Where are the Customer's Yachts?
The SEC yesterday published a fraud complaint against Jasper (Jay) Knabb et.al. as regards to manipulation of the stock of the now bankrupt Pegasus Wireless.
Good on the SEC, except it was four years after the fact, and nine years after the fact of Knabb's never mentioned and never punished BIFS Technologies fraud in 2000-2001.
As detailed in the SEC complaint, Knabb, his criminal wifey Tammy, and his partner Stephen Durland stole untold millions of dollars from the public from the illegal sales of the hyped Pegasus, which at one point made it onto the Naz National Market listings. The complaint details the friends, relatives, and mistress Knabb et. al. used to hide the illegal sales of the shares of the company, which at one point had a market capitalization of $1.5 billion and change.
Never ones to hide their lights under a basket, Knabb, Tammy-poo, and Durland were living large.
Jay-boy was featured in a fawning article with his yacht. Durland bought exotic cars, and Tammy-poo picked up a $1.5 million cabin outside of Anchorage AK. (hat tip to Seth Jayson for the boat and cars links, and to the Anchorage Daily News for the property report).
I'll just make a SWAG here, and say that Jay et. al., his crooked attorneys, and his paid promoters stole north of $100 million, not the paltry $30 million cited in the SEC complaint. And they are facing fucking CIVIL charges likely to be settled without admitting or denying guilt and fines that will never be paid? Maybe that pesky class action suit will cause them some problems. The document is long, but well worth the read if you are interested in a decade long history of corporate crime and regulatory coma.
Then there is the back story; had the SEC gotten off of their lethargic ass in 2000 when Knabb made his first-known foray into fraud, Pegasus might never have happened.
That story involved BIFS Technologies, an OTC-BB company shell headed by Alpha Keyser, still comfortably dwelling in his Longboat Key, Sarasota condo. BIFS (Biofiltration Systems) was a dormant shell whose business aspirations were to make it big in detoxing de-icing fluid at airports. Or something.
Taking a page from the Vertical Computer Systems playbook, Keyser conducted a 100/1 forward split of the company shares to lower the quoted price to pennies, and hired Orville Baldridge, a convicted Florida sex offender to "get this thing moving".
Enter Jasper, stage left, selling BIFS Beach Access, a small Myrtle Beach ISP, and promising the rights to SWOMI (Seamless Wireles Omnidirectional Internet), a revolutionary new wireless Internet technology that he claimed to have developed.
Hyped by this improbable claim, BIFS stock soared from pennies to over $2.00 per share, with both Alpha and Knabb happily selling into the surge. Although their relationship soured when it turned out that Jay-boy didn't actually own Beach Access and he was fired from his "executive" position, he nevertheless retained the twenty million shares paid to him for the acquisition. The revolutionary wireless technology turned out to be 811.a Wi-Fi. The SEC took no action, nor did they bother to investigate Knabb in his subsequent pump and dump scams, all of which were eerie clones of BIFS, and all of which made the lame claim of "naked shorting" for the poor performance of the companyies.
Enough, already. This gonif is a career criminal who has left a wasteland of investor losses in his wake. Maybe, just maybe the DOJ could take some time away from chasing phony terrorist threats, prosecute Jasper et. ux., and send them on vacation to Club Fed.
If they can find them. They seem to have gone missing.
Good on the SEC, except it was four years after the fact, and nine years after the fact of Knabb's never mentioned and never punished BIFS Technologies fraud in 2000-2001.
As detailed in the SEC complaint, Knabb, his criminal wifey Tammy, and his partner Stephen Durland stole untold millions of dollars from the public from the illegal sales of the hyped Pegasus, which at one point made it onto the Naz National Market listings. The complaint details the friends, relatives, and mistress Knabb et. al. used to hide the illegal sales of the shares of the company, which at one point had a market capitalization of $1.5 billion and change.
Never ones to hide their lights under a basket, Knabb, Tammy-poo, and Durland were living large.
Jay-boy was featured in a fawning article with his yacht. Durland bought exotic cars, and Tammy-poo picked up a $1.5 million cabin outside of Anchorage AK. (hat tip to Seth Jayson for the boat and cars links, and to the Anchorage Daily News for the property report).
I'll just make a SWAG here, and say that Jay et. al., his crooked attorneys, and his paid promoters stole north of $100 million, not the paltry $30 million cited in the SEC complaint. And they are facing fucking CIVIL charges likely to be settled without admitting or denying guilt and fines that will never be paid? Maybe that pesky class action suit will cause them some problems. The document is long, but well worth the read if you are interested in a decade long history of corporate crime and regulatory coma.
Then there is the back story; had the SEC gotten off of their lethargic ass in 2000 when Knabb made his first-known foray into fraud, Pegasus might never have happened.
That story involved BIFS Technologies, an OTC-BB company shell headed by Alpha Keyser, still comfortably dwelling in his Longboat Key, Sarasota condo. BIFS (Biofiltration Systems) was a dormant shell whose business aspirations were to make it big in detoxing de-icing fluid at airports. Or something.
Taking a page from the Vertical Computer Systems playbook, Keyser conducted a 100/1 forward split of the company shares to lower the quoted price to pennies, and hired Orville Baldridge, a convicted Florida sex offender to "get this thing moving".
Enter Jasper, stage left, selling BIFS Beach Access, a small Myrtle Beach ISP, and promising the rights to SWOMI (Seamless Wireles Omnidirectional Internet), a revolutionary new wireless Internet technology that he claimed to have developed.
Hyped by this improbable claim, BIFS stock soared from pennies to over $2.00 per share, with both Alpha and Knabb happily selling into the surge. Although their relationship soured when it turned out that Jay-boy didn't actually own Beach Access and he was fired from his "executive" position, he nevertheless retained the twenty million shares paid to him for the acquisition. The revolutionary wireless technology turned out to be 811.a Wi-Fi. The SEC took no action, nor did they bother to investigate Knabb in his subsequent pump and dump scams, all of which were eerie clones of BIFS, and all of which made the lame claim of "naked shorting" for the poor performance of the companyies.
Enough, already. This gonif is a career criminal who has left a wasteland of investor losses in his wake. Maybe, just maybe the DOJ could take some time away from chasing phony terrorist threats, prosecute Jasper et. ux., and send them on vacation to Club Fed.
If they can find them. They seem to have gone missing.
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