Lines Overseas Management

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management Ltd. and its Managing Director, Scott Lines, have been ordered by a U. S. court to comply with four subpoenas served on them last April by the SEC. The order was issued by Magistrate Judge Alan Kay at the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia on January 7, 2005. It is likely that LOM, at least, will appeal the decision, as the firm has previously indicated it would do if the ruling went against it.

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management and its two most senior officers "have been at the epicenter of at least two suspected fraudulent schemes", according to the U. S. Securities & Exchange Commission. Furthermore, LOM and brothers Scott and Brian Lines have done "everything possible to keep the SEC from getting to the bottom of it", claimed SEC attorney Michael Lowman at a U. S. court hearing.

A United States court has reserved judgment on whether an offshore investment firm and its boss must comply with four subpoenas served on them by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Magistrate Judge Alan Kay did not issue a ruling from the bench at the end of a two-hour hearing on December 10, 2004 at the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia, as the SEC had hoped.

An investigation into suspected stock manipulation has been stymied by the non-co-operation of offshore broker Lines Overseas Management, it has been claimed.The allegation was made at a hearing in November before the British Columbia Securities Commission to consider banning the following parties from the local market: LOM (Holdings) Limited, LOM Securities (Bahamas) Limited, LOM Securities (Bermuda) Limited, LOM Securities (Cayman) Limited, Lines Overseas Management Limited, and LOM officers Donald P. Lines, Chairman and a former CEO of the Bank of Bermuda; Brian N. Lines, President and a Director; Scott G. S. Lines, LOM's Managing Director; Malcolm Moseley, LOM's CFO, Executive Vice President, and a Director; David McNay, Vice President of Investment Operations; and J. Scott Hill, Compliance Manager, all of whom reside in Bermuda.

Swiss financier Dieter Behring, 49, was arrested in Switzerland on October 19, 2004 on suspicion of financial investment fraud and money laundering, according to news service Swissinfo; Paradigm Holdings Limited, which has been implicated in an alleged scam involving investments in wine, was placed into provisional liquidation at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands on October 12, 2004; The sentencing of former offshore bank charter broker Jerome Schneider for conspiracy to commit fraud, which was scheduled to take place in late October, has been postponed to December 6, 2004 at the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California; As previously forecast by OffshoreAlert, a default judgment against Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management Limited and RBC Dominion Securities Inc. has been thrown out at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama; and LOM's principals, Brian and Scott Lines, have been accused of violating Section 13D of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by failing to timely disclose their beneficial ownership of River Capital Group Inc.

Insiders and privileged clients of investment firm Lines Overseas Management stood to profit from the alleged manipulation of a penny stock by LOM principals Scott and Brian Lines, according to a court filing by the SEC.These included directors such as Graham Collis and Susan Wilson, senior employees like CFO Malcolm Moseley; relatives of the Lines brothers, including two minors, and the manager of a local restaurant, Constanzo Di Meglio.

The principals of investment firm Lines Overseas Management have been accused by the SEC of illegally failing to timely disclose their beneficial ownership of River Capital Group Inc., which claims to be trying to establish a Bermuda insurer headed by Robin Spencer-Arscott.

Investment firm Lines Overseas Management, which is currently under investigation by three securities regulators, has been accused of fraud involving five more penny stock firms.The allegations against LOM and others are contained in a civil lawsuit that was filed by Computer Clearing Services Inc. at Los Angeles Superior Court, in California, on September 27, 2004.

Investment group Lines Overseas Management, which claims to have nearly $1 billion of assets under administration, is refusing to provide information about allegedly illegal trading activities to its own auditor, as well as the Bermuda Monetary Authority and the SEC

A court hearing in the United States concerning Bermuda based investment firm Lines Overseas Management and its Managing Director, Scott Lines, has been put back by ten days.Following a joint request by all parties, LOM and Lines must now appear

No mention of SEC's securities fraud investigation in publicly-listed Lines Overseas Management's half-monthly letter to shareholders; Fraudster Maurice Lewis Mills loses a civil lawsuit that was filed against him by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Former offshore provider David Hampton Tedder indicted again; Former banker Mohamad Harajchi claims to have contributed $10 million to the Progressive Liberal Party to fund its successful general election campaign in the Bahamas in 2002; US Gov't tries to kick-start its stalled criminal action against Yank Barry and James Collins; Leadenhall Bank & Trust says its viability has not been affected by the loss of its MasterCard license and its legal dispute with former card administrator Axxess International over the return of millions of dollars of deposits to card-holders; and Axxess International appears to have gone out of business.

For the second time in seven years, a proposed reinsurer headed by former AON (Bermuda) boss Robin Spencer-Arscott has been turned down for an insurance license.The failed application to the Bermuda Monetary Authority was on behalf of River Reinsurance Ltd., which is owned by Bermuda-based River Capital Ltd.

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management Ltd. and its Managing Director, Scott Lines, have been ordered to appear before a United States court as part of a securities fraud investigation.The U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order on August 17, 2004 that they must attend a hearing that is scheduled to start at 9.45 a.m. on October 4.

A $6.4 million default judgment in the United States against offshore investment firm Lines Overseas Management Ltd. and an offshore brokerage arm of the Royal Bank of Canada appears to be legally defective.Research by OffshoreAlert indicates that the summonses against LOM and RBC Dominion Securities were served improperly in December, 2001, meaning that the judgment, that was entered on July 1, 2004, should be dismissed if challenged.

A default judgment for $6.4 million has been entered in the United States against offshore investment firm Lines Overseas Management Ltd. and an offshore brokerage arm of the Royal Bank of Canada in connection with an allegation of banking and securities fraud.The judgment against LOM and RBC Dominion Securities, of the Turks & Caicos Islands, was entered at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama on July 1, 2004 after they failed to defend a civil complaint after being served in December, 2001, according to court records.

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management Ltd. has denied allegations of securities fraud made against it by the SEC but is still refusing to co-operate with the regulator's investigations. LOM has reiterated its stance that its affairs are governed by the laws of Bermuda, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands, where it has offices, and not the USA and Canada, where it makes much of its revenue.

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management Ltd. and its principal officers, Scott and Brian Lines, are being investigated for alleged securities fraud in the United States. It has been alleged that the Lines brothers and LOM customers profited by more than $6.4 million from fraud and market manipulation and that the firm caused false statements to be filed with the SEC and altered its internal records to impede an investigation.

Lines Overseas Management has filed a lawsuit against the Bermuda Monetary Authority in an attempt to prevent the SEC in the United States from receiving information about LOM's clients; Two alleged participants in a massive investment fraud involving Evergreen Security, which was registered in the British Virgin Islands and managed in Florida, are to be re-tried after their trial for grand larceny in the first degree ended in a hung jury; How much does failed offshore hedge fund boss and accused $600 million fraudster Michael Lauer hate Christopher Byron, the New York Post columnist who exposed his activities at the Lancer Offshore Group?; Imperial Consolidated administrator Mazars Neville Russell has reported receipts of $6.48 million and payments of $4.57 million in the five months from June 10, 2003 to December 9, 2003 for the group's principal UK company, Imperial Consolidated Financiers Ltd.; On January 19, 2004 at the British Virgin Islands High Court, Allen Wheatley, former Financial Secretary of the BVI Government, and three accomplices pleaded guilty to corruption-related charges concerning the misappropriation of funds for telecommunications projects at the Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport; Canadian television firm CBC broadcast a fascinating documentary on convicted money launderer Martin Chambers on January 13, 2004, including hidden camera footage of the undercover sting operation that led to his arrest in the 'Bermuda Short' operation conducted by the FBI and RCMP a few years ago; A liquidator of First Cayman Bank, of the Cayman Islands, announced in December 2003 that he had paid out a third interim dividend of 15 cents in the dollar on November 21, 2003 to all admitted creditors in a distribution of approximately US$4.4 million; Eduardo Masferrer, former Chairman and CEO of the now-closed Hamilton Bank N.A., of Miami, Florida, has agreed to pay $960,000 in restitution for the benefit of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and $40,000 in penalties and stay out of banking for an indefinite period; Grenada-domiciled IBC Joie de Vie Ventures Inc. closed for business after taking in millions of dollars from the public by offering returns of up to 100 per cent per year; U.K. attorney Christopher Stenning's Regalia Offshore Fund Ltd., which has an affiliate in the British Virgin Islands called The Regalia Fund Ltd., did not last long; A Canadian regulatory agency has issued a warning against a sham bank doing business as "Bermuda Credit Re-Insurance Bank Ltd."; The California Division of Corporations might want to look a little more closely at Gamboa Properties Inc. before renewing its status as an 'Active' company in the state; and Two Cayman Islands law firms announced they were merging with firms in other jurisdictions during January.

A racketeering lawsuit filed against Bermuda-based investment group Lines Overseas Management has been withdrawn by the plaintiff six months after it was filed. The case against defendants LOM Securities (Bermuda) Ltd., LOM (Holdings) Ltd. and the group's president, Brian Lines, was dismissed at Nevada federal court on November 14, 2003.

A New York-based investment banker who once hired celebrity attorney Robert Shapiro to sue Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management was arrested on October 2, 2003 after being criminally indicted for alleged securities fraud; British Virgin Islands-registered Kesman Overseas has been named as a Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker by the Office of Foreign Assets Control in the United States; A recent report entitled 'Global Economic Crime Survey 2003' by PricewaterhouseCoopers, in association with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, of New York, contains some interesting statistics; Banks in the Channel Islands have reported renewed efforts by fraudsters attempting to deceive customers into unnecessarily providing important personal banking information, according to the Commercial Crime Services division of the International Chamber of Commerce; Bermuda's local business industry was coming to grips this month with an announcement that the Bank of Bermuda - a 114-year-old national institution and the world's largest offshore-based bank - is to be bought by HSBC Holdings PLC for US$1.3 billion.

The Hartcourt Companies has become the latest affiliate of Bermuda-registered Mezzanine Capital, whose shareholders have included subsidiaries of Lines Overseas Management and the Bank of Bermuda, to be accused of securities fraud in the United States. A civil lawsuit was filed by the SEC at the U. S. District Court for the Central District of California on May 27, 2003 against The Hartcourt Companies Inc., which is registered in Utah and based in California; Alan V. Phan, 57, of Long Beach, California; and Yongzhi Yang, 45, of Los Angeles, California.

Asset protection firm Merrill Scott & Associates (in Receivership) helped a U. S.-based doctor hide millions of dollars from his creditors, including a woman dying from cancer, it has been alleged. MSA set up offshore structures for Dr. Thomas Shelton Powers in several offshore centers, including the Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Nevis and Panama, according to a complaint filed at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on December 24, 2002.

Trading on the over-the-counter market of shares in a company that Bermuda-based Lines Overseas Management was helping to do a reverse take-over of has been temporarily suspended pending an investigation by the Securities & Exchange Commission in the United States.

A raid on an alleged boiler room in Vancouver is further evidence that the Bank of Bermuda may have been conned out of $14.3 million when it invested in First Ecom.com Inc.

Canadian securities regulators and armed police have raided a Vancouver boiler room operation closely linked with Brek Energy, whose offshore investors, including the Bank of Bermuda and clients of Lines Overseas Management, have lost tens of millions of dollars in

Complaint in Glade W. James, individually and as Trustee; Kirt W. James, Intrepid International Ltd., HJS Financial Services, Inc., Shibewalt Management, Inc., Intrepid International SA, Oasis Entertainment, LLC, Oasis Entertainment's Fourth Movie Project, Oasis Entertainment Corp, and Glenneyre Capital Corp. v. Richard Day, American Registrar & Transfer Co., Greg Harry, Jeff Harry, Jenna Harry, William S. Stocker, J. Dan Sifford, Jr., Karl E. Rodriguez, Karl E. Rodriguez Ltd., JeffJena Ltd., Anneius Equity Management, Inc., Polyandrous Trading Group Ltd., Exim International Inc., Glenneyre Equity Group Ltd., Dana Leasing, Inc., Patagonia Development SA, Patagonia Commercial SA, Quicksilver Development SA, Marshall Worldwide Ltd., Titan Capital SA, B&V Union Technologies Inc., Jozette Jamie Lee, Pam Fernley, Gaynell T. Harry, The Leeward Family Trust, The Albright Living Trust, Laurencio Jaen, Leopoldo Kennion, Teodoro F. Franco, Nixia Aurora Zerna, Kevin Harrington, Tim Harrington, Reliant Interactive Media Corp., Union Bank of California, Union Securities Ltd., Dominic Busto, Madison Stock Transfer, Inc., Michael Ajzenman, Bank of Montreal, Deborah Caldwell, Equitrade Securities Inc., Don Carrig, Stephen H. Roebuck, Kim Carroll, Canaccord Capital Corp., Brad Scharfe, John Skinner, MJK Clearing Services, Royal Bank of Canada, West America Securities, Banco de Costa Rica, Yorkton Securities, Tar Financial Group Inc., Cal Meese, Tarja Mordo, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., Richard Frank, Emily Ysais, Global Securities, Steve Regoci, Dundee Securities, John Horword, ED&P Investments AG, Erwin Haas, MFC Merchant Bank SA, Marta Pardo, Michael Smith, Golden Capital Securities, Ltd., Mellon Securities Trust Corp., Swiss American Securities, Lines Overseas Management, Trevo Kidd, Cardinal Capital Management Inc., Chris Dorst, Bank August Roth AG, Credit Lyonnais (Schweiz) AG, Bank Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. (Schweiz) Ltd., Public Securities, and Michael Bascetta at the U. S. District Court for the District of Utah.

The farce that is Brek Energy continued in August with the reporting of yet another quarterly loss and a restatement of previous earnings because the firm had classified some expense as revenue.Brek, into which the Bank of Bermuda and clients of Bermuda-based Lines Overseas Management invested in excess of $28 million, reported a net loss of $3.4 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2002.

Stock manipulation or a happy coincidence? That is the unanswered question surrounding the recent share activity of perennial loss-maker Brek Energy, formerly First Ecom.com.For more than ten months, the firm's shares had closed at below $1 on the Nasdaq National Market System in breach of the Exchange's $1 minimum bid requirement for continued listing.

Indictment filed by USA against Alvin Irwin Moss, Frederick John Collier, Avraham Zohar, a.k.a. Avy Zohar; Richard Titterington, Geoffrey L. Feldman, Sherrie-Lee Doreen Cave, Peter James O'Sullivan, Rosalind Rose, Wayne Budd, Thomas Montgomery Bayer, Robert Murray Bohn, Stacy Layne Beavers, Beverly Ann Moss, Jeffery Allen Moss, Larry Charles Moss, Michael Joseph Harkin and Michael Elliot Cole at the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.

Subpoenas have been sent out to several former officers of the First International Bank of Grenada, including Rita Regale, Robert Skirving and Van Brink, to appear for examination in Grenada as part of the liquidation process being carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers; Yet another Grenada offshore bank has gone out of business amid allegations of fraud against its clients; The Bank of Bermuda has estimated that its remaining potential liability to outstanding litigation relating to the Cayman-based Cash 4 Titles Ponzi scheme, excluding the $67.5 million settlement of a class action lawsuit in the United States, is no greater than $20 million; A civil complaint alleging 'dumpster diving' against international debt recovery firm Interclaim that was reported in last month's edition of OffshoreAlert has been dropped; The incredibly slow - yet inevitable - collapse of The Harris Organization financial services group of Panama appears to be closer than ever; and Bermuda-based stockbroker Carol Green has been ordered by a local court to repay $143,536 of debt run up with her former employer Lines Overseas Management.

One arm of an asset recovery group that is registered in Bermuda and Ireland has gone into liquidation as a defensive measure in a bitter legal battle in North America for control of the assets of a convicted criminal. Interclaim Recovery Ltd., of Ireland, applied for voluntary liquidation on November 7, 2001 after a Canadian judge ordered it to pay CDN$2.2 million (US$1.37 million) in legal costs to the crook, Blair Down, and his associates.

Lines Overseas Management Ltd vs. Bermuda Investment Advisory Services Ltd. et al. - Bermuda Supreme Court

Shares of the parent company of Bermuda-based stockbroker Lines Overseas Management were listed for the first time on the Bermuda Stock Exchange on July 24.A statement that the shares had been approved for listing was made on July 20 without any prior public announcement that an application had been submitted.

Information Memorandum for LOM (Holdings) Limited, filed with the Bermuda Stock Exchange.

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management and a former employee at its office in the Cayman Islands paid $50,000 in 1997 to settle a lawsuit brought by a disgruntled client, we can disclose.LOM and Andrew C. McAlpine were accused of fraud and mismanagement by Plaintiffs Vokoban Corporation and VAM International, which opened a $500,000 brokerage account with LOM in 1996.

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management and Turks & Caicos Islands-based RBC Dominion Securities are among 72 defendants in a civil fraud lawsuit filed in the United States by clients of Cambridge International Bank & Trust, of Grenada. They are in good company, with fellow defendants including household names such as J&H Marsh McLennan and Lloyds TSB Bank (Isle of Man).

E-commerce firm First Ecom.com, whose principal shareholders include the Bank of Bermuda, clients of Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management and various offshore entities, is fast becoming a lemon of gargantuan proportions. Faced with unrelentingly dire operating results, the firm took the drastic measure in May of announcing that it was using some of the $28 million of capital that it still has left to buy a Nevada-registered oil and gas exploration company called Gasco Energy Inc.

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management has been named as one of several defendants in a civil lawsuit filed in California relating to an alleged $5 million stock fraud.The lawsuit was filed by Los Angeles resident Dan Rubin, d.b.a. Rubin Investment Group, on December 26, 2000 at the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

A BVI-registered firm is appealing a Bermuda judge's ruling that it must provide a $100,000 security deposit before it can proceed with a negligence claim against investment firm Lines Overseas Management. Overseas Finance Management will argue that it is unfair to expect a plaintiff to put up additional funds to pursue a claim against a defendant accused of squandering virtually all of its assets.

A publicly-traded company whose principal shareholders include the Bank of Bermuda and Lines Overseas Management is well on the way to becoming an e-commerce flop. The share price of First Ecom.com Inc. hit an all-time low of $1.063 on NASDAQ on November 30, 2000 just nine months after a trading high of $34 on the over-the-counter market.

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management has obtained a default judgment against five New York-based businessmen accused of defrauding LOM's Bermuda and Guernsey operations of $2.67 million in a share ramping scheme.

Overseas Finance Management Limited vs. Lines Overseas Management Limited - Bermuda Supreme Court

Capital Associates Investment Partners Limited vs. Smithfield Services Limited et al. - Bermuda Supreme Court

Cayman Islands Immigration Board approves Ann Nealon's work permit for Walkers law firm by a vote of two to one; Banc Caribe potential target for Cash 4 Titles victims; Antigua assures USA that William Cooper will be extradited; Scott Oliver leaves Lines Overseas Management; and Hundreds of Caribbean immigrants living in the US and residents of Dominica lose $1.2 million in investment scam.

Bermuda-registered Mezzanine Capital Ltd., which appears to be involved in the manipulation of penny stocks in the US, has reported a loss of $10.57 million for the 12 months ended June 30, 1999 after writing off $10.1 million of German bonds. The company, whose shares are listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange, had disclosed in 1998 that the bonds, which it acquired for one million of its common shares, might be worthless but did not decide to write off the investment until the current fiscal year.

Lines Overseas Management Limited vs. Carol Green - Bermuda Supreme Court

Offshore promoter Adam Starchild's criminal past, Cayman politicians receive huge pay increases, clients of Marc Harris' Threshold Insurance Services claim to have been ripped off.

A Canadian investor in the failed Star Capital Fund has criticized regulators in the Cayman Islands over their lack of interest in investigating apparent illegalities in the operation and liquidation of the mutual fund. Alan Hammaker, who lost US$20,000 in the fund, said his experience as a foreign investor in a Cayman mutual fund has left him disillusioned not only with the island but with the offshore world in general.

The saying 'There's one born every minute' was never more evident than during a recent interview OffshoreAlert conducted with an Arizona-based creditor of Gilbert Ziegler, the chairman of the fraudulently-run First International Bank of Grenada; The depths to which The Oxford Club's parent, Baltimore-based Agora Inc., will stoop to attract new business seemingly knows no bounds; In the book the Sovereign Individual, which is co-authored by Lines Overseas Management shareholders Lord William Rees-Mogg and James Dale Davidson, there is a paragraph on Page 188 that seems to advocate an illegal act when advising readers on asset protection; Although we published a list of shareholders for Bermuda-based financial services firm Lines Overseas Management last month, the identities of many of the beneficial shareholders was hidden through companies; We reported last month on an alleged fraud being committed by Threshold Insurance Services, which is an apparently bogus insurer being operated by The Harris Organization of Panama and being investigated by banking and insurance regulators in Florida. We learned this month that official records in Panama show that the company has now been dissolved; and Accounting firm Deloitte & Touche, which is liquidating First Cayman Bank, is still forecasting a pay out of 45 to 55 cents on the dollar.

The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority has been asked to investigate a failed mutual fund that was run and promoted by the staff of Lines Overseas Management (Cayman) and administered by Alexandria Bancorp.A Canadian investor has made a written request for an inquiry on the grounds that a number of laws may have been broken during the operation and current liquidation of Star Capital Fund.