The Whole Scam
Aleck
You've been scammed once so they think you're up for being scammed again hence they're trying to bait you with a 'great money making offer'.
If you pay any money to them it will be stolen from you again. You've been warned..........
I bought ppi shares in ATI petroleum from an investment advisor company, Market Access Group in Amsterdam, a company with whom I have had previous profit making deals, in March 06. The pitch was that on going public shortly 8 to 10 weeks the company was likely to be taken over by on of 2 larger petroleum company because ATI had considerable offshore oil field finds of the coast of South Vietnam This was born out on ATI's website.
The shares were purchased in Euros and the company was to launch on the Paris Stock Exchange.
Before I received the certificates ATI which was registered in the US and also had an identically named company registered in South America, announced that for tax advantages they proposed to reverse the parent company into the South American company to avoid American tax laws. This was in a letter from ATI and clearly explained on their website. I was instructed to send the certificates to Computershare investor services(Channel Islands) Ltd. to be re-issued in the new name. I phoned the to say I didn't have the Certificates and was informer that it would be OK as ATI would issue my certificates in the new name directly I also bought a second block of shares from another brokers, EWMS
In April I was Phoned by a broker in Houston, Texas, Priority Venture Management. and told that they were appointed by a company who was engaged in an Aggressive takeover of ATI.
The offer was to buy my ATI stock at $10/share.
They said, according to the search result from the SEC, that I owned 13,600 shares
I had bought both blocks at €.6.50 3,600 + 1,315 making 4,915 in all.
I was phoned by EWMS who sold me the second block and on telling them about the PVM offer they got the chief analyst to research this and advised me to get my money back, it was a scam. I thought on it for a few days and then asked for my money back which PVM agreed and I Also asked my Bank to request a refund on the wire transfer which they also did an my money was returned.
I then did a thorough research into PVM background, The SEC to verify the proposed deal which they did. I also sent a full report of the above with documentation to the fraud department of the SEC and could not find any information that would suggest that this was a scam so I sent my money back to resume the deal. This consisted of $12,240 fee to lift Rags 144 restrictions
I was kept informed of proceeding and was eventually told that the payout would be made shortly just as soon as the 'Payout schedule' was received from the stock regulators. this went on for some weeks and I the received an email saying that the regulators had discovered that the shares had Warrants attached and I had to pay $1 per share to have the warrants processed, the good news was that the warrants had a value of $2.50 each share so I would get a greater return and that I could not be expected to find a further $18,200 and they are negotiating with the stock regulators to allow this fee to be taken from the proceeds after the sale. Eventually they said they had managed to get the stock regulators to agree to half being paid in advance by PVM and half to be paid by the share holders. So I managed to scrape together a further $9,100 and pay PVM
Further promises of payment either Wed or Friday next week were made and broken and they were now saying that the stock regulators were now going to do an audit on PVM to be sure they could cover this expense and this would cause father delays.
Some time later Another Email informed me that the stock regulators had discovered that PVM had exceeded there 'margin and were now insisting that the whole of the warrant fee be paid in advance of the sale by the investors It was also stated that the Fees for lifting the S 144 regs would be refunded in the payout I had a phone conversation with them saying that I had no means of raising any further funds and reminded them that I had a document signed by their managing director and myself saying that it was legally binding on both sides and agreeing that as soon as the regs were lifted and I had paid the half of the warrant fee they guaranteed to payout direct to my bank in no more than 4 working days and that I trusted that they would find a way to honour that. I followed this up with an email saying the same.
ATI launched on the market not long ago and the shares reached about € 11 before plunging to there present value around €2.60 This market Has a Marche Libre condition which limit trading amounts to a maximum specified % limit per trading day to stabilise the market.
The last conversation a day ago I challenged them that this was looking more like a scam every day and that I had heard of other clients who were in the same position as myself and were complaining to the SEC and the Houston Police about PVM not paying out. The reply was not to worry and if I wanted to withdraw they would refund all the fees but my shares would be worth nothing. I further challenged them to provide documentary evidence of how they know I have their stated amount of shares. they agreed to a mail me a copy of their search of the SEC database on share holdings and have promised to do their best to resolve the payout situation without further outlay from myself.
Yesterday I received a share certificate for the second purchase and the same number of shares, there was no legend stamped on it regarding S144 regs!!!
Last night I had another conversation with an English broker who was very helpful in pointing out the truth about this deal.
1/ because the stock is floated on the Paris market I can sell them any time.
2/ If there is a takeover the new company must contact all shareholders directly an either buy the shares if I want to or issue share the new company stock.
3/ Warrants are options to purchase stock later at an agreed fixed price and are owned by a person and are not attached to shares.
My proposed plan of action is to Email PVM and state the following:
PVM have made a serious error in believing there were S 144 regs placed on my share holding and that warrants were attached to them.
I therefore demand the immediate return all fees paid by me for lifting alleged S 144 regs and alleged attached warrants.
The total sum being S regs fee $12,240, Warrants fee $18, 020, transmission and conversion expenses $642 totalling $30,902
I expect these payments to be in my bank No later than 20th Jan. 2008
Whether this is paid or not I would then send a Second Email as follows
I demand that you pay $100,000 compensation for the loss of value agreed to in offering to purchase my stock and the amount of emotional trauma I have been subjected to.
