More on the 'Amazing Fraud'

Floyd Norris of the New York Times has a scintillating account in his blog of the in-your-face greed -- and chutzpah -- of Universal Express CEO Richard Altomare. This story is getting more outrageous with each passing day.

Seems that even as the company was being nailed by the SEC, and defiantly issuing a stream of press releases blaming its share price decline on "counterfeit shares," Altomare was living high on the hog at company expense. Floyd reports, inter alia:

From April 2006 to May 2007 — the latter date after the judge had ordered him to stop running the company — Mr. Altomare had the company spend $558,900 at a retail jewelry store in Boca Raton, Fla. In October, he pawned the jewelry for
$500,000.

In July — after my column, and after the Securities and Exchange Commission asked a judge to hold him in contempt for failing to obey the earlier order — Universal Express paid $30,000 “to cover Altomare’s marker at the Wynn Las Vegas,” a casino.

Wasn't that nice of Universal Express? It will be interesting to see what else the SEC-appointed receiver uncovers.

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.



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Wall Street Versus America was published by Penguin USA on April 6.
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