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Is it possible that convicted scam artist Lawrence Niren, aka Edward Pastorini, aka Theodore Roxford, is back with a new persona, and has already duped some major media outlets, again?
The Financial Times' Alphaville and Portfolio's Felix Salmon both smelled a rat and are questioning whether a $1.5 billion bid for ailing Italian airline Alitalia-Linee Aeree Italiane SpA by a Brazilian company called Multi-Long Corp. and its chief executive Michael Breslow could in fact be Niren again up to his old tricks. Niren in the guise of Edward Pastorini made a purported $12.5 billion bid for South African gold giant Gold Fields Ltd. last year and managed to hoodwink Bloomberg LP into reporting the deal. Now, it appears that Breslow has gotten not only Bloomberg, but also The Associated Press to report that he has made a "concrete bid" for Alitalia and also forwarded details of the offer to the European Union. The AP reported that Italian officials had no immediate comment, and Alitalia officials couldn't be reached for comment. The news service cited Breslow as saying that while no financing was in place, he was confident the money could be raised from European and Brazilian banks. Bloomberg reported that it received an e-mail from Multi-Long saying, "We are the only private company that has offered a concrete bid for Alitalia,'' and Multi-Long's funds for the offer are "larger than anyone can imagine,'' he said, without giving any financial details. Breslow described Multi-Long's approach to Alitalia as "rock solid and not an adventure or irresponsible bid.'' Salmon noted that he had been in e-mail contact with Niren and asked whether he was indeed Breslow. He received a "no comment" back. The Securities and Exchange Commission also recently won a $900,000 judgment against the scam artist. But the Canadian man accused of making bogus bids for Sony Corp. and Zapata Corp. told Bloomberg on Feb. 29 the SEC won't be able to collect the civil penalty imposed on his firm Hollingsworth, Rothwell & Roxford. The case against Roxford, who didn't appear in court, remains open. "The SEC never proved their case," Roxford, who has said in court papers that he is in Mendoza, Argentina, wrote in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg. "We just lost interest in it and let it default." The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan in June, alleges that Roxford and HRR made phony offers to acquire companies and used the Internet, press releases and even an SEC filing with respect to the Sony deal to publicize those bids. The offers were originally made between 2003 and earlier this year. "Roxford's intent in making the phony public tender offers was to manipulate the price of the target company's stock by inducing investors to purchase the stock of the target company," the SEC said in its lawsuit. "Roxford and HRR did not intend to complete the offers and did not have the financial means to do so." This reporter also visited the offices of Hollingsworth Rothwell in Melbourne, Fla., only to find a strip mall anchored by a grocery store and a video chain. - Donna Block See post from Portfolio's Market Movers blog Categories Deal Video
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