In the comments section of his latest blog post accusing Gary Weiss of being a Scaramouch, someone identifying himself or herself as "The Good Samaritan" posted the following (edited for rambling):
Patrick...been following your yeoman work in this area ... I must say it mirrors my own experience over the past several years with Universal Express, Inc. and Richard Altomare ... you should know that Altomare and his general counsel are about to rain on their parade in the 2nd circuit court very shortly...since USXP is so far along in their particular battle (having already won two judgments against the naked shorts), and most who follow this area admire you for your fearless position against the entrenched low-lives operating this scandal for the misguided forces on wallstreet ... do not forget the small but equally worthy fights also going on in this vast battlefield...A little bit of background on Universal Express and Richard Altomare: The company has massively diluted shareholders while dumping unregistered securities on the market -- and has racked up an accumulated deficit of nearly $100 million in the process. Remarkably, all that dilution and all those losses have come on paltry revenue -- just over $1 million in 2006.
Meanwhile, Altomare was using the company as his personal piggy bank. Floyd Norris reported that "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."
The company has been cast into receivership and is in the process of liquidation -- There are also allegations that Mr. Altomare has absconded with some Michael Jackson master tapes but you get the idea. This is a bizarre story of a crooked little company with a CEO who spun vast conspiracy theories to divert attention from his own misdeeds.
In other words, if Patrick Byrne is right about the whole market manipulation conspiracy, Richard Altomare would be exactly the kind of person he would want to distance himself from. Here's how Byrne responded to "The Good Samaritan's" comment:
Good Samaritan,
Don't worry, I am quite aware that mine is just one battle in a larger war, and that others are fighting their own equally worthy ones. Every victory one of us has against the Combine is a victory for all. Good luck.
If Overstock.com and Universal Express's causes are equally worthy, Overstock shareholders might want to run like hell. Shares of USXPE closed at $0.0001 on Monday.
Just how high will U.S. gasoline prices rise?
Nordstrom and Kohl's post smaller-than-expected Q1 profit declines
Oil hits record $127.43 on supply concerns, raised Goldman forecast
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-04-2008 @ 10:02PM
mitch said...
having bought some things on overstock, trying to return them puts you through a nightmarish maze of roadblocks including dealing with customer service reps from india who promise to help then do nothing. dont buy from overstock.com if you ever think you will have to return the item. you will go through hell to get credit.
3-05-2008 @ 6:51AM
harveydawabbitt said...
i have held usxp shares for at least two years and this is the very first time i have seen any mention whatsoever of patrick being in any way connected to usxp.
i do believe he is the forefront in this fight against those who illegally gain in the market by naked short selling.
if you still think naked short selling is a bunch of paranoid freaks crying about the money they lost on bad stocks then listen to mr cox himself on the subject.
http://sec.gov/news/openmeetings.shtml
3-05-2008 @ 6:51AM
roadrunner said...
you are a very sick individual. Byrne will win and this is a clearly desperate attempt to discredit him, despite FACT that the SEC just held an emergency meeting on naked shorting, in large part due to Patrick's efforts to defend shareholder rights.
This fraud will end and many are going to pay big
3-05-2008 @ 12:15PM
cutty said...
To Mitch: Well try to return something to Amazon, for example, and tell me if you are treated much better!
Of course the goal of those Internet companies is not to make it easy to return stuff. But you know that.
I think trying to connect Dr Byrne with usxp is far fetched, at best.
3-05-2008 @ 5:21PM
Hendly said...
When will Patrick Byrne reveal who is the Sith Lord?
"See it at the bottom of the sheet there? It says, “bottom feeder.” There's a designated final owner who was to end up owning, who was to end up owning our company at the $6 to $10 range, and even a plan for how the company would then get whacked up among, if you could do a hostile takeover and take the product and how the company could be whacked up among a group of people who had participated, hedge funds who had participated, not necessarily any of the ones I'm showing you here…. I don't know. And here's the funny part. As this went on I started realizing that there was actually some more orchestration here being provided by what I'm calling here, “The Sith Lord” or the mastermind.
Now, can I tell you who that designated bottom feeder was who was supposed to end up with our company? Can I tell you? I can. But I'm not going to today.
The Sith Lord is, can I tell you who that is? Well, I could tell you it's a name that everybody on the phone, every single person on the phone would recognize this person's name. He's one of the master criminals from the 1980s, and he's back in business. But I'm not going to. I'll just call him the “mastermind” today"
http://www.shareholder.com/overstock/MediaRegister.cfm?MediaID=16975
3-26-2008 @ 5:01PM
Lars Helge Flister said...
Is usxp, dead company, or will it stand up, and go back to business? If you have relevant info, please let us know. Best regards Lars Helge (4m)