Archive for September, 2007
Forfeiture of Le-Nature’s jewelry sought
September 27, 2007: 09:38 AM EST
Sep. 27, 2007 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) –
CNNMoney.com
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Federal prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of more than $20 million in jewelry allegedly bought by former officials of bankrupt drinks maker Le-Nature’s Inc. who are being investigated in an alleged money laundering and fraud scheme.
In a civil complaint filed Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Internal Revenue Service had joined an ongoing criminal investigation of officials linked to the defunct company.
According to court documents, company officials are being investigated on possible counts of mail, wire and bank fraud, laundering of monetary instruments, and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions.
No criminal charges have been filed in the case.
Le-Nature’s was forced into bankruptcy in October last year amid allegations of accounting fraud. The company, which made bottled waters, teas, juices and nutritional drinks, is believed to have racked up more than $820 million in debts.
Federal agents seized gems, diamond-encrusted watches, pearls and gold, silver and platinum jewelry worth more than $20 million from safes in a secret room at the company’s Latrobe facility, the filing said. They are currently being held by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Prosecutors say they have been investigating an alleged scheme to defraud Wachovia (NYSE:WB) Bank and S&T Bank (NASDAQ:STBA) from January 2001 through October 2006 to secure millions of dollars to buy the jewelry.
Authorities alleged in court documents that the company’s annual revenues were substantially overstated and financial statements doctored for 2005 to show revenues of more than $287 million when it was actually about one-tenth of that amount.
Prosecutors are also alleging that two sets of books were kept — one reflecting true business activity, the other fictitious — and the false set used to prepare financial statements.
The allegations echo some of those made earlier by bankruptcy consultants.
On Tuesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge M. Bruce McCullough approved a deal that would allow Cadbury Schweppes (NYSE:CSG) Beverage Group to buy the Latrobe bottling facility for $19 million and then sell it to the supermarket chain, Giant Eagle Inc.
McCullough’s decision came nearly a month after he ruled that Giant Eagle acted in bad faith in its bid to buy the plant for $20 million. He awarded the sale to the competitor, the beverage arm of U.K.-based Cadbury Schweppes PLC.
Under the settlement, Giant Eagle denies wrongdoing, but will forfeit a $2 million deposit and pay a court-appointed trustee another $2.25 million that will be used to repay creditors. The sale includes a warehouse near the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.
The Le-Nature’s facility in Latrobe was closed in November last year, leaving 240 people out of work. The company had a bottling plant in Phoenix that was also idled.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Newstex ID: AFX-0013-19868949
September 28th, 2007
U.S. seeks control of Le-Nature’s jewelry
Thursday, September 27, 2007
By Len Boselovic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Post Gazette, PA
Federal prosecutors yesterday gave their first public hint of how they intend to deal with Le-Nature’s founder Gregory Podlucky and other former employees of the fraud-riddled company when they sought court permission to take ownership of more than $20 million in jewelry seized as part of their ongoing criminal investigation.
The 27-page list of items, filed in connection with a civil complaint brought by U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, would provide full employment to a corps of security guards. It includes gems, diamond-encrusted watches and pearls, as well as gold, silver and platinum jewelry.
The jewelry was seized from safes in a secret room at Le-Nature’s headquarters.
The complaint comes 11 months after Le-Nature’s minority investors persuaded a Delaware judge to oust Mr. Podlucky and other executives and replace them with a custodian, who quickly uncovered evidence that the company’s books were manipulated. Mr. Podlucky was implicated in the accounting fraud as well as the destruction of documents.
Creditors took Le-Nature’s into bankruptcy a short time later, setting off a legal brawl over how to pay more than $820 million of claims from the remains of a company creditors say was a house of cards.
Thus far, no criminal charges have been brought against anyone in connection with the case. But Ms. Buchanan’s complaint is based on the contention that Mr. Podlucky and others illegally purchased the jewelry with credit supplied by Wachovia Bank, S&T Bank and other federally insured institutions.
Their actions between 2001 and 2006 are being investigated for bank fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and other illegal monetary transactions.
Federal law allows the government to seize property obtained through criminal activity. R. Todd Neilson, the court-appointed trustee overseeing the bankrupt company, has said federal prosecutors have promised that once they have title to the jewelry, they will turn the assets over to him for distribution to creditors.
The items seized by investigators include watches from Piaget, Harry Winston, Van Cleef & Arpels and Rolex, necklaces and earrings containing diamonds, sapphires and other gems, and mounted and unmounted gems.
Ms. Buchanan accused Mr. Podlucky and/or others of maintaining two sets of books for Le-Nature’s: “one reflected true business activity; the other was based on fictitious levels of business activity.” The company’s audited financial statements contended Le-Nature’s had annual revenue of $287 million in 2005 when its actual revenue was about a tenth of that, the complaint states.
The complaint also alleges Mr. Podlucky and/or others transferred thousands of dollars from company accounts to personal accounts over the six-year period.
Le-Nature’s creditors who purchased the company’s bank debt shortly before the bankruptcy last week sued Mr. Podlucky and other former employees, Wachovia and BDO Seidman, the company’s former auditor that certified the 2005 financial statements.
Meanwhile, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Chief Judge M. Bruce McCullough, who is overseeing the Le-Nature’s case, approved a settlement on Tuesday that will allow Giant Eagle to acquire the idled Latrobe bottling plant of bankrupt Le-Nature’s.
The region’s largest supermarket chain will pay a $2.3 million penalty because Judge McCullough determined Giant Eagle had intimidated one of its suppliers, Cadbury Schweppes Bottling Group, to drop out of the bidding for the plant. In addition to the penalty, the settlement requires Giant Eagle to pay $19 million for the plant and forfeit a $2 million deposit it made with its original bid.
September 27th, 2007
Jewelry & Racism
By Ravi Jethani
SitNews, AK
September 24, 2007
Monday PM
While there have been many articles on Sitnews, both pro and con, concerning the petition to limit jewelry stores, only some have dealt with the allegation that the petition is racist. Of the pro-petition letters, Suzan Thompson’s (Aug. 29) was the most strident, calling the accusations of racism reprehensible and unsavory, while Peter Bolling (Aug. 27) characterized the charge as “beneath contempt” and “absurd and shameful”. Even people presumably on the fence about the issue, David Hull in particular (Aug. 29), have said the petition has nothing to do with racism. It’s also important to note that of two recent postings (Mark Steiner on Sept. 15 and Michael Moyer on the same date) both seem to be anti-petition but don’t mention racism at all. There appears to be a consensus, at least on Sitnews, that though there are many issues to discuss in reference to the jewelry store petition, racism is not one of them. I respectfully disagree.
There has been the argument, presented by both Ms. Thompson and Mr. Bolling, that the petition cannot be racist because some of the sponsors are Hispanic and one is an Alaskan Native. I would accept an argument by both these people that they’ve known the petition sponsors for many years and find them to be fine people who are unlikely to be racist, but the argument that they’re incapable of racism is absurd. The idea that a non-Anglo cannot be racist can easily be refuted by an example of a non-Anglo who is (or was) racist: Idi Amin, onetime African dictator of Uganda, is widely regarded as racist for expelling East Indians from his country in 1972. Note that this doesn’t prove the sponsors are racist or suggest that they’re akin to Idi Amin but refutes the silly argument that they cannot be racist.
On the surface, there’s nothing racist about the petition: It limits jewelry stores, not stores owned and operated by people of East Indian descent. The petition sponsors would have us think it’s mere coincidence that the jewelry stores are largely owned and operated by people of East Indian heritage. At this point, it’s illustrative to note which stores are limited by most communities and why: Liquor stores are limited, as are stores selling tobacco, and, the example Ms. Thompson brings up, adult bookstores. All of these stores have something in common: They sell items prohibited to minors. This begs the question of why my store and other jewelry stores fall into the category of stores selling liquor, tobacco, and pornography, stores that, as Ms. Thompson puts it, “[do] not enhance the cultural, historical, and environmental assets of Alaska”. All laws are made, or ought to be made, for a reason. A law, by its nature, denies a measure of freedom to its citizens so it should be with the utmost care that a community creates a law. For instance, seatbelt laws deprive us of the freedom to drive without seatbelts and motorcycle helmet laws effectively do the same thing. But both these laws were enacted after proponents demonstrably proved that putting these laws in place would help the community, i.e., they would reduce the amount of deaths caused by accidents. In the case of the jewelry store petition, nobody has demonstrated what advantage would go to the community by limiting jewelry stores. Jewelry, unlike alcohol and tobacco, doesn’t harm the community in any measurable way, but the benefits of jewelry stores are measurable: the amount of money they generate in sales tax, the amount of money spent on local business supplies, the amount of money owners and employees spend out of their salaries in town. So there are community benefits to jewelry stores, but what’s the downside? People have suggested that tourists are frustrated with the large amount of stores and won’t return to Alaska because of them but this is belied by the figures: More tourists are coming to Alaska then ever before.
Personally, I have arrived at the conclusion that the jewelry store petition is racist by process of elimination. If there’s no harm to the community from jewelry stores, perhaps it’s not the stores the petition sponsors are against. Perhaps it’s the owners. As Sherlock Holmes famously said, “When you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”. But don’t take his word for it, read what some petition sponsors have said. Note that Walter Bolling (June 21), in his letter to Sitnews asking for people to sign the petition, titled it, “If you are interested in taking back our town”. This begs the question: Who took his town away? Also note he says, our town, as if the town doesn’t also belong to jewelry store owners. This petition has divided our town, if I may even any longer be permitted to call it my town, between people who own jewelry stores and people who despise them. Personally, the petition would benefit me: It would reduce the amount of competition I would face from new jewelry stores and would increase the value of my store if I ever wanted to sell it. So I benefit if the petition passes, but I would be very sad if it did because it would confirm my worst fears about our community.
Ravi Jethani
Ketchikan, AK
About: “Jewelry store owner/operator in Ketchikan for 10 years”
Received September 24, 2007 - Published September 24, 2007
September 26th, 2007
HR conference brings 880 to downtown Kalamazoo
by Kalamazoo Gazette
Tuesday September 25, 2007, 3:50 PM
MLive.com, MI
Gazette Staff Reports
KALAMAZOO — A leader of the Kalamazoo Human Resource Management Association said the organization is encouraged by the turnout here at the 2007 state conference of the Michigan Society for Human Resource Management.
And they are encouraged by the reception the event has received from downtown businesses.
The event, which started Monday and runs through Wednesday at the Radisson Plaza Hotel & Suites, was expected to attract up to 800 people — professionals, vendors, speakers and others. It has actually drawn about 880 people, according to Laura VanPopering, co-chairperson of the conference and co-owner of VanPopering, McLogan Executive Search Inc. in Kalamazoo.
The Kalamazoo organization, which works to foster the growth and development of human-resource professionals, is hosting the event.
VanPopering said downtown businesses have welcomed convention-goers from 21 Human Resource Management chapters with discounts on everything from running shoes, jewelry and submarine sandwiches, to jewelry, antiques and last-minute printing supplies.
Titled “People, Passion, Profit: HR Delivering Value,” the conference is intended to give human-resources professionals information on industry trends and help them advance in the industry.
September 26th, 2007
Philosophy at Global Hands helps ensure quality, living wages for artisans
Janesville Gazette, WI
By Chris Schultz
cschultz@gazetteextra.com
LAKE GENEVA-Marking up prices to what the market will bear while making the most profit is a basic law of retail.
But there is a movement that seeks to put a fair price on goods, especially when it comes to trading and dealing with workers in developing nations.
Under the principle of “fair trade,” several import shops have opened in southern Wisconsin touting those practices.
The first in Walworth County is Global Hands, which Pamela Ellis opened in Lake Geneva in May.
“Dad always taught me to give back,” said Ellis, who lives near Twin Lakes in Kenosha County.
On the surface, the 1,600-square-foot store looks like other high-end gift shops in Lake Geneva.
Browsers can find unique gifts, like the Guatemalan hand-made, loom-woven bibs; plates made of pressed coconut fiber that look like wood, and Peruvian finger puppets.
What makes fair trade different from many other import stores is that Ellis can guarantee that the bib, plates and finger puppets were made by artisans in their native countries and not in foreign-owned sweatshops, or on a machine in China, said Ellis.
It also ensures that the workers who make the goods make a fair wage, something that profit-making corporations operating overseas don’t always ensure, she said.
“You’re helping to keep the kids out of sweatshops and the fields,” said Ellis. “You’re putting food on tables.”
Until recently, Ellis worked as a horticulturalist. She has a degree in forestry from Wyoming University.
She said she wanted to find work that got her out of the sun.
“I have a fear of skin cancer,” confessed the fair-haired, light skinned Ellis.
But she said she also felt that fair trade was the right kind of business for her.
“You know how you get a gut feeling that something is good,” Ellis said. “I just know this is a really good thing.”
This is her first venture into retail, but Ellis has been involved with fair trade for some time.
For four years, she helped organize a Fair Trade Expo in Burlington.
Alice Foley, one of the first fair trade retailers in the area, was a mentor of sorts, said Ellis. She gave encouragement and also helped with more practical issues, like setting up the store’s credit and debit card systems, she said.
Foley, who manages the Milwaukee store Fair Trade for All, said Lake Geneva has a place in its mix for a fair trade store.
“A fair trade store is certainly unique,” said Foley. “The products are really high quality and highly unusual.”
Helping out at the store is Ellis’ daughter Lindsay, who has a degree in finance from UW-Milwaukee.
Ellis said she’s also made a lot of contacts through trade shows. She’s made enough connections that she said she had little fear about opening her own shop in Lake Geneva, where retail competition can be brutal, especially in the winter months.
Global Hands sells a jewelry line from Kenya. Ellis said that came about after meeting a Catholic priest from Kenya at a local Rotary meeting. The priest worked in a Kenyan ghetto where widows make jewelry from such everyday materials as newspaper. The newsprint is rolled by hand into small beads, lacquered and then strung into necklaces and bracelets.
During her time organizing the fair trade expos, Ellis connected with Noga Turk of Israel, a woman who markets for Venus Imports, a worker-owned clothing manufacturer in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Global Hands sells clothing by Venus Imports.
More personally, Ellis has a friend whose husband is from Indonesia. Global Hands sells Buddhas hand-carved from olive wood, made by her friend’s husband’s family in Indonesia.
Global Hands also sells home accessories, coffee and chocolate. Ellis said she also tries to add a little education along with the customers’ Nepalese-made shirt, Kenyan jewelry or Indonesian Buddha.
“I try to hand out brochures explaining fair trade,” Ellis said.
What is fair trade?
Fair trade started in the mid-1940s with the Mennonite Central Committee, which pioneered the idea of buying goods directly from artisans in the developing world and paying a living wage.
One of the larger fair trade organizations is the International Fair Trade Association.
According to the IFAT Web site, fair trade seeks to create an economy that benefits producers and sellers alike at a reasonable cost to the buyer.
Fair Trade business practices are intended to:
– Create opportunities for economically disadvantaged producers.
– Be transparent and accountable.
– Pay a fair price for goods.
– Provide good working conditions and gender equality.
– Build long-term relationships with producers.
– Care for the environment.
IFAT and other organizations, including the Fair Trade Federation in the United States, certify fair trade retailers and fair trade products.
Retail markups are limited, usually to 50 percent.
Fair trade organizations work with disadvantaged groups to help them overcome barriers in finding markets. Representatives from fair trade organizations such as 10,000 Villages of Canada will go to native manufacturers and help them design products that will fit into American homes.
According to IFAT, fair trade products are marketed under one of two labels. The first is issued by IFAT to registered members and is called the Fair Trade Organization Mark or FTO Mark. The other is issued the Fairtrade Labeling Organization and is called the Fairtrade Label.
September 25th, 2007
Car Drives Through Jewelry Store On Stockton Blvd.
CBS 13, CA
(CBS13) SACRAMENTO Owners of a Sacramento jewelry store have a big cleanup ahead of them.
A vehicle belonging to a security guard drove through the front of the Phuk Thanh jewelry store on Stockton Blvd. at around 2 a.m. after its brakes reportedly failed.
The vehicle would have caused more damage if it hadn’t also driven through an iron security gate at the front of the building.
September 25th, 2007
Collabsoft Enters Flatware and Jewelry Design
PR.com (press release), NY
Collabsoft, an India based engineering and IT company was awarded two separate contracts by two leading US companies for developing engineering design drawings for flatware and fine jewelry.
New York, NY, September 24, 2007 –(PR.com)– Collabsoft, an India based engineering and IT company was awarded two separate contracts by two leading US companies for developing engineering design drawings for flatware and fine jewelry. The main challenge was to develop mold ready 3-D drawings
In an interview, the Collabsoft spokesperson indicated that these are new market niches for Collabsoft and they have been retained on long term basis. He feels this will lead to many more similar contracts in those areas in times to come.
Incidentally, Collabsoft has been providing complete design and development services to varied engineering verticals starting from Wind Mill, Recycling Equipment, MEP, Architectural Services for last five years. Though its main client concentration is in the west coast, they are also reasonably active in midwest and east coast.
September 25th, 2007
Do your own jewelry
(smartshanghai.com)
Updated: 2007-09-24 10:50
China Daily, China
Spending an hour at Beads is an ideal way to get re-acquainted with your creative side, enjoy time with the kids, or create a special gift for a friend.
The Canadian DIY jewelry store is a Shanghai veteran but is often overlooked in the busy People’s Square Mall. The tiny bijouterie allows you to create personalized necklaces, bracelets, hair accessories or key chains using pearls, stones and beads.
The store’s collection is immense, ranging from deep-red coral, turquoise and pink quartz to the more exclusive Czech fire-polished crystals, Italian lamp beads, pewter pearls and Japanese miracle beads.
Shoppers are given little gray trays to make their bead selections, after which a shop assistant helps in choosing appropriate wires, ropes and findings to make the jewelry.
Amateur jewelers can seek help from one of the trained assistants while seasoned artisans (or confident first-timers) can head directly to one of the well-equipped workbenches in the store. Prices vary depending on the piece you create.
Beads
Shop 240, Dimei Shopping Centre,218 Wusheng Lu
Tel: 021-63582245
September 25th, 2007
Artist Turns Money into Jewelry
WVNS-TV, WV
Some people spend a lot of money on jewelry, but for one artist, the jewelry is money.
Story by Adam Baker Email | Bio
BECKLEY — Artisan Vivian Lilly from Hinton creates rings out of rare coins.
He uses a hammer and a file to smooth the coins and shape them into rings.
Lilly buys coins like half-dollars from shops across the country to turn into the unique jewelry.
The work takes him about three hours per ring.
Lilly calls the work a hobby, not a business.
He’s been doing it for 50 years. “I was working at a refinery in Virginia in 1957 and we did something one day and I thought if we can do that with that, then I can do that with a coin. So after many, many trials and errors I was finally able to complete one” said Lilly.
Senator Robert C. Byrd has bought three rings from the local artist.
The rings are on sale on Tamarack.
Copyright 2007 West Virginia Media. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
September 25th, 2007
WWII Jewelry Box Historic Piece
KLTV, TX
An East Texas woman has an unusual hand made item that marks a little known World War II history here in East Texas. During World War II there were dozens of POW camps in Texas, two major camps in East Texas. It’s a simple hand made jewelry box but for Betty Shrum, it’s proof of a little known piece of World War II history. German prisoners of war, who were living and working among East Texans.
“I was just afraid,” said Shrum. “All I was hearing was the bad things going on overseas.” In 1943, then 19 year old Betty was working at Lone Star Steel, when a man she recognized as a German prisoner of war approached her.
“This boy that came walking up there he was a nice looking young man blonde haired blue eyed,” said Shrum. “I shook my head no when he held it out and he said gift. I used it as my jewelry box for years.” According to records, more than 78,000 were held in Texas camps many were used as laborers at places like Lone Star Steel and Harmon hospital in Longview, which is now LeTourneau University.
“They probably were just a bunch of kids down there, just glad they weren’t in the fighting and making the best of where they were,” said Shrum. They were not the monsters that propaganda made them out to be and Shrum often wonders about the young German, who even left his name on the gift, Walter Holthoffer.
“Yes, I did I wondered,” said Shrum. “It’s just been a secret in my bathroom for all these years.” She is allowing the Gilmer Historical Museum to display the box, as proof that it really happened. Shrum says the jewelry box will be put on display when the Gilmer Historical Museum opens after renovations in October.
Bob Hallmark, Reporting. bhallmark@kltv.com
September 25th, 2007
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