"Hi Craig,
Thanks for the reply. Sure. I'll back up what I said. The beginning is probably a good place to start:
In the late '90s xG was called iDigi, run by the same directors; Rick Mooers, Roger Branton, and the inventor Joe Bobier. Besides that it had three major similarities to xG:
1) It sold similar high-tech broadband radio-modulation products, which would 'revolutionise' the market, but were 'so secret' nobody could ever know how they worked. This was because in common with the early xG modulation - they DIDN'T work. At least at anywhere near the capabilities they claimed to investors. In fact with iDigi their main investor discovered that they had actually cheated in their demo - pre-recording video on computer hard-drives that was supposedly broadcast by their system. (Link a). Link b)).
Compare this with early xG claims that their modulation was special and worked. This (link c)) analysis shows that their claims of special modulation are entirely bogus. Any number of systems could have easily achieved what they claimed was special. (Also see this entire blog by a Professor of Electrical Engineering - link d)). xG's supposed advantage lay within two inventions: their 'special' filter called the 'wavelet pass filter', and 'flash signal'. The two patents backing these up have been shown to show a laughable lack of basic communications theory. (link e, link f)). When iDigi's main investor (Icelandic pension fund LN) found out, well obviously they sued for FRAUD. Mooers obviously couldn't fight it so settled out of court, for $5m.
xG evidently knew about the problems with their modulation system, as witnessed by these emails (link g, h)), and this BER curve they put up on their web-page and later took down (link i)). Yet they continued to tell their investors who had put in their hard-earned money nothing - in direct contravention of AIM rule 11.
a)http://tinyurl.com/2w2fsko
b)http://tinyurl.com/2vx96wb
c)http://www.ka9q.net/xmax.html
d)http://tinyurl.com/3x2wtpw
e)http://tinyurl.com/29ntyvs (pdf file)
f)http://www.ka9q.net/tristate.html
g)http://tinyurl.com/39p5jm8
h)http://tinyurl.com/356884p
i)http://tinyurl.com/2bpz73p
2) In common with iDigi, xG's funding was...ummm...unusual. As you've been told instead of the usual route of showing their incredible system to any number of major institutions who would've undoubtedly cut each others throats to get a piece of it, they chose...wait for it...a boiler-room to market their stock.
With iDigi the boiler-room was, unusually for a company based in the USA, one based in Spain, the Costa del Crime: N.C.R. Capital. (I will leave it to your imagination to decide whether they chose this one to be out of reach of US legislators.) Of the funds raised destined for iDigi 50% ended up in offshore accounts never to be seen again. Did Rick Mooers know it was a boiler-room? Did he know only pennies in the dollar from investors money was going to iDigi? Well, yes he did:
"Rick Mooers came here to Spain," Dannenberg said. "He knew all about it. He knew he was getting pennies on the dollar for iDigi. Yes, he knew it was called iDigi Ltd. He gave a speech to all of us. He mentioned the fact that it was a boiler room. He didn't want it to be a boiler room. He was saying this was not something that was a boiler room deal, but it was. He was just giving us a story to go on."" (link b), page 6, also see link a)).
When iDigi folded it left the FBI and the court administrator chasing up to $30m that had gone missing. None has been recovered to my knowledge.
The link with NCR continues to this day. Palmi Sigmarsson a current xG director worked with NCR to bring in LN, via his company Spectra Kapital. Spectra promoted mainly penny stocks and have now been closed down by the finance inspectorate. The contact list for NCR was allegedly sold on to Spectra...Incidentally this same director made upto $2.25m shorting xG - his own company, as well as allowing stock he controlled to be sold for half the market rate whilst under the lock-up period. That shows confidence in xG, huh?
With xG the story is similar but the boiler-room changes to ACH securities in Geneva. (Again you will note outside US jurisdiction.) ACH were a Swedish brokerage, but have the unusual distinction of being expelled from Sweden for various shady deals (link j)). Two directors of ACH were at one time or another also directors of xG. ACH have now also been closed down by the authorities, but not before they were able to lap the share-price from $4.50 to $18...
After ACH closed, xG were left to mainly rely on unregulated stock promoters like Fredrik Walhman (mentioned in court document - link k)) page 25 onwards) to sell shares. Which he did with some success bringing in $34m investment from a millionaire called Johan Bohamn (who is also not without a 'colourful' history himself..)
Doubts raised at the beginning of the float weren't chased up.(link kk)
j)http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-122629851.html
k)http://tinyurl.com/2wrsper
kk)http://tinyurl.com/35zbxqs
3)The third major similarity involves accounts, so I thank Mr Rotondo for bringing it up. In both companies Rick Mooers dramatically overstated to companies balance sheets. With iDigi (from link b) page 7):
"Mooers never fully disclosed where the money was coming from . which left all of us very uneasy," Heimann said.
He also claims that Mooers and another partner, Roger Branton, wanted to "adjust" entries in the 1999 year-end financial figures "that would show investments in the $10s (of millions) and $100 millions range by valuing their contributions at exorbitant amounts, without any reference to reality."
"They wanted to show iDigi Communications was valued at a very high level," Heimann said. ". Mooers committed fraud in several ways: by falsifying records and inflating financial statements and misleading investors with respect to the value of the company they were investing in .
"No. 2, by setting up all sorts of covert schemes with offshore entities that ended up siphoning off 50 cents on the dollar on average, of monies investors paid."
Mooers, for his part, denied those allegations and claimed Heimann "embezzled from the company."
With xG Rick was up to his old tricks - valuing the company exorbitantly. This may have been justified if the miracle modulation was real - but as I've shown they knew it wasn't, or was unworkable. The 'sales' and 'deals' they announced were really nothing of the sort. The former were mainly just adjustments to the accounts receivable (with, presumably, the knowledge of Johan Bohman) - if you do as Mr Rotondo suggested and check the last few years' accounts you'll see they've just been shifted to debt owing after one year. Very little, if anything, was actually sold in the true sense. The 'deals' were mainly just letters of intent to look at the system. There were by my count 11 such 'deals' - no business ever resulted - despite the 'miracle' nature of their technology.
All in all it paints a very bad picture of the attitude that Mr Mooers has to his investors. This is why the latest announcements (links l), m), and n)) of MBTH being involved is such a bad sign for investors. Now Mr Moores has a mechanism to cheat all the investors quite legally. No wonder Ceinwen Lloyd (xG director, and wife of Johan Bohman) is upset. She realises that the $35m they've put in is hanging in the balance.
l)http://tinyurl.com/36s7hn7
m)http://tinyurl.com/33cm4js
n)http://tinyurl.com/38fa4jx
Finally I should say that it may well be true that xG now have a cognitive radio that works. I'll leave that to people like yourself. But this must be weighed up against the appalling behaviour of Mr Mooers, and his attitude to investors and stock-market regulations. Praise must go to Rick Rotondo for putting an acceptable face to xG, and him having the honesty to say they have had a change of technology (link o)). But all this is too little, too late - it should've come years ago through the appropriate channels - the stock market regulations.
There's so much I left out - enough to write a book - but I think you'll get the picture. I can be contacted at john.prescott.dpm at gmail.com
Regards John.
o)http://tinyurl.com/39lzx62 (in comments)"
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