34020.htm
I was wondering what happened with the indictments and this is the most recent information I was able to find:
DISTRICT ATTORNEY - NEW YORK COUNTY News Release June 5, 2001 Contact: Barbara
Thompson 212.335.9400 Manhattan District Attorney Robert
M. Morgenthau announced that a 34-year-old former
stock broker at D.H. Blair & Co., Inc. pleaded guilty
to enterprise corruption and securities
fraud. The defendant, ALFRED PALAGONIA, was a broker at D.H.
Blair & Co., Inc. from January 1990 through February
1998. The defendant was indicted in July 2000 along
with 14 other brokers and the D.H. Blair firm itself
in an indictment charging the defendants with
operating D.H. Blair as a criminal enterprise. Mr.
Palagonia is the first defendant to plead guilty arising
out of that indictment. The defendant pleaded
guilty yesterday before New York State Supreme Court
Judge Bernard Fried to one count of Enterprise
Corruption and one count of Securities Fraud in violation of
the Martin Act. The maximum penalty for Enterprise
Corruption is 25 years in prison. The defendant was
charged by the New York County District Attorney's Office
with participating in a scheme in which certain
brokers and others at D.H. Blair & Co., Inc. and other
broker/dealers conspired to manipulate and maintain the price of
securities being offered in IPOs at artificially high
levels. The illegal techniques included a variety of
fraudulent sales practices such as misrepresentations of
material facts, omissions of material facts that the
brokers were legally required to disclose, misleading
statements including unreasonable price predictions and
statements about the expected compensation to be received by
the brokers, imparting or intimating the possession
of material nonpublic information, and unauthorized
purchases of securities. The scheme benefited favored
customers of D.H. Blair & Co., Inc., including customers of
principals of the firm, who were able to sell their
securities in the aftermarket. Those securities were bought
by other, non-favored customers who were not aware
that they would not be readily able to sell their
holdings, and who later lost money when the price of the
securities dropped. Mr. Palagonia was charged with
fraudulently selling to the unsuspecting public securities
including Interactive Flight Technologies, Inc., Digital
Video Systems, Inc., and Advanced Aerodynamics and
Structures, Inc. One investor from Colorado lost
approximately $450,000 due to Mr. Palagonia's fraudulent
conduct. Today's plea is part of a continuing
investigation by the New York County District Attorney's Office
into corrupt activities in the securities industry. In
addition to Mr. Palagonia, three other former stock
brokers have pleaded guilty to attempted enterprise
corruption and securities fraud during the course of the
investigation of D.H. Blair. Assistant District
Attorneys Steve Krantz, Tom Curran and Melissa Paolella of
the District Attorney's Frauds Bureau handled the
investigation of this case under the supervision of Daniel J.
Castleman, Chief of the Investigation Division, and Owen
Heimer, Chief of the Frauds Bureau. Investigator
Christopher Donohue assisted in the investigation under the
supervision of Assistant Supervising Investigator Angel
Flores, Deputy Chief Investigator Thomas Jackson, and
Chief Investigator Joseph Pennisi. Mr.
Morgenthau thanked the United States Securities and Exchange
Commission, and the National Association of Securities
Dealers for their
assistance.
http://www.manhattanda.org/whatsnew/press/2001-06-05.htm
By Gary Stoller, USA TODAY
An inactive Wall Street brokerage firm, its chairman and three top
executives pleaded guilty Friday to multiple counts of securities
fraud and collusion to fix stock prices on the Nasdaq market.
The plea agreement, which averted a trial that was scheduled to begin
Monday, calls for D.H. Blair and Co. and the executives to pay $21
million to reimburse defrauded customers.
According to Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, the
executives and 10 of their brokers who previously pleaded guilty
engaged in "a massive scheme of securities fraud" and "price
manipulation" from 1989 through 1998. During those years, D.H. Blair
and its "investment bank affiliate" brought public nearly 100 small
companies.
"Unknown to its tens of thousands of retail customers, Blair
consistently arranged to buy initial public offering (IPO) shares
from its preferred clients — often celebrities and wealthy
individuals — at a predetermined premium and resell them to its rank-
and-file clients at artificially inflated prices," Morgenthau said in
a statement. "Many of the less-favored customers were unsophisticated
investors of limited means, in some cases elderly or infirm, and
completely unsuitable for Blair's highly speculative securities."
When these customers wanted to sell their shares, they
were "aggressively discouraged from doing so," the district attorney
says.
D.H. Blair, which operated for 94 years before selling its assets in
1998, colluded with another brokerage, A.R. Baron, Morgenthau
charges. In 1997, company founder Andrew Bressman, a former D.H.
Blair employee, pleaded guilty to defrauding A.R. Baron customers of
more than $1 million from August 1992 to July 1996.
The D.H. Blair executives who pleaded guilty Friday were Chairman
Kenton Wood, Vice Chairmen Alan Stahler and Kalman Renov, and head
trader Vito Capotorto. Wood, Stahler and Capotorto face prison terms
of up to four years, and Renov faces probation, a Morgenthau
spokeswoman says.
Lawyers for Wood and D.H. Blair had no comment. Stahler and Renov
were represented by different law firms but issued the same written
statements. The two executives "took this difficult step to close a
painful chapter" in their and their families' lives and "have always
tried to be faithful" to their responsibility to their "loyal clients
and friends," the statements said.
Gary Naftalis, Capotorto's lawyer, says "Mr. Capotorto wants to get
this matter behind him so he can get on with the rest of his life."
Stahler and Renov are sons-in-law of J. Morton Davis, former D.H.
Blair chairman and current chairman of D.H. Blair Investment Banking,
which underwrote D.H. Blair's initial public stock offerings. Davis
divided D.H. Blair into two entities in 1992, retaining control of
the firm's investment banking business and transferring ownership of
D.H. Blair's retail brokerage business to Wood, his two daughters and
Capotorto.
No criminal charges have been brought against Davis, but more than 90
civil lawsuits have been filed against him, D.H. Blair and its
brokers by former stockholders who charge they were defrauded.
Davis' lawyer did not return calls for comment.
D.H. Blair officials said in a statement that the guilty pleas to
criminal charges relate only to their company "and in no way involve
D.H. Blair Investment Banking Corp."
The following names appear in INTERACTIVE FLIGHT TECHNOLOGIES INC's SEC filings:
http://www.edgar-online.com/brand/yahoo/people/companypeople.asp?cik=932021
Posts: 2177 | Location: USA | Registered: Sun April 07 2002

BF Posted Sun December 15 2002 11:14 PM Hide Post
From the September 26, 1997 print edition
Underwriter takes heat at Interactive Flight
Mary Vandeveire The Business Journal
Early investors in Phoenix-based Interactive Flight Technologies may be getting a check in the mail following a securities industry probe.

In the meantime, current shareholders are watching closely as the company tries to reverse setbacks and sustain operations.
In a settlement with National Association of Securities Dealers Regulation, D.H. Blair & Co. Inc. agreed to pay restitution to investors who paid excessive markups on 16 securities, including Interactive Flight units.
The settlement stems from allegations that, from June 1993 through May 1995, the New York-based firm charged excessive markups on certain securities whose initial public offerings were underwritten by D.H. Blair Investment Banking Corp. The firm was the underwriter on Interactive Flight's March 1995 IPO of 2.8 million units comprising warrants and shares of common stock. The IPO price was $5 per unit.
The recently announced settlement, which levels a $525,000 fine on D.H. Blair's head trader, does not suggest that the affected companies knew of the violations.


Current Interactive Flight investors are ready for some uplifting news.
The company's shares have been trading in the $2.50 range, following news of major sales setbacks. The stock's high for the past 52 weeks was $16 per share, the low $2.13. As earnings out this month show continuing losses for the company, the focus is on averting a business dead end projected for early next year.
IFT has completed the installation of its entertainment systems in seven Swissair aircraft and is scheduled to complete installations in eight more by February. After that, there are no more major sales agreements to fulfill.
The company's recent filing of third-quarter earnings noted: "If additional customers are not forthcoming soon, the company would have to review whether its current [sales] backlog can prudently support its ongoing development projects and overhead."
IFT develops, makes, installs and operates a computer-based in-flight entertainment network, which lets aircraft passengers see movies, purchase goods and services, play computer games and gamble through an in-seat video touch screen. The company has installed its "shipsets" on aircraft operated by three European airlines: Swissair, Debonair and Alitalia Airlines.
The delivery and installation of IFT's entertainment network on one Swissair aircraft during its third quarter helped boost third-quarter revenues 23 percent, to $1.5 million, compared with $1.2 million for the same period last year.
Company executives were encouraged from interest generated at a recent airline entertainment conference, chief financial officer John Alderfer said.
"We'll be following up now on airline visits after the conference," Alderfer said. "IFT has paid a price to enter the in-flight entertainment market, and it's been a significant price. We have to get some base hits here."
Alderfer would not discount the possibility of IFT being acquired by one of the handful of giant players in this industry, but declined to comment specifically about options being evaluated since bringing in Merrill Lynch last month.
"We hired Merrill Lynch to look for strategic partners," Alderfer said. A lot of times a partner would "buy an interest to benefit from the relationship."
Other companies in in-flight entertainment include Matsushita, Sony Trans Com, Hughes Avacom and B.E. Aerospace.
B.E. Aerospace, which makes a range of products for commercial aircraft, also had a setback in recent months, stock analyst Debra Fiakas of H.D. Brous noted. British Airways passed over B.E. Aerospace's more substantial entertainment product in favor of one that would involve much lower revenue. Fiakas said B.E. Aerospace and Interactive Flight are the two publicly traded companies that have had good products that reached the marketplace.
"I believe Interactive Flight Technologies could have given the B.E. Aerospace product a run for its money," said Fiakas, describing IFT's product. "It's very much like a laptop computer. You just touch the screen to get what you want.
"I want to use it, I'm just not sure I want to pay for it. I think those questions are still unanswered. Perhaps that's what Merrill Lynch's charge is -- to find out just how deep the market is."
In July, IFT lost out on an estimated $200 million contract from Qantas Airways.
"There are two sizable things that have happened in the last six months," Alderfer said, noting that the decision by Qantas to keep its old entertainment system was one. The other was the realization that in-flight entertainment systems do not generate enough revenue to pay for themselves on a stand-alone basis.
"There was a perception that the system could pay for itself out of its own revenue," Alderfer said. "In March, after having installed systems on Swissair, we found that was not the case."
The Swissair agreement originally required IFT to manufacture, assemble, install and operate the system on Swissair's long-haul fleet. Under the agreement, the company agreed to finance the purchase price -- about $72 million -- out of revenue from passenger use of the systems. The agreement has been renegotiated under a memorandum of understanding that was set to expire Tuesday. IFT agreed that Swissair would receive title to three systems, with IFT's recovery of costs to come from a percentage of the systems' gaming revenues.
During the quarter ended July 31, IFT expensed all of its costs associated with the three systems -- totaling about $13 million. IFT reported a net loss for the third quarter of $18 million, compared with a $4.9 million loss a year ago.
For the nine months ended July 31, revenue was $4.1 million, compared with $2.9 million for the same period 1996. The net loss for the nine months was $33.9 million, compared with $10.9 million last year.
D.H. Blair's alleged actions would not have had an effect on the current market performance of shares in IFT, a local stockbroker said.
In the IPO, what likely happened is that on the days that IFT shares, and the other affected stocks, came to market, the D.H. Blair trading desk exceeded the 5 percent profit limit on risk-free transactions. Sales of shares that are not held in inventory fall into the risk-free category. If there had been high turnover during the first trading days of these issues, traders may have been marking stocks up -- by $1, for example, on a stock they took in at $6.50 -- and selling them without taking them in inventory and carrying some of the risk that there would be a buyer later on. A $1 markup on a $6.50 stock represents a 15 percent gain.
"It's pandemonium when a stock opens," the broker said, adding that, in regulators' eyes, the frenzy wouldn't excuse a pattern of excessive markups on at least a dozen securities.
http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/1997/09/29/story4.html
Posts: 2177 | Location: USA | Registered: Sun April 07 2002

Ignored post by BF posted Sun December 15 2002 11:14 PM Show Post

BF Posted Tue February 18 2003 07:35 PM Hide Post
From yesterday's USA Today, needs to be added to this thread. I don't even have to comment. Gary Stoller says it all in his excellent article.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/biztravel/2003-02-16-swissair-investigation_x.htm
Mlynarczyk says he received a phone call from a representative of stockbroker D.H. Blair & Co., who asked him whether certification was near and whether he'd like to get in on the ground floor of IFT's initial public stock offering. IFT went public in March 1995.
Such an offer could violate a federal bribery law, which applies to anyone, like Mlynarczyk, acting on behalf of the government. The law, which imposes a fine and up to 15 years imprisonment, is violated by offers of ''anything of value to any public official'' with intent ''to influence any official act.''
Mlynarczyk says he turned down the offer. Several years later, D.H. Blair and 13 former employees were found guilty of defrauding investors in 15 IPOs -- including IFT's -- through stock-price manipulation. Four of those employees -- including the vice chairman -- received prison sentences. The company is now defunct.
A month after the stock offering, Mlynarczyk says he canceled his contract with IFT because the company kept changing its entertainment system specifications and pressuring him to speed up the certification process. Two days later, while he was away, two men arrived at his Florida office in a limousine with New York state license plates and demanded that his wife hand over the prototype and related data, Mlynarczyk says.
His wife refused their demands because IFT still owed $30,000. The two men handed over $30,000 in cash and then cut the prototype system into parts when it didn't fit into the limo, Mlynarczyk says.
Itkis says he can't recall Mlynarczyk, but he laughed when he was told about Mlynarczyk's account. ''He has a very vivid imagination,'' Itkis says. ''It sounds like a movie scenario. Can I get rights to it?''
Posts: 2177 | Location: USA | Registered: Sun April 07 2002

Ignored post by BF posted Tue February 18 2003 07:35 PM Show Post

BF Posted Sat February 22 2003 11:27 PM Hide Post
>>>Itkis says he can't recall Mlynarczyk, but he laughed when he was told about Mlynarczyk's account. ''He has a very vivid imagination,'' Itkis says. ''It sounds like a movie scenario. Can I get rights to it?'' <<<
He's a real laugh, isn't he???
Posts: 2177 | Location: USA | Registered: Sun April 07 2002


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http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/faculty/Clemens.Sialm/barrons020507.pdf
Paying the Piper at SulphCO By BILL ALPERT THE COLLAPSE OF SULPHCO STOCK in the past year shouldn't merit much attention. After all, lots of hyped tech stocks bomb out. But this little Reno gamble shows the risks of betting on unorthodox science claims -- especially when Wall Street's smart-money investors have gotten there first in private placements. SULPHCO WAS JUST a money-losing stock promotion that claimed it could turn sulfurous crude into higher-priced, clean-burning oil. About a year ago, those claimshelped boost its shares to $19.70, giving the company a stock-market value of $1 billion. But with just a bit of research, anyone could have figured out that SulphCo's founder, Rudolf W. Gunnerman, had faked his academic background and that his previous tech ventures had cost investors millions of dollars (as Barron's reported in "A Crank Case?1" Jan. 23, 2006). Some who'd worked closely with the 78-year-old German emigré say that he'd even claimed to have invented the laser and talked of being "the bastard son of Hitler.
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Among the most sophisticated SulphCo investors is the family of Zev W. Wolfson, a New York City real-estate magnate renowned for charity and for active investing in hedge funds. For years, the 77-year-old Wolfson and his sons Abraham and Aaron, and stepson Morris, have invested quietly from their family office in a 29th-floor aerie of their skyscraper at the foot of Manhattan. Just last March, the Wolfsons added to their $17 million investment in SulphCo by putting $2.5 million into a private placement. THE WOLFSONS INVEST widely, but eschew publicity. No wonder. For more than a decade, they've been important financiers of public disasters like SulphCo and of the unsavory brokers who promote such stocks -- underwriting the financial muggings of little old ladies from their glass tower........................................
Since the early 1990s, the Wolfsons have put tens of millions of dollars into small-capcompanies through bridge loans and PIPEs -- private investments in public equities -- a sometimes controversial form of investment that is being scrutinized by the Securities and Exchange Commission. (See Why Hedge Funds Love Pipes.) The typical PIPE deal works out badly for a company's public shareholders, according to most studies. But the deals can produce good returns for the hedge funds and wealthy investors who buy shares in private placements from a public company at a discount that's typically 10% or more from the public market price. That can allow the private PIPE investors to quickly profit through short sales as well as price appreciation. Wolfson family members have been private-placement investors in dozens of companies, including one that federal prosecutors alleged was linked to organized crime........................................
For whatever reason, the Wolfsons have repeatedly supplied large amounts of capital to dubious stock promoters. In fact, securities and court filings show that they financed promotions by some of the most notorious boiler-rooms of Wall Street's rapacious 1990s, such as D.H. Blair and A.R. Baron, both brokers that went out of business as the Manhattan district attorney sent their key personnel to prison. A probe by a federal bankruptcy trustee into the 1996 collapse of A.R. Baron concluded that the Wolfsons were in on the schemes of that brokerage firm, 13 of whose employees ultimately were convicted of defrauding investors.................................
AFTER 10 YEARS of patiently piecing together parcels of property at the southern tip of Manhattan, Zev Wolfson launched his realty empire in 1969 when his real-estate partnership built One State Street Plaza, a 32-story building with unequalled views of the Statue of Liberty. With his real-estate cash, Wolfson became an early investor in the hedge-fund and private-equity industries. In the 1980s, he was a limited partner of money managers like Carl C. Icahn, Saul Steinberg and John A. Mulheren Jr., a controversial trader convicted in 1990 of stock manipulation. That conviction was later reversed, but not before police stopped Mulheren from confronting prosecution witness Ivan Boesky with a rifle. Wolfson also has a reputation for sharing his profits with charitable beneficiaries, supporting overseas religious and educational groups in a low-profile manner............................................
A Family's Highs and Lows: Zev Wolfson's family had built its fortune and reputation on Manhattan real estate, charitable donations and hedge-fund investments. But the family or its employees have also been deeply involved with boiler-rooms like A.R. Baron, funded iffy promotions like SulphCo and teamed with alleged naked short-sellers like Pond Equities. Why?The Wolfsons aren't talking. From left to right: 1969 -- One State Street Plaza launches Zev Wolfson's real-estate empire. He becomes an avid investor in hedge funds and buyout firms. March 1995 -- Three people killed in collapse of Harlem tenements owned by Wolfson's stepson Morris. No criminal charges were filed. June 2004 - March 2006 -- Dubious petroleumtechnology of "Dr." Rudolf Gunnerman financed by Wolfson's sons and associates. July 2004 --Grand Theft Auto game distributor, which faked sales, is acquired by company advised by Wolfsons' general counsel. April 2006 -- Naked short-selling allegations filed by SEC against broker associate of Wolfsons' general counsel. In the 1990s, Zev Wolfson's sons began appearing as investors in their own right. While Abraham, Morris and Aaron Wolfson may well have made blue-chip investments that don't fill the public record, numerous SEC registration statements show one or another of them as substantial participants in private placements by a rogues' gallery of bad-news brokers. In addition to D.H. Blair and A.R. Baron, those brokers included Kensington Wells, William Scott & Co. and Patterson Travis. These firms stole hundreds of millions of dollars from the investing public, by the estimate of government regulators.......................................
Among the Wolfson accounts used for A.R. Baron's trading schemes, said the trustee's filings, were those of United Congregations Mesora -- a not-for-profit Jewish organization controlled by Zev Wolfson and his son Abraham -- and the Chana Sasha Foundation, controlled by Morris and Arielle Wolfson. In its tax returns, the Chana Sasha Foundation said it makes educational grants and helps needy families. In SEC filings, it showed a predilection for millions of dollars' worth of the house stocks of A.R. Baron and other boiler-rooms. As noted, the Wolfson Group's managing director, Eli Levitin, says the family won't discuss its investing. As it turns out, Levitin himself has followed the Wolfsons in patronizing dubious brokers and their stocks. Back in 1997, he received warrants for
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15,000 shares of a D.H. Blair-sponsored company that marketed discounted chiropractic care. The warrants were Levitin's compensation for performing investor-relations services, said the SEC filings of the now-vanished company..........................................
In 2004, another failed company in which Levitin was an investor and adviser merged with a videogame-distribution business called Alliance Distributors Holding. The next year an SEC suit alleged that Alliance had been one of several distributors involved in a sales fraud scheme by executives at Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO), publisher of the very violent, very popular gangster game Grand Theft Auto. Without making admissions, Take-Two executives settled the SEC suit, which had contended that in 2000 and 2001, Alliance's predecessor business Corner Distributors had let the Grand Theftpublisher park $10 million worth of games. Corner then returned them all after Take Two had falsely reported them as having been sold. (It might amuse Grand Theft Autodevotees to learn that Corner Distributors was involved in a real East Harlem numbers racket that produced a 1998 guilty plea by a patriarch of Corner's family owners.) Levitin has owned several investment ventures with Mel E. Lifshitz -- a class-action lawyer with the New York firm Bernstein, Liebhard and Lifshitz-and Ezra Y. Birnbaum, a Maserati-driving broker whom the SEC sued in Brooklyn's U.S. district court last year, alleging that Birnbaum allowed his employees at the Brooklyn brokerage firm Pond Equities to engage in "naked" short selling. Birnbaum's brokers allegedly drove down a company's shares by selling them short without borrowing and delivering stock to make the short sales legit...............................................
Levitin says that none of his investment activities "relate in any way to, or affect, the Wolfson family, nor do they relate to my position as general counsel of Acta Realty or any other Wolfson family entities............................................................................
He says that the Wolfsons' SulphCo position is a long-term investment. It had better be. A few weeks ago, SulphCo's board fired founder Rudolf Gunnerman and filed their Nevada state court allegations that Gunnerman had made many SulphCo stock purchases in violation of the company's insider-trading policy. Former SulphCo employees tell Barron's that Gunnerman frenetically traded the company's stock. Gunnerman remains a SulphCo director and shareholder. He issued a press release calling the board's allegations vicious and false. Last Monday, SulphCo held a conference call featuring Gunnerman's replacement as CEO -- Larry Ryan, a former General Electric executive. Ryan promised a valid commercial test of the company's oil-processing technique as soon as he could get the SulphCo ultrasound device to function reliably. After the call, SulphCo shares rose 18% to end the week at 3.91. If Gunnerman's technology does indeed work, SulphCo investors can thank the Wolfsons for financing Gunnerman through PIPE deals. If not, perhaps they can apply for help from the Wolfsons' charities.

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