That reminds me of another company...Peregrine Systems, a software company which had some "accounting irregularities" ... don't know if they are related or not but IIRC, a Chicago Democrat named Elgindy was connected to them. One of his relatives by the same last name had a company called Falcon Trading and is tied to Iraq, some rogue FBI employees since arrested for stock manipulation, and funny stock selloffs immediately preceding 9/11.
Former CEO of software firm Peregrine Systems is sentenced to prison
Steven P. Gardner gets eight years and one month for his role in the fraud that destroyed the company once valued at $4.72 billion.
December 12, 2008
“I did hide problems in the hope that they would be fixed and we could move on,” Gardner told U.S. District Judge Thomas J. Whelan in federal court in San Diego before being sentenced. “I was dedicated to making Peregrine a great company, and I failed.”
Whelan ordered the former CEO to begin serving his sentence Feb. 20. Gardner, 55, pleaded guilty in March 2007 to one count each of securities fraud, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud.
This (along with other scandals) eventually led to the demise of Arthur Andersen, who aided those executives involved in the deceptions in the cover up.
The majority of Peregrine’s illegal schemes were devised by the CFO, Matthew Gless and CEO Stephen Gardner
Both pleaded guilty to fraud charges. Common speculation is that federal prosecutors are using Gless’s and Gardner’s cooperation to build a case against former chairman of the board and San Diego Padres owner John Moores who sold over $800 million of shares during Peregrine’s fraudulent period
Gardner, Paul
DIABLO, CA
94528 First Republic Bank/Banker $500 02/18/2008 P OBAMA FOR AMERICA -
Jim McDermott was on the take from Saddam Hussein. McDermott was one of three Congressmen who went on Saddam’s propaganda tour of Iraq in Fall 2002. The trip was funded by Life for Relief and Development (LRD), a “charity” which laundered money to terrorist group Hamas’ Jordanian operation. LRD is funded in part by Shakir Al-Khafaji, a man who did about $70 million in business with Saddam through his Falcon Trading Group company (based in South Africa). LRD’s Iraqi offices were raided by US troops last week, and the Detroit-area “charity” is suspected of funding uprisings, such as the one in Fallujah. Its officials bragged of doing so at a recent private US fundraiser.
Mr. Alkhafaji, one of two Americans named in Iraqi newspapers as a participant in Saddam’s “Oil for Food” scam, gave Congressman McDermott $5,000 in October 2002 for McDermott’s legal defense fund in a lawsuit against him.
******
Sovereign Equity Management Corporation had its principal place of business at 5200 Town Center Circle, Boca Raton, and Falcon Trading Group was at the same location. Both were involved in stock brokerage services including the retail sale of securities to the public. Falcon was a hedge fund trading in its own account involving the purchase and sale of securities as well as “short selling” of securities. Glen Vittor is named as the sole stockholder and CEO of Sovereign and Falcon.
The indictment alleges that Gurian (a/k/a Martin Clainey), although barred for life from the securities industry by the NASD, had a hidden interest and exercised control over the trading decisions of both Sovereign and Falcon.
It also alleges that Phil Abramo, (a/k/a/ Lou Metzer) was a “capo” or “captain” of the DeCavalcante crime family of Cosa Nostra, and exercised similar control over the operations of the Sovereign branches located in Manhattan.
Louis Consalvo (a/k/a LOUIE “EGGS”) is described as the brother-in-law of defendant Philip Abramo, and a “made” member of the DeCavalcante family. “Made” members are also called “soldiers,” “wiseguys” and “goodfellas.” He is described as having relayed messages from Abramo to members of the Manhattan Sovereign management.
Barry Gesser allegedly owned and operated Atlantis Securities, Apollo Equities and Discovery Trading, their principal place of business being in Boca Raton, Fla.
So, what did Mr. Elgindy, who was trying to sell $300k in stock, tell the financial world the day after 9-11? Read it for yourself!
Immediate release
InsideTruth.com Implores All Traders, Speculators, Investors To UNITE And To Offer Support !
NEW YORK, NY — (INTERNET WIRE) — 09/12/2001 — While we as a NATION are stunned by recent events in our country and while we prepare for the re-opening of our financial markets, the many helpless and confused members of the public will undoubtedly be subject to knee jerk reactions to liquidate positions and make financial decisions that may not be in their best interests. Those who have experience and those who have the wherewithall will be tempted to exploit our fellow Americans, who may need to sell, or who may simply be scared.
We make a request that You refrain from such activity. Do not engage in short selling of the Airlines Involved, (NYSE: AMR), ( NYSE: UAL ), etc.., Do not short REIT’s Involved In New York Real Estate, & Do not short the US Dollar.
To profit from this tragic event would only reward Terror, and Terror cannot be rewarded. This was an act not about Religion or Politics but about Cowardice.
Resist the urge to take advantage of this dire situation and offer support for Our markets and fellow Americans.
The facts are simple, we will persevere, the culprits will pay, and the United States will be stronger for it.
We also ask the Authorities to Investigate any known securities here in the United States that may have played a role in helping finance Or launder proceeds that may have enabled such an atrocity to occur on our own soil, particularly securities with ties to fugitives and Arms dealers.
InsideTruth.com is committed to offering all of its resources in aiding the SEC and the FBI in this Endeavor.
May God Have Mercy On Us All.
Anthony Elgindy
Investigative Director
Stock Adviser Knew About 9/11 Attacks, U.S. Suggests
The New York Times ^ | 05/25/2002 | ALEX BERENSON
Posted on Friday, May 24, 2002 9:30:06 PM by Pokey78
A San Diego stock adviser who is accused of bribing an F.B.I. agent to give him confidential government information may have had prior knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal prosecutor said yesterday.
In a court hearing in San Diego, Kenneth Breen, an assistant United States attorney, said the adviser, Amr Ibrahim Elgindy, tried to sell $300,000 in stock on the afternoon of Sept. 10 and told his broker that the stock market would soon plunge. “Perhaps Mr. Elgindy had preknowledge of Sept. 11, and rather than report it he attempted to profit from it,” Mr. Breen said.
Mr. Breen, coordinator of the stock market unit of a government task force set up to investigate financing for terrorist groups, offered no other evidence that Mr. Elgindy had prior knowledge of the attacks.
A lawyer for Mr. Elgindy said the allegation was ludicrous and appeared to be motivated by the fact that Mr. Elgindy is Muslim and was born in Egypt. Senior F.B.I. officials also said they had no evidence that Mr. Elgindy had prior knowledge of the attacks.
In the hearing yesterday, Mr. Breen asked Judge John A. Houston of Federal District Court in San Diego to hold Mr. Elgindy without bond. Mr. Elgindy, also known as Tony Elgindy and Anthony Pacific, recently moved $700,000 to Lebanon and is a serious flight risk, Mr. Breen said.
Judge Houston disregarded Mr. Breen’s claims about Mr. Elgindy and Sept. 11. But the judge said there was enough other evidence that Mr. Elgindy might flee to justify detaining him at least until a June 6 hearing to determine whether he should be moved to New York for a trial.
Jeanne Geren Knight, a lawyer for Mr. Elgindy, said after the hearing that Mr. Breen’s allegations were ludicrous and untrue. “The government, for lack of factual evidence, has decided to smear my client with terrorist innuendoes,” Ms. Knight said. “This is smacking of racial profiling.”
Mr. Elgindy and four other people, including one current and one former F.B.I. agent, were charged Wednesday with using confidential government information to manipulate stock prices and extort money from companies. Jeffrey A. Royer, who was an F.B.I. agent before joining Mr. Elgindy’s stock advisory firm in December, accepted $30,000 from a partner of Mr. Elgindy’s in exchange for providing Mr. Elgindy with information about current criminal investigations of companies, prosecutors allege.
Mr. Elgindy and his partner, Derrick W. Cleveland, sold short the shares of companies that they learned were under investigation, according to the indictment. (Short sellers borrow shares and sell them, hoping to buy them back later at a lower price and pocket the difference.) Then Mr. Elgindy publicized the negative information on two Web sites he ran, hoping that the companies’ stocks would fall, prosecutors say.
At the hearing yesterday, Mr. Breen said that on the afternoon of Sept. 10, Mr. Elgindy contacted his broker at Salomon Smith Barney and asked him to sell $300,000 in stock in his children’s trust funds. During the Sept. 10 conversation, Mr. Elgindy predicted that the Dow Jones industrial average, which at the time stood at about 9,600, would soon crash to below 3,000, Mr. Breen said. Mr. Elgindy was unable to sell the stock before markets closed Sept. 10, and it was instead sold Sept. 18, the first day that markets reopened for trading after the attacks, Mr. Breen said.
The Salomon Smith Barney broker contacted the F.B.I. after the attacks to report the conversation, Mr. Breen said. He did not identify the broker. A spokesman for Salomon Smith Barney confirmed that Mr. Elgindy was a client but said that Salomon did not comment on matters relating to its clients.
Mr. Elgindy also transferred more than $700,000 to Lebanon in the months after the attacks, Mr. Breen said. When F.B.I. agents raided Mr. Elgindy’s home outside San Diego on Wednesday, Mr. Breen said, they found $43,000 in cash, as well as a loose diamond and faxes indicating that Mr. Elgindy had been tipped about the raid and had given his wife a power of attorney to liquidate his assets.
Ms. Knight, Mr. Elgindy’s lawyer, denied that Mr. Elgindy had any prior knowledge of the attacks.
Mr. Elgindy’s wife is from Louisiana, Ms. Knight said, adding that his mother was a pediatrician and his father a professor. “Tony isn’t political at all,” she said. “He’s a capitalist. He’s not going to move to a third world country.”
Senior law enforcement officials said yesterday that investigators had no hard evidence that Mr. Elgindy had advance information about the Sept. 11 attacks. So far, they have not found anyone who had prior knowledge of the attacks, they said. But they said the investigation into why Mr. Elgindy tried to sell the shares in his children’s trust accounts before Sept. 11 had raised questions that had not been fully answered.
Mr. Elgindy has been an active supporter of Muslim causes. In 1999, he arranged to bring 30 Muslim refugees from Kosovo to the United States, according to The Daily Herald of Chicago.
Mr. Elgindy said the violence in Kosovo, Serbia’s southern province, appalled him, comparing it to the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado. “Take Columbine, have it occur five times a day for a year, and that’s Kosovo,” Mr. Elgindy told The Daily Herald.
Mr. Elgindy’s father and brother are also active in Arab and Muslim causes. His father, Ibrahim Elgindy, founded an umbrella group of Muslim organizations in Chicago and led a 1998 protest on behalf of Muhammad A. Salah, whose assets were seized that year after the United States government linked Mr. Salah to Hamas, the radical Palestinian group. Mr. Elgindy’s brother, Khaled, has worked for several Arab political groups.
Neither Ibrahim Elgindy nor Khaled Elgindy has ever been linked to terrorism. Khaled Elgindy did not return calls yesterday. Ibrahim Elgindy could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Elgindy himself publicly criticized the Sept. 11 attacks. In a press release that day, his company, Pacific Equity Investigations, said, “We must seek, find, apprehend and destroy those who are responsible for this terrorist attack.”
Two days later, Mr. Elgindy put out another press release, saying that he had forwarded to the F.B.I. and the Securities and Exchange Commission “many Internet posts and messages that may have relevance on this tragedy and the capture of the responsible parties behind it.” He also asked that investors refrain from selling short the stocks of any United States companies or the United States dollar.
Mr. Elgindy sold the shares in his children’s trusts five days later.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/689248/posts