Dan Frishberg – The Money Man – touts structured bonds and notes. Is that what he should be talking about?

Just the other day, when all the hoopla about Dan Frishberg seemed to be dying down (of course we all knew that was a momentary lapse), I received another of Dan’s famous emails.

Chuck,

Trillions of dollars of savings have been wiped out over the last ten years. Sadly, much of it has been lost through trying to “make it back” after the multiyear bear market that started in year 2000.

Here’s one good reason for the frustration.

The first time I saw this picture, I immediately understood the problem.

Up until that time, I thought of our country as having had some “ups and downs.” But measured in the global reserve currency, gold, you can see that even when we feel we are doing well, we are losing ground.

The fact is, even if you had better than average results investing in the U.S. over the past decade, you’ve gotten poorer than you were ten years ago. You’ve lost purchasing power, and now, just when we are really getting a handle on what’s happening to us, we are reluctant to do anything different, because most of us just can’t afford any more mistakes.

As always…I am amazed that I, of all people, am included in his infamous investor rants about where the market is going and how he can help you with your investments.  In fact, if you follow the link provided by Dan you’ll find six opportunities to give him your information so he can help you through touting the fact that he is a Registered Investment Adviser.

Don’t know about you, but here are some questions I think Dan would be better advised to raise and answer:

• Since you touted the revenue generated from your RIA as the economic way for BizRadio investors to finally receive a return from their investment in December of 2009 – what have you done with earning from your RIA to help BizRadio investors?
• Do you really think that you currently have the credibility to continue to tout your role as a Registered Investment Adviser considering the investigations that are currently underway?
• It would appear that http://www.bizradio.com is an asset of the former BizRadio.  Why do you use that asset as if it were your own to tout your own venture and radio show?  Should that not be abandoned since it appears that you have abandoned the investors of BizRadio?
• Knowing that Al Kaleta was banished (so to speak) from investments and BizRadio by the SEC, what motivated you to continue to allow him to be a part of BizRadio?
• What effort, if any, have you made to pay back Rahan Siddiqi – since he advanced you six months lease on 1110 AM – the station you kicked him off of?

Dan…as the wall crumble around you, don’t you now think it time to become ethical and transparent in your financial actions and take steps to right the wrongs that many of your investors feel they’ve been subjected to?

YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME

Brad Stinn Sentenced – Every Choice Has A Consequence – Update by Chuck Gallagher Ethics Speaker

On of the most viewed Blog entries was the one about Brad Stinn and Friedman’s Jewelers.

Pump up those sales! We’ve got to make the quarter! How often are those command heard and how tempting is it to make the wrong choices in order to please the investing public and Wall Street?

Following six weeks of trial – Bradley Stinn, age 47, – former CEO of Freidman’s, Inc. and Crescent Jewelers, found himself being convicted of securities fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy. Likewise, in addition to Stinn’s conviction, the former CFO, Victor Suglia and form Controller, John Mauro have entered guilty pleas into what was a massive accounting fraud.

Having been found guilty, the wheels of justice in the federal system move slowly at times.  Many have wondered just what outcome would befall Brad Stinn  who some hated and others sympathized with.  Well, today the verdict has been handed down.

His sentence:

12 years in federal prison

3 years probation

$4M restitution

He should report sometime in the next 60 days

Speaking from experience, Stinn will be required to serve 85% of his active sentence, which means that he’ll serve 122.4 months – which is a long time!

US Attorney’s New Release:

Bradley Stinn, the former Chief Executive Officer of Friedman’s Inc. and its affiliate, Crescent Jewelers, was sentenced today to 12 years’ imprisonment for securities fraud, mail fraud, and conspiracy. On March 24, 2008, following a six-week trial, a federal jury in Brooklyn convicted Stinn on all counts in the indictment and returned a forfeiture verdict against him in the amount of $1,019,000. The trial and sentencing proceeding were held before Senior United States District Judge Nina Gershon.

The sentence was announced by Benton J. Campbell, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

During the period of the conspiracy, Friedman’s was a national jewelry chain whose shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The evidence at trial established that Stinn led a multi-year securities fraud scheme that inflated Friedman’s reported financial performance and hid from the market the serious problems the company had collecting money owed for hundreds of millions of dollars of jewelry that it had sold on credit. As part of the scheme, Stinn and his co-conspirators repeatedly lied to shareholders and the investing public about Friedman’s financial performance, made false and fraudulent representations to Friedman’s auditors, and manipulated the company’s accounting in order to prevent auditors from discovering the falsity of Friedman’s financial statements. As found by the court at sentencing, Stinn’s fraud scheme resulted in Friedman’s shareholders and other victims of the scheme losing more than $20 million.

Several months after the announcement of the government’s investigation in November 2003, Friedman’s stock was de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange. Friedman’s ultimately filed for bankruptcy in January 2005.

As always, this blog is open for comments.

Do you think that this sentence is fair?

Would you, if you had the opportunity to serve on a jury, have given Brad – more, less or this amount a punishment for his guilty plea?

COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!