RIP, Sharesleuth Business Model

When Mark Cuban opened his Sharesleuth website three years ago, with a "business model" based on his trading in advance of Sharesleuth items, Cuban smugly heralded the site as the Next Big Thing in financial journalism in a series of arrogant blog posts.

It hasn't turned out that way, as is evident from the latest item. Today the site had an item on Michael J. Xirinachs, a "financier" enmeshed in the fraud involving naked shorting poster child Universal Express. As usual, Cuban hasn't taken a position in any of the stocks mentioned in the item.

That's significant because Cuban is supposed to be financing this site by doing just that. And he hasn't taken a position in any Sharesleuth stocks since this item on a Chinese company in March 2008.

Maybe the reason is his ongoing insider trading case. But I suspect that he hasn't been trading in advance of these items because he can't. There are a lot of good shorting opportunities available among microcaps, but very few of these stocks can be shorted.

In fact, I think it's pretty plain by now that the Sharesleuth business model is dead. Good riddance. It's failure was pretty obvious back in 2007, after it emerged that his trading wasn't the money machine he had anticipated.

This disclosure, if current, shows that Cuban has taken positions in a grand total of three companies, and that just two of his short positions are still pending.

Sharesleuth also has been pretty much of a flop from a journalistic standpoint, and not just because of the obvious ethical issues. It just has not been a particularly useful website. Sharesleuth's output has been sparse--he has embarked on full-scale "investigations" on a grand total of five companies in the past three years, and "short takes" on a few others. The items tend to be overlong and written in police-report fashion, with little context.

When he startd up Sharesleuth, Cuban said as follows in a blog post entitled "Business Journalists Should be Thankful":

If Sharesleuth is successful, you can bet that any of the above with billions of dollars at stake will gladly hire the best and brightest business journalists they can find.Bigger the rolodex, the better. Old is the new young. Crusty is the new Yuppy.They will unleash those journalists to uncover stories that can give them an edge.

That hasn't happened and you know what? I don't know of any investigative journalists who are too broken up about it.

© 2009 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

Richard Altomare Gets Sprung (Without a Hacksaw)

All good things must come to an end

Famed anti-naked-shorting activist Richard Altomare, ex-CEO of the Universal Express stock fraud, was ordered released today from incarceration at Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, according to court records.

Altomare was tossed in the clink in early May, and ordered to rot there until he paid back some of the millions of dollars he stole from the company. He never did, so he just stayed there, while his supporters carried out an obscenity filled email-spam campaign. Judge Gerald Lynch believes that further imprisonment won't do any good.

Lamentable as it is to see Altomare walking the streets with respectable citizens, I think that Lynch has a point. And besides, Altomare should really be held accountable by a court of law, and on criminal charges, and not for civil contempt. That's a kind of backdoor way of getting justice.

So the question remains: where is the U.S. Attorney, anyway? By not prosecuting a slug like Altomare, George Bush's Justice Department is proving yet again that it turns a blind eye toward white collar wrongdoing.

© 2008 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

For Sale: Ten Tons of Baloney

The court-appointed receiver for Universal Express, the fraud-infested company that is a poster child for the naked short-selling conspiracy nuts, has come up with a novel way of dealing with the issue: she has put the baloney for sale.

That's right. In her most recent progress report, thoughtfully posted here, Miami attorney Jane Moscowitz -- picked to head the company in lieu of the now-jailed ex-CEO Richard Altomare -- announced that she is putting up for sale the cause of action that the company is a victim of naked short selling. She has done the same with a default judgment the company won against some brokerages it accused of naked shorting.

I think that this is an excellent idea. I am sure that Overstock.com's delusional CEO Patrick Byrne, who freely spends his trust fund inheritance to promote market conspiracy theories and other nutty causes, will be delighted to buy this litigation for what it is worth to the shareholders of Universal Express.

Byrne has spoken out in the past in defense of Universal Express, saying "mine is just one battle in a larger war, and that others are fighting their own equally worthy ones." So this is an opportunity for him to put that belief into action.

Indeed, since the naked shorting conspiracy types claim that damages run into the billions if not trillions, it is logical to assume that Byrne could spend every penny that his daddy has given him on this worthy cause, and still make a neat profit.

If Byrne shies away from this challenge, I am sure that many others can step up to the plate. It will be interesting to see if the naked shorting nutcases are as crazy as they appear to be, and will plunk down some hard cash on their delusions.

True, Moscowitz cautions that "the Receiver has no ability to judge the value of this potential cause of action or whether it exists at all, but will assign it to the highest bidder if the Court so allows."

Let the bidding commence! Or, to put it another way, "put up or shut up."

UPDATE: Floyd Norris adds:

Before anyone sends in a bid, they might ponder the evidence regarding how Mr. Altomare ran the company, and the fact that despite his pleas of relative poverty, he seems to have told people he had taken over a shell company in Europe and was hoping to make acquisitions. . . .

The Altomares brought money into Universal Express by illegally issuing billions of shares, and then spent it on themselves while stiffing company creditors and even employees, who were persuaded to put company expenses on their personal credit cards. It amazes me that people who lost money in the stock still defend the Altomares.

It is amazing, isn't it? People act strangely after they've been ripped off. I was told by an FBI man once that doors would slam in his face when he approached victims of charlatans.

© 2008 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

The Baloney Martyr Ends First Month of Captivity

Altomare in happier days

The jailed leader of the Baloney Brigade stock market conspiracy loons, former Universal Express CEO Richard Altomare, today concludes his first month of confinement in Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City.

He was sent there by a federal court judge for contempt of court, because he had failed to turn over some of the money he stole from his company. Instead, Altomare has been rotting in jail, just as he deserves.

By all accounts, Altomare views himself as a true martyr to his cause -- the cause of CEOs everywhere who blame naked short selling for their companies' stock price declines, even as they loot the coffers.

A letter supposedly from Altomare is making the rounds of stock market message boards. I have no idea if it is genuine. In fact, it reads like one of the hilarious parodies that have been published on a spoof website.

Altomare ends his supposed missive as follows:

Please assure our shareholders, on my behalf, that we shall prevail.
Also, please assure them that I will not be broken.

I certainly hope not. The sight of this buffoon behind bars is surely an enjoyable spectacle.

© 2008 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

Richard Altomare Jailhouse Vigil: Day Seven

So it's now a full week in jail for Richard Altomare, ex-CEO of Universal Express and an inspirational figure to corporate thieves and stock market conspiracy theorists everywhere. He'll be in New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center, by order of U.S. District Court Judge Gerald E. Lynch, until he coughs up $1.7 million he stole from investors,

The silence from Baloney Brigade activists, especially Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, has been deafening. A good man like this should not be forsaken. After all, Altomare has stood foresquare with Byrne in the past:

Universal Express Supports Overstock.com's "Naked Shorting" Suit Against 10 Major U.S. Brokerages
Business Wire, Feb. 5, 2007

NEW YORK -- Universal Express Inc. (OTCBB: USXP), today announced its support, and congratulates Overstock.com and its Chairman, Dr. Patrick Byrne on the filing of its $3.5 billion lawsuit in California against 10 major U.S. Brokerages.

"Universal Express would like to extend its congratulations to Overstock.com and Chairman Dr. Patrick Byrne on its 'Naked Shorting' suit. Universal has received judgments in Florida courts of over $700 million against Naked Shorters, and is also contemplating further lawsuits," said Richard A. Altomare, Chairman and CEO of Universal Express, Inc.

So where is the gratitude?

© 2008 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

Richard Altomare Jailhouse Vigil: Day Five

Fresh news today in the continuing saga of Richard A. Altomare, imprisoned ex-CEO of Universal Express and leader emeritus of the Baloney Brigade naked shorting nutcases.

There is an appeal! It was filed yesterday and entered in the court record today. Lawyers for Altomare filed their appeal with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Altomare is now in his fifth day of confinement in Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he was put for civil contempt for not paying back $1.7 million of the money he looted from the company.

Nothing especially interesting in the brief court filing today, except that they are appealing the contempt order because... well, because, that's why. No reason stated. That will come later. Maybe it's because the order is just plain mean. Here is an excerpt of the order, as it emerged from the word processor of U.S. District Court Judge Gerald Lynch:



Wasn't it mean of him to say that? Blame-shifting CEOs hate to be talked to that way. It isn't right. I'm surprised that Patrick Byrne, SEC-investigated CEO of Overstock.com and Altomare's successor as leader of the Baloney Brigade, hasn't spoken out publicly against the confinement of this upstanding citizen and comrade-in-baloney.

According to posts on message boards, Altomare is being kept in solitary confinement to keep him away from the other inmates who are, unlike Altomare, convicted and accused felons. An FBI investigation is underway, so hopefully that discrepancy can be corrected reasonably soon.

At one point Altomare was appointed to three committees of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has a soft spot in its stone-cold heart for CEOs who blame market conspiracies for their own crookedness. I wonder if Altomare, confined as he is, has considered opening a branch of the CofC at Metropolitan Correctional? Worth a try.

© 2008 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

Richard Altomare Jailhouse Vigil: Day Four

Nothing new to report. The ex-CEO of Universal Express remains in Metropolitan Correctional Center on civil contempt charges, having failed to pay back $1.7 million he looted from the company.

I'm still trying to figure out why he hasn't been indicted for doing that. It's been previously reported that he is under FBI investigation. What's the, pardon the expression, holdup?

Seems to be a waiting game here. Who will blink first: the vocal sergeant-at-arms of the stock market conspiracy nutcases of the Baloney Brigade (above), or the non-nonsense Judge Gerald Lynch (right)? I am sure hizzoner is really sweating this one. As you can see from the photo, he is clearly traumatized by the whole thing.

Actually that picture was taken to accompany a New York Times article on how Lynch allowed a suit to proceed against another naked short poster child, Global Crossing. So he obviously has a lot of experience with this genre of corporate wrongdoing, as evidenced by a recent court filing in which he referred to Universal Express shareholders as "deluded."

Meanwhile, I have some recipes on the uses that Altomare can put to his favorite smoked meat. Not sure if inmates have cooking facilities, but you never know.

I'm surprised that Altomare's successor as Baloney Brigade commander, Overstock.com's SEC-investigated CEO Patrick Byrne, hasn't spoken out against his fellow excusemongering CEO's incarceration. Surely he has the time, as indicated by his prodigious efforts as a full-time Wikipedia editor. Is there no loyalty among corporate miscreants?

Here's an amusing hilarious parody blog, "Big Dick's Prison Chronicles."

© 2008 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

Richard Altomare Jailhouse Vigil: Day Three

This is now the third day of Richard Altomare's incarceration in Metropolitan Correctional Center. The former CEO of Universal Express remains under lock and key until he coughs up $1.7 million of the plunder he stole from shareholders -- and the response of the Baloney Brigade stock market conspiracy nutcases has been surprisingly muted.

There has been, for example, none of the demonstrations that microcap fraud aficionados held in 2005 before the offices of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. in Manhattan (above). As I recounted in Wall Street Versus America, this motley assortment of stock promoters and idiots pranced in front of DTCC for several days, making fools of themselves.

Their "cause" was a fraudulent penny stock called CMKM Diamonds, which also blamed its woes on nekkid shorting. These fools were dumb enough to believe them.

I think a demonstration in front of MCC is clearly in order. Meanwhile, Altomare himself can help tremendously by engaging in that age-old pastime of wrongly incarcerated martyrs since time immemorial: I modestly propose that Altomare commence a fast unto death.

IRA prisoners in Northern Ireland have done it, and so did Mahatma Gandhi. So why not Altomare? Think of the worldwide publicity. It would be even better if Altomare's supporters and fellow naked-shorting-myth promoters follow suit. I think they need to get cracking on that right away.

© 2008 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

Richard Altomare Enjoys First Sunday in Prison

The imprisoned CEO in happier days

Richard A. Altomare, ex-CEO of Universal Express, is celebrating the conclusion of his first weekend in Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he is being kept until he coughs up $1.7 million of the money he stole from shareholders.

The federal Bureau of Prisons database confirms that he is still there, and has not been freed or has sawed his way out with a file concealed in a cake, like in the movies.

The MCC website does not provide information on the kind of weekend facilities that are available for imprisoned inmates, even CEOs. It is a lovely day today in New York, but picnicking is not permitted. Hopefully he is enjoying the cuisine in the mess hall, and not coming down with indigestion like the unfortunate gent pictured at right.

Since imprisonment of crooked CEOs is such a rare event nowadays, I think that a jail house vigil of sorts is in order.

© 2008 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

Baloney Brigade Commander Reports for Duty

Mr. Altomare's new residence

Richard A. Altomare, ex-CEO of Universal Express and sergeant-at-arms of the Baloney Brigade stock market conspiracy nutcases, has found a new and very appropriate home.

A U.S. Bureau of Prisons database confirms various message board posts indicating that Altomare, who was found in civil contempt by a federal court judge some time ago, has been incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York.



Altomare, whose exploits I chronicled in Wall Street vs. America, blithely looted his company while screaming about a non-existent naked short-selling conspiracy. He was since booted from his position by the SEC and replaced at the helm of the naked shorting conspiracy juggernaut by Patrick Byrne, the equally delusional CEO of Overstock.com.

Altomare's last-ditch effort to avoid incarceration failed on Thursday, and now he must enjoy the federal facilities until he coughs up $1.7 million in ill-gotten gains. His incarceration commenced yesterday and will continue until he purges himself of contempt.

I get a sense from reading the judge's order that he has lost patience with Altomare's antics, so he had better cough up the dough. Meanwhile I trust he is getting accustomed to his new prison cell. In the photo at left he is shown describing its general dimensions, which are slightly larger than a honeydew melon.

Like Byrne, Altomare liked to swath the fraudulent naked shorting campaign in a patina of respectability, in Altomare's case by conning the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to appoint him to head three committees. Floyd Norris later reported that the Chamber was stiffed by Altomare, along with a bunch of other people and companies that were dumb enough to do business with him.

To borrow an expression from David Einhorn's recent book, Altomare and Byrne have found that you can con some of the people (the Chamber, certain congressmen, and the dumber shareholders of their companies) all of the time. Amazingly, some Universal Express shareholders still believe Altomare's swill.

Altomare is not going to enjoy the spartan conditions at the MCC, I assure you. Security is ultra-tight, the routine rigid. But I must admit that the accommodations are very much what he deserves.

© 2008 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

Today is 'Go to Jail' Day for Richard Altomare

Today is "go to jail" day for former Universal Express CEO Richard A. Altomare, who looted his company while crying about a nonexistent "naked shorting" conspiracy. A last-minute motion by Altomare to avoid federal hospitality was thrown out yesterday by Judge Gerald Lynch.

What's interesting, apart from the ridiculous amount of time it took for the SEC to throw this louse in jail, is Altomare's contemptuous stance toward the entire judicial process -- a Patrick Byrne-ish attitude that the usual standards of civilized behavior do not apply to him.

In denying Altomare's last-ditch motion, Lynch said:

Altomare appears to assume that the Court's order does not mean what it says. He begins by expressing "appreciat[ion]" for the Court's "apparently providing for an additional opportunity to produce documentation to show 'categorically and in detail' that any further payment is impossible." . . . That is not what the order provides. Rather, the Court expressly and unequivocally ordered that Altomare "surrender to the United States Marshal for the Southern District of New York on May 2,2008, to be incarcerated until such time as he purges himself of the contempt, unless he has paid the disgorgement amount in full by that date.". . . There is no mention of a further hearing. Rather, the passage quoted by Altomare provides, equally clearly, that Altomare is found to be in contempt, and that in order to compel his compliance with the Court's orders, he "will be incarcerated until he pays the disgorgement and prejudgment interest in full, or produces documentation to show categorically and in detail that any further payment is impossible."

So that was that, at least as far as the judicial record is concerned. Here is the bottom line:



© 2008 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

Don't Worry, They Serve Baloney in Prison

This blog is fascinated with delusional, fraud-committing CEOs, so it is always satisfying to see one of them put where he can't rip off more gullible investors. This morning I learned that Richard A. Altomare, ex-CEO of the fraud factory Universal Express, was ordered to jail on Friday by a federal judge in New York for civil contempt. He reports to the pokey on May 2.

Altomare had turned Universal Express into his own personal piggybank, and Judge Gerald E. Lynch had ordered him to cough up $1.7 million in ill-gotten gains in February 2007.

He didn't, and should have been tossed in jail a long time ago. But now he must avail himself of federal facilities. Here is the relevant portion of the judge's order:




As I described in Wall Street Versus America, Altomare was the shrill mouthpiece of the stock market conspiracy kooks. His constant blathering on the subject of naked shorting was rejected by the SEC, which found in its painstakingly slow investigation that Altomare had been systematically looting the company. The SEC obtained an order ousting him as CEO and appointing a receiver for the company.

After Altomare became too hot and openly crooked, the Baloney Brigade anti-shorting nuts came under the leadership of Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, who is now working hard to out-do Altomare in the stock-manipulation department. (Ever notice how CEOs who scream against short sellers tend to have something to hide?) In a broader sense, Byrne, with his campaign of menace against analysts and the media, is a far more dangerous figure than his brother-in-baloney, Altomare.

I assume Altomare will be using some of the investor cash he has stashed away to appeal this order. But eventually I reckon he will have to avail himself of the cuisine at Metropolitan Correctional Center, which I understand provides copious amounts of a certain smoked meat.

UPDATE: Floyd Norris in the New York Times provides a detailed description of what is sending this clown to the hoosegow (don't you love those jailhouse euphemisms?), essentially making "millions from illegally selling billions of shares in Universal Express — and then blam[ing] naked short-sellers for all the volume."

Floyd says he welcomes comments but insists on civility, saying "I have tired of the personal abuse that has filled the comments on earlier posts." Fat chance. Naked shorting crackpots have been discredited on the facts so frequently, and over such a long period of time, that they have nothing else in their arsenal except paranoid conspiracy theories. Patrick Byrne can attest to that.

© 2008 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

Universal Express, Again and Again and Again

Naked shorting poster child Universal Express is the General Hospital of Corporate America. No, strike that. It is a cross between General Hospital and Reno 911. New York Times chief financial correspondent Floyd Norris observes today that he has been getting some weird emails from stock market conspiracy nuts -- weird, that is, to those unfamiliar with naked shorting nuts.

The former management of Universal Express, about which I have written once in a column and numerous times in blog postings, continues to have supporters.

That is remarkable to me, since the court record estabishes that Richard Altomare, who was chief executive, ran the company as his own piggy bank. Employees paid company expenses on their personal credit cards while he had the company pay for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry. The company was financed by selling stock illegally for years, with the sales continuing even after a federal judge ruled it was illegal. Its reports to shareholders were filled with lies.

Former CEO Richard Altomare, he says,

always claimed he was the victim of an S.E.C. vendetta, viewing himself as a whistle blower who has exposed the role of naked short selling. There is scant evidence of such trading in the stock, however, which may not be a surprise since the company itself was selling billions of illegally issued shares.

That's strong language for the Times, and stronger still for Floyd, who is something of the dean of New York financial writers. I guess it must have something to do with the naked shorting nuts' charm offensive. One email he has received reads:

“Your criminal intentions are quite transparent. As the truth is exposed your rants will be proven lies. What is the market price for a soul??
Your name will be synonomous with ‘paid schill’!” [sic]

Floyd goes on to observe that a rumor is floating around the Internet that an upcoming appellate court hearing is expected to be a winner for Altomare. Baloney. No such hearing is scheduled.

One commenter made a good point on Floyd's blog:

For ten years I’ve watched in disgust as the Feds ignore most penny stock scammers and play softball with the few they do catch. Altomare violated a permanent injunction and didn’t even get cited for contempt of court. It’s no wonder penny stock fraud is rampant. It’s probably the safest form of theft available.

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

Altomare Losing High-Stakes Game of Monopoly

One of the worst things that happen when you play Monopoly is landing on the "Go to Jail" space. A reader brings to my attention that former Universal Express CEO Richard Altomare, a loudmouth leader of the anti-naked-shorting conspiracy cult, is on the verge of going to jail. Yup, no passing Go, no collecting $200.

An article in the South Florida Business Journal observes that a federal judge has threatened Altomare with a term in the slammer if this corporate turd doesn't fork over some of the money he owes for a judgment. That is what is known as "contempt of court."

The newspaper observed: "The thinly veiled reference to going to jail for contempt of court puts the former head of the now-closed Boca Raton luggage shipping company in a tight spot. Complying with the judge in the New York civil case with the SEC could expose him to criminal charges."

Oh dear me, how inconvenient that would be.

According to court filings, Altomare stole funds from the company.

"The court-appointed receiver for Universal Express asked him to return company funds used to purchase $558,900 in jewelry from Les Bijoux in Boca Raton, $30,000 in gambling markers at a Las Vegas casino and his $200,000 bonus. In October, federal authorities seized jewelry from a Boca Raton estate liquidator that paid Altomare $571,000 in cash," says the Journal.

I guess that's against the law. I wonder if lying to investors, or hiring a sleazeball to stalk your critics, is also against the law?

If it is, another stock market conspiracy theorist, Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, had better start packing a toothbrush. Makes you wonder: has Altomare been keeping current on his campaign contributions, as Byrne has? He'd better pray for a Ron Paul presidency.

UPDATE: I see that someone has started a blog to track the continuing saga of this company, focusing on its continued touting on Internet message boars.

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

'Who's Bud Burrell?' and Other Questions Richard Altomare Won't Answer

Altomare is suddenly speechless on naked shorting

Naked shorting poster child Universal Express is a prime example of how corporate executives use stock market conspiracy theories to cover up their own sleaziness and, sometimes, criminality. Just take a look at the court documents on the company's web site, and particularly the latest filing -- a fascinating deposition by CEO Richard Altomare on Nov. 27.

You really should read through that deposition -- it is a hoot. It reads like something out of a Kefauver Committee hearing on organized crime in the early fifties, with Altomare refusing to answer most of the questions posed by the court-appointed receiver, Jane Moscowitz, on Fifth Amendment grounds.

While I'm sure that prosecutors will be most interested in persistent questions by Moscowitz implying that Altomare looted the company, my favorite was this:

Q. Did you ever seek to have any records analyzed that would determine whether, in fact, there had been naked short selling of the stock of Universal Express, Inc.?

A. I respectfully decline to answer that question based upon my constitutional rights as guaranteed to me by the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution and the same rights provided to me in the Constitution of the State of Florida.

Q. In fact, you don't really know whether there has been any naked short selling of the shares of Universal Express, do you?

A. I respectfully decline to answer that question based upon my constitutional rights as guaranteed to me by the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution and the same rights provided to me in the Constitution of the State of Florida.

Q. It's merely been a convenient thing that you could tell shareholders while their shares went down to an amount that I don't even know how to express what point .00001 is?

A. I respectfully decline to answer that question based upon my constitutional rights as guaranteed to me by the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution and the same rights provided to me in the Constitution of the State of Florida.

So in other words, a CEO who had once been a leading troubadour of the Baloney Brigade anti-naked-shorting movement -- he has a prominent role in Wall Street Versus America -- is now not only clamming up on the subject, but says that talking about it may incriminate him in a criminal act. In what criminal act, I wonder. Lying to shareholders, perhaps?

It will be interesting to see how Patrick Byrne, who has made similar claims about naked shorting and stock market conspiracies, will fare when his chance comes to provide a deposition to the SEC, which is investigating him and Overstock.com on a variety of things. Naked shorting claims are mentioned in the subpoenas, according to Overstock SEC filings.

As I suggested (see update to this item) some weeks ago, Moscowitz also bore down on Altomare about his links to the crackpot Bud Burrell, a penny stock operator and regular on the now almost-defunct "thesanitycheck" stock market conspiracy website. The result was more stonewalling:

Q. Who's Bud Burrell?

A. I respectfully decline to answer that question based upon my constitutional rights as guaranteed to me by the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution and the same rights provided to me in the Constitution of the State of Florida.

Q. Is Bud Burrell on the Universal Express payroll?

A. I respectfully decline to answer that question based upon my constitutional rights as guaranteed to me by the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution and the same rights provided to me in the Constitution of the State of Florida.

Q. Didn't Bud Burrell have a company called Quantum Matrix that you were paying $4,000 to every so often?

A. I respectfully decline to answer that question based upon my constitutional rights as guaranteed to me by the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution and the same rights provided to me in the Constitution of the State of Florida.

Burrell has already said publicly that he was on the payroll and was a "significant" unsecured creditor, and also made vague threats against no one in particular that, if I were Ms. Moscowitz, I would take seriously.

Altomare can run from these questions, but he can't hide. The company is under FBI investigation, and Moscowitz indicated that still more subpoenas are flying.

She's particularly interested in jewelry purchases for Altomare at corporate expense, which Altomare--in one of the few questions he did answer--lamely claimed had come from "salary" directly sent to the jewelers.

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.



-----------

Wall Street Versus America was published by Penguin USA on April 6.
Click here for its Amazon.com listing and here for more information on the book, from my web site, gary-weiss.com.

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.



-----------

Wall Street Versus America was published by Penguin USA on April 6.
Click here for its Amazon.com listing and here for more information on the book, from my web site, gary-weiss.com.

A Major Federal Institution Endorses the Baloney Brigade!

I'm pleased to report tonight that a major federal institution has given a ringing endorsement to the Baloney Brigade stock market conspiracy nutcases. Yup, none other than the Federal Bureau of Investigation has taken an interest.

I am sure that there are a lot of high-fives among the penny stock peddlers and inept CEOs who are using naked shorting as an excuse for their incompetence and criminality, now that the Douglas MacArthur of the Baloney Brigade, deposed Universal Express CEO Richard A. Altomare, and the company's general counsel Chris Gunderson, are the subject of an active criminal investigation by the FBI.


I'll bet this must please Altomare, who almost literally wraps himself in Old Glory at every opportunity, as do the other vaguely right-wing and libertarian fruitcakes who push this discredited cause, such as Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne. The latter once talked about "men with guns" expressing interest in his allegations.

I am sure that is true in his case, and of course we know that is true with Altomare.

Word of the FBI investigation emerged yesterday (Oct. 11) in a court document filed in the SEC's lengthy litigation against Universal Express.

Altomare's lawyer Arthur Tifford, begging the court to put off an Oct. 12 contempt hearing, said as follows:

On 18 September 2007 Assistant United States Attorney Rhonda Jung and Special Agent Thomas Zukauskas, Federal Bureau of Investigation telephoned me as counsel for Mr. Altomare. In that conversation AUSA Jung informed me that there is an active criminal investigation of Messrs. Altomare and Gunderson and asked if I wanted to arrange an appointment with the government to discuss a disposition of the case as to Mr. Altomare.

It didn't work -- the judge almost instantaneously denied the motion -- but at least we now know, from Altomare's own lawyer, that his client is in the cross-hairs of the feds. (Gee, shouldn't that have been disclosed to sharehol... ehh, never mind.)

I've uploaded the full document to my website, since Blogspot doesn't have that capability.

I am sure that leading Baloney Brigade organs, such as Phil Saunders' "Sanitycheck" website, will spread the word: the FBI is on the case, just as they have long expected. And if that "active criminal investigation" ends... well, badly, the only baloney Altomare will be spewing will be the cheap stuff they serve at government expense.



© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.



-----------

Wall Street Versus America was published by Penguin USA on April 6.
Click here for its Amazon.com listing and here for more information on the book, from my web site, gary-weiss.com.

Going Postal in Baloney-land

As I have noted in several posts, the paranoia of the anti-naked shorting loons sometimes froths over the top into obscenity and violence.

The threats against Universal Express receiver Jane Moscowitz by deranged anti-shorting cultists, and the creepy threats against a Wikipedia administrator by Judd Bagley of Overstock.com, are examples of that.

The rhetoric from these lowlifes seems to have ratcheted up a notch.

I'm grateful to a reader for bringing to my attention some really troubling, violent rhetoric from a character named C. Austin "Bud" Burrell, who runs a pink sheet company and is one of a cluster of penny stock types to bang away at stock market conspiracy theories in "thesanitycheck" website.

Burrell is justifiably obscure, but he recently garnered some attention when it was revealed that his constant hyping of naked shorting poster child Universal Express (in rants like this and this) came at a price -- he was on the payroll of Universal Express as a "consultant."

The strain of railing against a nonexistent crisis seems to be extracting a toll on the poor dear, as today we get a violence-tinged rant.


Burrell begins by likening "the typical serial financial criminals" (translation: people who disagree with him) to serial killers, and then spits on the experiences of real combat veterans by likening his silly posturing to serving under fire in the military: "I am 7 years in, and bluntly, I am well past hoping to completely repair myself psychologically." He'll get no argument from me on that.

Burrell continues,

I warn everyone here and now that if one or more of you wants to try and drag me back into this morass, don't expect to survive in whole form. I have had enough of this corrupt insanity. If I am threatened again by anyone for any reason, I will retaliate on the spot without limits. I won't wait to find out if you really meant it, or for you to try and choke out an apology. (emphasis added)

You can hope that I can call the FBI first, but that will depend entirely on how serious I think you are. You should not interpret this as a warning, but much more as a promise from someone who keeps his as a part of his personal identity.

No. My hope is that someone else calls the FBI first, and the sooner the better.

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.



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Wall Street Versus America was published by Penguin USA on April 6.
Click here for its Amazon.com listing and here for more information on the book, from my web site, gary-weiss.com.

New York Times Gets Stiffed For Baloney Brigade Ad

Commenting on a loopy, lying New York Times ad last June by Richard Altomare of the naked shorting poster child Universal Express, Times correspondent Floyd Norris quipped, "Speaking as a [Times] shareholder, I hope The Times got payment for the ad before it ran."

Apparently it didn't and that was no joke. As Zac Bissonnette points out today, the Times was stiffed for the ad.

Zac notes that a report by receiver Jane Moscowitz lists "the newspaper is listed as a creditor in the amount of $173,416.32." Floyd confirms in a follow-up that that the Times and other media outlets were among the hapless Universal Express creditors, who apparently didn't pay too close attention to the company's financial condition before extending credit.

Since the Times should not have accepted this slimy ad in the first place, I am not doubled over in grief over the hit to Floyd's shareholder equity.

Meanwhile, more details are coming out every day about how Altomare used this company as a personal piggybank, while he illegally sold unregistered stock.


The Baloney Brigade anti-naked-shorting nutcases, who clasped this cockroach of a company to their manly breasts, are predictably strangely silent on the Universal disaster, as it begins to a resemble a rape case more than securities fraud.

The shareholders of this company contain the usual deluded crackpots, as indicated by the threatening emails Moscowitz has received, but I note that one baloney brigadier has come to his senses. An"online petition" on behalf of this crooked company was withdrawn, its sponsor saying:

****NOTICE**** As author of this petition, in good conscience I can longer support Mr. Altomare or Universal Express, or any of the other defendants. I have sadly come to the conclusion, based upon what I have read from the court appointed Receiver in this matter, that shareholders were abused. I withdraw this petition. My intentions were good, but I feel betrayed.

No s--t, Sherlock.

The stench of penny stock fraud has long permeated this fraudulent movement. If you didn't notice, don't expect anyone to feel any sympathy for your bad choices.

P.S. One silver lining is that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a leading Baloney Brigade supporter that appointed Altomare to three committees, was stiffed for $10,000. Floyd reports "A Chamber spokesman confirmed to me that Mr. Altomare was invited to join the committees, but said that he is not now associated with the chamber."

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.



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Wall Street Versus America was published by Penguin USA on April 6.
Click here for its Amazon.com listing and here for more information on the book, from my web site, gary-weiss.com.

Turning Over a Rock at Universal Express

The court-appointed receiver for naked shorting poster child Universal Express has turned in her first report, which is available on the web here.

It's all here: a company that raped its shareholders while blaming "naked short selling." Also there are threatening emails sent to the Jane Moscowitz, the receiver.

Floyd Norris's commentary touches on the salient details, but you really have to wade through these remarkable documents to understand the full extent of this company's sliminess and the creepiness of its CEO, Baloney Brigade Commanding General Richard A. Altomare.

The documents released by Moscowitz should be required reading for the fast-dwindling ranks of SEC commissioners, who continue to waste their time with the overblown naked shorting issue.

The normally restrained Floyd sums up the situation in unusually strong language: "The gravy train appears to be over for Richard Altomare, the man who ran a company called Universal Express and paid himself very well out of cash from shares that were illegally sold to the public."

That's what it's all about: screwing shareholders. But judging from the crudely threatening emails to Moscowitz that she cites in her report (you can gag on them here), I'd say some of these shareholders deserve all the screwing that they get.

Well, at least you can say this much for Universal Express: unlike the creepy, threatening emails of Judd Bagley on behalf of Overstock.com, these apparently originated from deluded nuts and were not the full-time job of a company official.

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.



-----------

Wall Street Versus America was published by Penguin USA on April 6.
Click here for its Amazon.com listing and here for more information on the book, from my web site, gary-weiss.com.