Workers, comment about your experiences with Le Nature's now.
Note: If you'd like some background and history on how this whole thing got started, see here -- Le Nature's stands AGAINST FREE SPEECH
My condolences to the people who's sweat and labor held up this company while it crumbled from the top down. Some of your fellow coworkers have already spoken up about their experiences. Whether you worked for Le Nature's or with Le Nature's, I invite you, as a worker, to express yourself here. You can do so anonymously. Whether you have good or bad things to say, you can speak up here without fearing.
Some workers have already said:
"if you only knew what went on there - they have just scratched the surface""What Podlucky did with fraud was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to his employees. Constant email threats and abusing his authority to make it clear his political choice was your choice. Even as far as having his secretary call homes of his employees anonymously to see who they were voting for. I do feel bad for the workers under the upper management who slaved under him to make a living, but this is a long deserving end to him. I hope he sees time." "your an asshole..you know this leaves 200 families with out an income..all your doing is getting your rocks off about podlucky"
"these are mean spirited people who took pleasure in making the people in their employ by constantly threatining to fire them and going out of their way to be mean""It was a very bizarre work environment""I worked in their IT Dept (i.e Computer Fag Dept)""From day one, we knew something was strange about the way they conducted themselves."Note: emphasis added by author
Please add your own comments, and invite your coworkers to do the same. If you're not a worker but still want to make a comment please
go here.
646 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 401 – 600 of 646 Newer› Newest»how does a bankrupt company who is selling assets for pennies on the dollar afford to pay KROLL ZOLFO COOPER $5 million???????
As a long ago employee in the mid 90's this company was something with a good product which inturn was better over time. I am sad its gone, but the COO was dirty in those days, so him finally getting caught now is a blessing. I am just amazed that the company made it this long with the frauding going on inside behind doors. I have read these comments from others and would total agree with the employees. You were not treated nicely if you did your job, but if you kissed a little ass, you were gold to them. With Drew yea he was just there. Never could figure out what he physically did other than just be next to Greg. Hopefully in the future after all things are gone that the name and ingredients of this great tasting product will be made again.
Ignore the previous comment from Kroll trying to make it look like it is from an employee by using the typical misspelling of words. Kroll had one thing in mind to spoil records.
Why hate Kroll? You'd do their job if you were capable.
Good point...who wouldn't want to drive around in luxury SUVs, booze all day, get paid $5 million (money that should have went to creditors) all under the haze of being the responsible custodian...yeah i'd take that job
HEY SAL,YOU FAT FUCK,I THOUGHT YOU WERE GONNA TURN LENATURES AROUND, DONT GET ON THIS BLOG AND TRY AND MAKE KROLL AND YOURSELF LOOK LIKE YOU ARE SO DAMN SMART,ILL BET YOU SPENT MOST OF YOUR TIME RAIDING THE EMPLOYEE LOUNGE AND FEEDING YOUR FAT FACE,WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR BOY PANAGOS,HE BOLTED AFTER THEY FOUND YOU AND HIM DOWN IN THE SECRET ROOM LOOTING THE GEMS AND REPLACING THEM WITH SEX TOYS,GOOD ONE,THE FEDS ARE LOOKING FOR MISSING GEMS
Hey,everyone i just heard a rumor about carol wetmore.
I heard she was furlowed!!!!
Does,anyone know if this is true!
Wouldn't that be just??????
This company should have been called School Girls Lemonade Stand based on your comments. The people you call boozers and fat have no obligation to appease any one of you. Missing gems??? The Lemonade Stands management is victims now?? Ha Ha and Bullshit. Maybe management should have gone to the local watering hole and had a beer instead of hiding behind religion and robbing people blind. All the terms used mismanaged, fraud, etc. are all sugar coated for people that actually stole from others when they weren't looking...now to the magnitude. Let's put the level of stealing that happened into perspective. Let's say only 10 Million Dollars was missing and we all know the real figure is many times that amount. Everyone drives to work, puts their keys in their locker and at the end of the day everyone’s car is gone but management gives you a ride home (the ride home is just to show an example of how creditors were courted, meantime, back at the ranch....) If everyone drove a $10,000 car, they would have stolen 1000 peoples cars just to get $1 million in fraud. Let's pretend people don't talk and nobody knew about the missing cars, the next day another 1000 people show up for work and same results. This happened over and over. The toilets in the building were obtained by fraud (stealing), not just the gems or other crap they found. Kroll didn't come in to turn the company around; they came in to clean the blood from the financial massacre that happened there. Of course they said all was well in the beginning. You can't put people in a panic from day one without a plan. Ever here of a company going out of business make a pre-announcement that they are going out of business in the fall of 2009? Come on schoolgirls! Kroll, have a drink on me.
03/08/2007 8:42...
obviously you are a kroll employee and it is very clear you either did not read the bullshit memo you supposedly wrote via carol wetmore or you never intended anything you wrote in it. kroll was never supposed to turn things around??? let me refresh your memory sal, i know its hard to concentrate when you havent eaten in 10 minutes:
point three of the memo:
The Court ordered the appointment of a custodian, in part, based on evidence that members of Le-Nature’s management team, including the majority shareholders, had violated the terms of the Shareholders’ Agreement, and the Court believed it was necessary to appoint an interim management team to ensure that Le-Nature’s business continues to operate in the normal course until the legal issues are decided. In short, KZC is here to maintain the status quo of Le-Nature’s operations.
is it status quo to make wild mangaerial decisions (i.e. lay people off, close down factories, and claim revenue is off by hundreds of millions)???
point six:
KZC has a wealth of experience handling complex engagements and stabilizing businesses while protecting long-term financial growth. The KZC interim management team also has extensive experience in the food and beverage industry, having most recently served as the interim management team for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.
oops, i saw krispy kreme in there and thought sal might get hungry, sorry.
points 11 and 12:
11. Does this announcement have any effect on my job and my pay and benefits?
There will be no changes to your pay or benefits as a result of this management transition.
KZC is doing everything possible to ensure that it is a smooth management transition and business as usual for employees, customers and suppliers. There should be no change to the day-to-day operations of the company, so please continue to report for work on the usual schedule.
12. Kroll Zolfo Cooper is known to do a lot of work with companies involved in financial restructurings and Chapter 11 reorganizations. Does this mean the Company is going to file for bankruptcy?
No, there is no plan to file for Chapter 11. Le-Nature’s is a strong company with great products and recognizable brand names. The current legal issues and management changes should not have an impact on the fundamental strength of the business. The Company’s lenders and other investors are aware of the situation and have indicated their support of the appointment of KZC as custodian.
im not even going to comment on these, as the hypocritical lies behind them are gross. maybe the phrase "turn around" was inappropriate, however, when this memo was written, the company was not in bankruptcy. common sense tells me that they were in charge during the chapter 11 filing which in turn makes them responsible for a "turn around" plan of attack.
i really think it is pathetic that the big bad kroll employees such as sloppy sal and pussy panagos are going to get on here and lie about what happened at lenatures during their time in latrobe. i also think it is pathetic that they are going to compare themselves to the previous management and its tactics to justify their behavior in latrobe. if by chance the previous comment was written by somebody other than kroll (which i highly doubt), i suppose you should take a closer look at the reality of the situation:
1. why buy kroll a drink? they stole $5 million from the creditors pocket so im pretty sure they can afford their own drinks.
2. employee eyewitnesses saw panagos and lobiondo carrying gems, watches, etc. to the executive offices and never saw them come back out
3. employee eyewitnesses saw panagos and lobiondo come to and from lenatures everyday via a silver mercedes benz suv and also to denunzios restaurant at the airport (drunk) with office employees, according to the tribune review, the lease payments were three months behind
4. kroll and the shareholders responsible for the accusations face severe liablities if it in fact turns out the picture is not as they have painted it in the tribune review (which would then also face severe liabilities). for the sake of those entities, lets hope they know what they are purporting to the public.
The previous blogger claims to have posted a memo issued by the Custodian. In that memo, it claims that KROLL ZOLFO COOPER had expertise in the food and beverage industry. I can see they helped out at Krispy Kreme also. The only thing that confuses me is the revenue at LeNature's. I know they concluded an overstatement of revenue by something like $243 million dollars, however, would it not be possible for an expert in something to maintain some business from $32 million? I mean look at what they are doing now, selling to Giant Eagle or Cadbury. They will not get enough money to pay off the creditors so why not just hire new management and continue to operate the place if it making $32 million in a growing industry segment? My conclusion is that they either are not being honest about their expertise or they had an alterior motive when they got to LeNature's. If I am wrong, please somebody explain this to me better. I am old.
The school girls get an "A" in potty and and "F" in psychology. Come one....I'm not a Kroll supporter or non-supporter. Quit trying to change the focus. What.... someone stole something from me that I stole??? The whole planned changed based on books that were still smoking...reported sales vs. actual sales might have had a lot to do with the change??? Your lack of issues with the real issues self explains all of your points.
To: 3/08/2007 9:55 AM...the 32 million is irrelevant to operations being a little or large amount is only based on porportions of the debt. The creditors have a big say in going on or settling since all the stuff like equipment is someone else's. So, the real problem in operating is picking and choosing who gets paid. For example, if a bottle machine company starts getting paid because their machine is needed to operate now vs. a trucking company that is owed hundred of thousands and no longer needed wouldn't get any paid. What you can't do in this is pick and choose who gets paid. Not to mention, the creditors don't want to be strung along anymore with B.S. or have to hire lawyers to do so.
Test your knowledge, what prominent local PA family gain their wealth from selling potato whiskey during prohibition?
Mellon?
i chink 320mm not 32mm. they missed the wrong info.
No, 32mm was actual or estimated actual, the point it was a far cry from stated and not good in relation to debt. Debt was earned based on "lied about" stated which now makes this a very small number for sales to support the debt. It's not a big or small number on its own, only in relation to perspective. Would be a big number if it was in my pocket.
Run the thesaurus check on your computer for the word “fraud”…..deception, scam, con, scheme, swindle, racket, hoax, deceit, snake oil, smoke and mirrors. Synonym; fake, counterfeit, imitation, sham, wooden nickel.
I heard the Trib is being sued for hundreds of millions. The tip of many suits against them.
Silver will be next.
i chink 320mm not 32mm. they missed the wrong info.
i chink 320mm not 32mm. they missed the wrong info.
No sympathy for perpetrators turned victims. 32mm vs. 320mm not sure what you’re trying to say….are you talking about the missing sales from customers who really weren’t down south or what? Silver, what did he do? Uncover that LeNature’s needed to remove chlorine from Spring Water? He didn’t like the product, remember when Greg didn’t like the American Flag flying over his religious one so he switched it……it’s called the USA….like it or not. Hope we end up with a common sense judge that doesn’t want to hear any crap about perpetrators getting mistreated. Too bad we can’t bet….GP will settle and cut the prison term in half (10 years and parole). Maybe not a bad plan, he could live alone on the $10mil from the last account.
i chink 320mm not 32mm. they missed the wrong info.
i chink 320mm not 32mm. they missed the wrong info.
i chink 320mm not 32mm. they missed the wrong info.
Test your knowledge. What prominent judge found me guilty in traffic court after I explained that even though I was speeding, I was keeping up with traffic proving everyone else was also speeding?
obviously you are a kroll employee and it is very clear you either did not read the bullshit memo you supposedly wrote via carol wetmore or you never intended anything you wrote in it. kroll was never supposed to turn things around??? let me refresh your memory sal, i know its hard to concentrate when you havent eaten in 10 minutes:
point three of the memo:
The Court ordered the appointment of a custodian, in part, based on evidence that members of Le-Nature’s management team, including the majority shareholders, had violated the terms of the Shareholders’ Agreement, and the Court believed it was necessary to appoint an interim management team to ensure that Le-Nature’s business continues to operate in the normal course until the legal issues are decided. In short, KZC is here to maintain the status quo of Le-Nature’s operations.
is it status quo to make wild mangaerial decisions (i.e. lay people off, close down factories, and claim revenue is off by hundreds of millions)???
point six:
KZC has a wealth of experience handling complex engagements and stabilizing businesses while protecting long-term financial growth. The KZC interim management team also has extensive experience in the food and beverage industry, having most recently served as the interim management team for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.
oops, i saw krispy kreme in there and thought sal might get hungry, sorry.
points 11 and 12:
11. Does this announcement have any effect on my job and my pay and benefits?
There will be no changes to your pay or benefits as a result of this management transition.
KZC is doing everything possible to ensure that it is a smooth management transition and business as usual for employees, customers and suppliers. There should be no change to the day-to-day operations of the company, so please continue to report for work on the usual schedule.
12. Kroll Zolfo Cooper is known to do a lot of work with companies involved in financial restructurings and Chapter 11 reorganizations. Does this mean the Company is going to file for bankruptcy?
No, there is no plan to file for Chapter 11. Le-Nature’s is a strong company with great products and recognizable brand names. The current legal issues and management changes should not have an impact on the fundamental strength of the business. The Company’s lenders and other investors are aware of the situation and have indicated their support of the appointment of KZC as custodian.
im not even going to comment on these, as the hypocritical lies behind them are gross. maybe the phrase "turn around" was inappropriate, however, when this memo was written, the company was not in bankruptcy. common sense tells me that they were in charge during the chapter 11 filing which in turn makes them responsible for a "turn around" plan of attack.
i really think it is pathetic that the big bad kroll employees such as sloppy sal and pussy panagos are going to get on here and lie about what happened at lenatures during their time in latrobe. i also think it is pathetic that they are going to compare themselves to the previous management and its tactics to justify their behavior in latrobe. if by chance the previous comment was written by somebody other than kroll (which i highly doubt), i suppose you should take a closer look at the reality of the situation:
1. why buy kroll a drink? they stole $5 million from the creditors pocket so im pretty sure they can afford their own drinks.
2. employee eyewitnesses saw panagos and lobiondo carrying gems, watches, etc. to the executive offices and never saw them come back out
3. employee eyewitnesses saw panagos and lobiondo come to and from lenatures everyday via a silver mercedes benz suv and also to denunzios restaurant at the airport (drunk) with office employees, according to the tribune review, the lease payments were three months behind
4. kroll and the shareholders responsible for the accusations face severe liablities if it in fact turns out the picture is not as they have painted it in the tribune review (which would then also face severe liabilities). for the sake of those entities, lets hope they know what they are purporting to the public.
Anonymous said...
The school girls get an "A" in potty and and "F" in psychology. Come one....I'm not a Kroll supporter or non-supporter. Quit trying to change the focus. What.... someone stole something from me that I stole??? The whole planned changed based on books that were still smoking...reported sales vs. actual sales might have had a lot to do with the change??? Your lack of issues with the real issues self explains all of your points.
Be Honest i'd rather hear about the Fred And Wilma saga..i mean the Fred and Brittany romance..any more on that?..Lol..Are they still carrying on like school kids..oh i forgot Fred.. one of you are Still a kid..but its not you FRED..
Your lack of issues with the real issues self explains all of your points.
Save it for another day and another blog. Smoke and mirror games are out for now. How about a few comments on the cause of this mess. Kroll was only given this chance by LeNatures Mgmt. Where was the root of the issue and problems? Interest is with LeNatures and that whole saga. Do you think the movie / book will be written about LeNature's or Kroll. Where you going to put your money? Still waiting for the ending..........one shoe is down....
hey asshole..i'm up at dinos..waiting on you ..crying in your beer..like all women..
Hey Fred was there long enough to know the shit wasn't sent out..that he was making $80:000.grand..and still is..how about that?..brittany..the dumbest fuck i ever knew..well second dumbest..she thinks she's moving up in a company that never was..then you fred to lead her on with hopes..your my number one dumbest fuck..or child molester..ohhhhhhh she's 19..your daughters age..younger i think to..peace out
Your lack of issues with the real issues self explains all of your points.
Test your knowledge. What prominent judge found me guilty in traffic court after I explained that even though I was speeding, I was keeping up with traffic proving everyone else was also speeding?
Do you see the logic in this? The first crimes don't count because you think there were more and worse crimes? Your points just aren't relative to the present. No person, lawyer, judge or court is going to relate the two in prosecution of the first. Why don't you start a website and start it with Kroll's Service taste like asswater. If you do, let me know where, I'd love to comment.
GP?...way to much interest for a fellow production teammate. Not enough motive to be one and keep this up. Too many hours of your time and attention.
The previous blogger claims to have posted a memo issued by the Custodian. In that memo, it claims that KROLL ZOLFO COOPER had expertise in the food and beverage industry. I can see they helped out at Krispy Kreme also. The only thing that confuses me is the revenue at LeNature's. I know they concluded an overstatement of revenue by something like $243 million dollars, however, would it not be possible for an expert in something to maintain some business from $32 million? I mean look at what they are doing now, selling to Giant Eagle or Cadbury. They will not get enough money to pay off the creditors so why not just hire new management and continue to operate the place if it making $32 million in a growing industry segment? My conclusion is that they either are not being honest about their expertise or they had an alterior motive when they got to LeNature's. If I am wrong, please somebody explain this to me better. I am old.
yeah,i heard that too,but i heard they were going to take rich gazarik with them after he wins a pulitzer prize for the hard hitting and incredibly accurate articles he's been writing about lenatures and podlucky and podluckys 250,000 square foot house (which would be big enough to house an airbus a380 by the way),then they will start the tribune review moon edition and gazarik can write hard hitting articles about rocks and stuff,in fact i think his first article is going to be a research piece on the size of the moon and we're all going to be quite surprised to find out the moon is actually 10x the size actual scientists determined it to be and we will all believe it bc gazarik is a master of all and everything he writes should be taken at face value,keep up the good work rich,you're the man!!! Remember, you need to divide and multiple by 10 the house and reveunues respectively. Eventually you'll get it right, maybe after you cause your employer to pay hundreds of millions in damages.
This blog has gone from bad to completely incoherent. Lenatures must have had a high rate of illiteracy. Jay, you should add a feature to this blog that filters out illiterate, incoherent, non-sense. But that would filter out some of your non-sense too. Hmmm, what a dilemma. I mean really how old are you? An mit student that is balding at? What’s your age? I’ve gone through some of your "less popular" blogs and I must say they are literary genius. You should stick to being a quasi-counterculture protester type. That seems to be your strong suit. Are you really under the delusion that your “ass water” blog “brought down Lenatures?” Do you really think that money hungry investors give two fucks about what some prematurely balding jew kid thinks about what they invested in? Yeah they were sitting back one day and said “that really attractive, yet balding jew kid jay (that seems to only ever wear pajamas) doesn’t like our water, we should contend fraud against our management team and fix this; thus singlehandedly destroying our own investment.” Take some advice from your URL, WAKE UP SILVER.
Good morning. I just wanted to give you an update regarding our efforts to bring industry leadership to the sales organization. Kevin Hudson and I have completed the external search and have made choices which will allow our company to move more swiftly to the +$450mm (2008) target, rather than conduct another restructuring and search, one year from now.
I was very pleased with the pool of candidates Kevin brought to the table. Following my sit down with the two of you on Wednesday, it was apparent that we have no time to waste. I was happy to gain your preliminary acceptance of the Org Chart and took note of your interest in having Organic and Military experience added as we make these moves.
The Senior additions will include 4 industry leaders from Coke/Odwalla, Nestle Waters, Kraft/Fruit2o, and Sara Lee Coffee and Tea. All 4 are ready and willing to come aboard, act swiftly as a team in the Sales Planning process and hit the road running in FY07. In my 20 years in the industry, this is by far the most talented and motivated senior team I have ever had the opportunity to assemble.
By moving to an accelerated plan, we will……
· Add Organic expertise and industry (customer) contacts through our candidate from Odwalla.
· Send a clear message to the existing sales team that our company is making a serious investment in their future by providing industry players and experience. The new organization will also allow for personal growth and movement within the team. As the business grows, we will have an opportunity to promote from within and create succession plans for our current performers. A new Organizational Chart will be forwarded to you on Monday. Simultaneously, Kevin will be working up recommendations and offer sheets and will forward them your way for review and signature.
· Different skill sets and levels of expertise in the beverage category, key customer development, sales strategy and alternative channels are what will make this group so unique and dynamic.
The pieces all came together yesterday as we rounded out the interview process. Kevin and I reviewed the Org Charts and just made sense to take this approach.
I travel this afternoon. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know. Otherwise, we will talk next week. Thanks in advance, for your support !!
FINALLY SOME FACTS.
Per our conversation earlier this week, attached is a revised position description detailing the added international element to the CSO position, as well as the new reporting structure. Please advise if there are any additional changes.
Also, we have enclosed three candidate profiles we felt were strong based on the original spec. All three we would recommend you meet with. However, given the international element, only Chris Quinn, who runs global Wal-Mart for Masterfoods, has the international experience you are seeking. We continue to believe that Ron Vogler and Jeff Goodman are strong candidates for the CSO role, but they would require an SVP International who could bring a rolodex of contacts in the U.K. and Western European markets.
As we discussed, the candidate universe is much more narrow now that international experience, and specifically the U.K./Western European market, is critical. Many of the individuals we had originally targeted (such as Peter Burns and Tom Philp whose profiles are attached) are no longer appropriate for the role, so we are aggressively sourcing new potential prospects. We are working to have additional profiles, with international experience, later next week.
The previous blogger claims to have posted a memo issued by the Custodian. In that memo, it claims that KROLL ZOLFO COOPER had expertise in the food and beverage industry. I can see they helped out at Krispy Kreme also. The only thing that confuses me is the revenue at LeNature's. I know they concluded an overstatement of revenue by something like $243 million dollars, however, would it not be possible for an expert in something to maintain some business from $32 million? I mean look at what they are doing now, selling to Giant Eagle or Cadbury. They will not get enough money to pay off the creditors so why not just hire new management and continue to operate the place if it making $32 million in a growing industry segment? My conclusion is that they either are not being honest about their expertise or they had an alterior motive when they got to LeNature's. If I am wrong, please somebody explain this to me better. I am old.
yeah,i heard that too,but i heard they were going to take rich gazarik with them after he wins a pulitzer prize for the hard hitting and incredibly accurate articles he's been writing about lenatures and podlucky and podluckys 250,000 square foot house (which would be big enough to house an airbus a380 by the way),then they will start the tribune review moon edition and gazarik can write hard hitting articles about rocks and stuff,in fact i think his first article is going to be a research piece on the size of the moon and we're all going to be quite surprised to find out the moon is actually 10x the size actual scientists determined it to be and we will all believe it bc gazarik is a master of all and everything he writes should be taken at face value,keep up the good work rich,you're the man!!! Remember, you need to divide and multiple by 10 the house and reveunues respectively. Eventually you'll get it right, maybe after you cause your employer to pay hundreds of millions in damages.
The previous blogger claims to have posted a memo issued by the Custodian. In that memo, it claims that KROLL ZOLFO COOPER had expertise in the food and beverage industry. I can see they helped out at Krispy Kreme also. The only thing that confuses me is the revenue at LeNature's. I know they concluded an overstatement of revenue by something like $243 million dollars, however, would it not be possible for an expert in something to maintain some business from $32 million? I mean look at what they are doing now, selling to Giant Eagle or Cadbury. They will not get enough money to pay off the creditors so why not just hire new management and continue to operate the place if it making $32 million in a growing industry segment? My conclusion is that they either are not being honest about their expertise or they had an alterior motive when they got to LeNature's. If I am wrong, please somebody explain this to me better. I am old.
yeah,i heard that too,but i heard they were going to take rich gazarik with them after he wins a pulitzer prize for the hard hitting and incredibly accurate articles he's been writing about lenatures and podlucky and podluckys 250,000 square foot house (which would be big enough to house an airbus a380 by the way),then they will start the tribune review moon edition and gazarik can write hard hitting articles about rocks and stuff,in fact i think his first article is going to be a research piece on the size of the moon and we're all going to be quite surprised to find out the moon is actually 10x the size actual scientists determined it to be and we will all believe it bc gazarik is a master of all and everything he writes should be taken at face value,keep up the good work rich,you're the man!!! Remember, you need to divide and multiple by 10 the house and reveunues respectively. Eventually you'll get it right, maybe after you cause your employer to pay hundreds of millions in damages.
The previous blogger claims to have posted a memo issued by the Custodian. In that memo, it claims that KROLL ZOLFO COOPER had expertise in the food and beverage industry. I can see they helped out at Krispy Kreme also. The only thing that confuses me is the revenue at LeNature's. I know they concluded an overstatement of revenue by something like $243 million dollars, however, would it not be possible for an expert in something to maintain some business from $32 million? I mean look at what they are doing now, selling to Giant Eagle or Cadbury. They will not get enough money to pay off the creditors so why not just hire new management and continue to operate the place if it making $32 million in a growing industry segment? My conclusion is that they either are not being honest about their expertise or they had an alterior motive when they got to LeNature's. If I am wrong, please somebody explain this to me better. I am old.
yeah,i heard that too,but i heard they were going to take rich gazarik with them after he wins a pulitzer prize for the hard hitting and incredibly accurate articles he's been writing about lenatures and podlucky and podluckys 250,000 square foot house (which would be big enough to house an airbus a380 by the way),then they will start the tribune review moon edition and gazarik can write hard hitting articles about rocks and stuff,in fact i think his first article is going to be a research piece on the size of the moon and we're all going to be quite surprised to find out the moon is actually 10x the size actual scientists determined it to be and we will all believe it bc gazarik is a master of all and everything he writes should be taken at face value,keep up the good work rich,you're the man!!! Remember, you need to divide and multiple by 10 the house and reveunues respectively. Eventually you'll get it right, maybe after you cause your employer to pay hundreds of millions in damages.
rich must be topping off some of those old potato whiskey bottles. Isn't that the whiskey they found with Kangas?
rich better hope hilary loses.
Thought so GP, the religous post on 12/27 is the only one in length that rivals the other diversions that you have been posting. What does Jay have to do with this? Timing is everything, who knows, maybe he did tip someone off?
RICO act means that anything obtained or thought to be obtained with the fradulent monies will be confiscated. Kind of ruins it for the kids.
Take it from someone who knows, GP knows so many international players that when he is done with any and all those who have come against him they will wish they were D__D. He will find you believe me.
Thought so GP, the religous post on 12/27 is the only one in length that rivals the other diversions that you have been posting. What does Jay have to do with this? Timing is everything, who knows, maybe he did tip someone off?
yeah jay sure looks like the kind of person that has a lot of pull in the world. all you need to do is spend 10 minutes on his blogs (the ones with 0 comments) to see how suave and sophisticated that world traveler is.
RICO act means that anything obtained or thought to be obtained with the fradulent monies will be confiscated. Kind of ruins it for the kids.
Hey idiot, read through the OM's GP guaranteed over $50MM in debt plus was entitled to cash. Kind of ruins it for you, idiot.
Thought so GP, the religous post on 12/27 is the only one in length that rivals the other diversions that you have been posting. What does Jay have to do with this? Timing is everything, who knows, maybe he did tip someone off?
This blog has gone from bad to completely incoherent. Lenatures must have had a high rate of illiteracy. Jay, you should add a feature to this blog that filters out illiterate, incoherent, non-sense. But that would filter out some of your non-sense too. Hmmm, what a dilemma. I mean really how old are you? An mit student that is balding at? What’s your age? I’ve gone through some of your "less popular" blogs and I must say they are literary genius. You should stick to being a quasi-counterculture protester type. That seems to be your strong suit. Are you really under the delusion that your “ass water” blog “brought down Lenatures?” Do you really think that money hungry investors give two fucks about what some prematurely balding jew kid thinks about what they invested in? Yeah they were sitting back one day and said “that really attractive, yet balding jew kid jay (that seems to only ever wear pajamas) doesn’t like our water, we should contend fraud against our management team and fix this; thus singlehandedly destroying our own investment.” Take some advice from your URL, WAKE UP SILVER.
Guys, let's face the facts here. Jay and his friends are the only people writing negative stuff on this blog. Like I pointed out earlier, his other blogs get little to no recognition and he needs to keep this one going. It’s becoming blatantly obvious that his continued vendetta against the company stems from “Bob Lynn” calling him out on his “girlfriend” Jodi and all the other hilarious posts from back when Jay posted a review of their bottled water (that was when Jay didn’t have the awesome receding hairline and beard he has now). For being such a peace-loving hippy, you really should think about letting this go Jay. It was just words—I’m sure “Bob Lynn” no longer has any hard feelings.
Now that is ironic isn't it? See something you don't like, cover it up and then threaten. What does that remind you of? Nice to meet your multiple online personalities.
Aww...come on jay...i thought you were all for freedom of speech? why are you deleting posts? i guess freedom of speech only matters when you are bashing others! that's quite jewish of you.
reminds me of the holocaust...although they didnt threaten...they executed
On March 14 Scaife's lap dog and reporter, Richard Gazarik for the Scaife owned Pittsburgh Tribune Review published a smear article on Steve. The article could be describe in no other terms other than a smear, it was inherently a vicious attack. Much of the article was factually incorrect and served no purpose other than to smear Kangas. But it was the beginning of a vicious mean spirited attack by the right wing media involving the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Tony Snow and Tucker Carlson. Gazarik made wild claims about Steve being obsessed with Scaife, the fact remains that only 7 pages in Liberal Resurgent even mentions Scaife and 5 of them only in passing. In one case the only mentioning of Scaife was in a list of right wing foundations. The reader is reminded that Steve's web page consisted of over 400 files. With only two percent of those files even mentioning the name Scaife one is very safe in concluding that Gazarik was only trying to inflame his readers. Its hardly the case of being obsessed.
Gazarik attacked with vigor Steve's page The Origins of the Overclass as being false. This is hardly a surprise for someone working for a member of that Overclass. Its inclusion could be to serve but one purpose to inflame the right wing reactionaries and mean spirited greed heads that are unfortunately all to common today. My own research has found that Overclass in this country to be real and a topic of scholarly research. Perhaps Gazarik could try and refute the book by G. William Domhoff entitled Who Rules America before sounding off on a topic that he obviously knows nothing about. It is a somewhat of a classic on the topic and is in its 3rd printing. Incidentally Domhoff was a professor at Santa Cruz where Steve had been working on his Doctoral degree, although he didn't know Steve.
Gazarik also attacked Steve's opinions of the close association of the media (reporters and editors) with the CIA. Probably in a vain attempt to build credibility for himself and to distance the fact that the Scaife foundations had served as a conduit for the CIA to funnel money through and in at least one case to be an out right front organization for the CIA to spread disinformation. Perhaps Gazarik isn't old enough to remember the Church committee back in the mid 70s in which the CIA's use of the press was made public in a congressional hearing. Perhaps Gazarik should spend less time investigating liberals in an effort to smear them and spend a little time getting the facts straight. If he had he would realize that the New York Times' web site has one page devoted to exposing the CIA-media connection. But then I doubt if the facts are any concern of Gazarik, the Tribune-Review or Scaife.
If I'm the guy who pissed you off, I'm not any of the guys that you accused me of being. You see, it's not personal with me. If you made your bed, you have to lay in it. The negative posts I have seen have been factual, not personal. LeNatures hurt a lot of people and a few specific people led the actions. These points are arguable and the nice part and for those who want to see justice served, nothing needs done about it at this point for it to play out.
None of the charges that LeNature's face has to do with this post, newspapers, the new mgmt., or anyone else except LeNatures and those who led it. They have to face the charges brought on by themselves regardless of whether they want to take any responsibility or not. For the 10 people that read here, I made my point and it doesn't make any difference to any outcomes.
The ethnic or religious background used the way you put it shows your lack of concern for any person, not just the owner of this blog. I'm familiar with Christianity so I can't speak for others but some force of evil will bear down on you, maybe in the up and coming trials.
Either way, I'm signing off...good luck to all and let's sit back and watch justice be played out. Hope you read this before the god fearing racist fills the blog up with useless jibberish.
Remember Jesus Christ was a Jew so let's refrain from comments about the Jews. We should focus on saving the Jews, Catholics and other unbelievers from there fallen state because you can only be justified by faith not by following the Law or Sacraments. Let's pray for God's Grace to be poured on these unbelievers so they can have love for others.
As for the LeNature's episode, let's understand one thing, in America we have a closed money supply, M1, so in the end the money stays within the system and that makes for a stronger economy. For example, assume Wachovia Securities loses money on LeNature's but gains money on say, Kroll's accounts it manages or Kirkland Ellis' account it manages it ends in a wash. In addition, they may even receive funds from the government through their lobbyist. So you see we all should be happy in the end.
Just be happy you live in America.
Refer to the quote from Tony Blair:
In case we find ourselves starting to believe all
the anti-American sentiment and negativity, we
should remember England's Prime Minister Tony
Blair's words during a recent interview.
When asked by one of his Parliament members
why he believes so much in America, he said:
"A simple way to take measure of a country is to
look at how many want in ... And how many want out."
Amen!
This responds to the settlement proposal you communicated below.
Once there has been a thorough independent investigation of the Company's financial affairs and clean, audited financial statements have been certified, the minority stockholders will be prepared to consider all alternatives to monetize their investments in Le-Nature's, including a buy out by the Company or Greg Podlucky. But they are not prepared, at this time, to commit in advance to an exclusive dealing arrangement or otherwise waive their sale control, board control and other rights under the Stockholders Agreement.
The minority stockholders and their designees on the Company's board agree that the immediate goal is to preserve value for the benefit of all concerned. To that end, our clients strongly believe it is best that all of these matters be resolved consensually. Otherwise, continued litigation over what the Company can and cannot do is likely to have a de-stabilizing effect, and starting as soon as the hearing tomorrow morning, the Court will be making findings of fact that will not be in the individual defendants' best interests. To avoid that result, our clients propose the following.
The first thing that needs to happen is to stabilize the management situation at the Company by agreeing to have senior management step aside and to have interim crisis managers come in to (i) run the Company day-to-day and provide comfort to the Company's lenders, bondholders, lessors, suppliers, customers and employees that the Company will continue to honor its obligations and ship product in the normal course while the issues concerning the AIG allegations and related matters are investigated and the corporate control issues between the majority and minority stockholders are being resolved. During the board meeting this past Sunday, the outside directors proposed Steven Panagos and Kroll Zolfo Cooper for this role. The parties should agree today, by unanimous written consent of the board, to bring in KZC as interim management starting immediately and remaining in place at least until the board control issue is resolved. Greg Podlucky, Jonathan Podlucky, Bob Lynn and Drew Murin would go on immediate paid leaves of absence, subject to their agreement to be reasonably available to KZC for consultation.
The next step should be for the parties to resolve the board control issue, either by agreement or by expedited proceedings leading to partial summary judgment or plenary trial. We propose the parties agree, again by unanimous written consent of the board, to constitute the outside directors as an Executive Committee of the board with all power to act for the board on all matters that can be delegated to a committee per Delaware law. Interim management will then answer to the Executive Committee, which will also oversee the investigation of the Company's financial affairs to be conducted by KZC or whomever else the Executive Committee determines to use. During this time, if any actions are proposed for which full board approval is required or desirable (e.g., approval of merger, repeal of by-laws), the unanimous consent of the directors would be required. The Executive Committee would remain in place, and the litigation would be stayed, until the investigation is concluded, but each side would reserve the right to go to the Court to lift the stay and pursue any remedy he, she or it deems appropriate (e.g., Greg Podlucky to re-assert control of board, minority stockholders to press their Stockholders Agreement sale/board control rights). Alternatively, we can agree on a schedule for expedited discovery and summary judgment or trial of the minority's sale/board control rights over the next 4 weeks or so.
Tony Clark
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
phone: 302-651-3080
direct fax: 888-329-3081
email: tclark@skadden.com
I guess Kroll preserved their value.
Closed money systems, conspiracy theories and smear campaigns. It's about the people, not about how Wachovia bank will be fine or any of the other stuff. It's about the guy being able to pay his mortgate and car payments and tuition payments for his kids. It's about the large groups of people that get fired over this mess that were innocent bystanders and still need to make those payments. It's not about anything else. It's about the people.
Maybe you should call the righteous trib and see if they can help. They write articles about the lack of economic progress in Pittsburgh, yet, they criticize every business except the ones owned by those who are paying members at rolling rock club.
According to bankruptcy court records, Podlucky last fall "emptied out and closed" a Merrill Lynch account that contained "tens of millions of dollars." The location of the money is not known. Other court records indicate investigators are searching for two multimillion-dollar deposits for equipment purchases for a plant that Podlucky said he was going to build in Florida.
Under RICO, a person or group who commits any two of 35 crimes—27 federal crimes and 8 state crimes—within a 10-year period and, in the opinion of the United States Attorney bringing the case, has committed those crimes with similar purpose or results can be charged with racketeering. Those found guilty of racketeering can be fined up to $25,000 and/or sentenced to 20 years in prison. In addition, the racketeer must forfeit all ill-gotten gains and interest in any business gained through a pattern of "racketeering activity." The act also contains a civil component that allows plaintiffs to sue for triple damages.
When the U.S. Attorney decides to indict someone under RICO, he has the option of seeking a pre-trial restraining order or injunction to prevent the transfer of potentially forfeitable property, as well as require the defendant to put up a performance bond.
There is also a provision for private parties to sue. A "person damaged in his business or property" can sue one or more "racketeers." There must also be an "enterprise." The defendant(s) are not the enterprise, in other words, the defendant(s) and the enterprise are not one and the same. There must be one of four specified relationships between the defendant(s) and the enterprise. This lawsuit, like all Federal civil lawsuits, can take place in either Federal or State court.
On March 14 Scaife's lap dog and reporter, Richard Gazarik for the Scaife owned Pittsburgh Tribune Review published a smear article on Steve. The article could be describe in no other terms other than a smear, it was inherently a vicious attack. Much of the article was factually incorrect and served no purpose other than to smear Kangas. But it was the beginning of a vicious mean spirited attack by the right wing media involving the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Tony Snow and Tucker Carlson. Gazarik made wild claims about Steve being obsessed with Scaife, the fact remains that only 7 pages in Liberal Resurgent even mentions Scaife and 5 of them only in passing. In one case the only mentioning of Scaife was in a list of right wing foundations. The reader is reminded that Steve's web page consisted of over 400 files. With only two percent of those files even mentioning the name Scaife one is very safe in concluding that Gazarik was only trying to inflame his readers. Its hardly the case of being obsessed.
Gazarik attacked with vigor Steve's page The Origins of the Overclass as being false. This is hardly a surprise for someone working for a member of that Overclass. Its inclusion could be to serve but one purpose to inflame the right wing reactionaries and mean spirited greed heads that are unfortunately all to common today. My own research has found that Overclass in this country to be real and a topic of scholarly research. Perhaps Gazarik could try and refute the book by G. William Domhoff entitled Who Rules America before sounding off on a topic that he obviously knows nothing about. It is a somewhat of a classic on the topic and is in its 3rd printing. Incidentally Domhoff was a professor at Santa Cruz where Steve had been working on his Doctoral degree, although he didn't know Steve.
Gazarik also attacked Steve's opinions of the close association of the media (reporters and editors) with the CIA. Probably in a vain attempt to build credibility for himself and to distance the fact that the Scaife foundations had served as a conduit for the CIA to funnel money through and in at least one case to be an out right front organization for the CIA to spread disinformation. Perhaps Gazarik isn't old enough to remember the Church committee back in the mid 70s in which the CIA's use of the press was made public in a congressional hearing. Perhaps Gazarik should spend less time investigating liberals in an effort to smear them and spend a little time getting the facts straight. If he had he would realize that the New York Times' web site has one page devoted to exposing the CIA-media connection. But then I doubt if the facts are any concern of Gazarik, the Tribune-Review or Scaife.
3/10/2007 5:24 PM
Anonymous said...
If I'm the guy who pissed you off, I'm not any of the guys that you accused me of being. You see, it's not personal with me. If you made your bed, you have to lay in it. The negative posts I have seen have been factual, not personal. LeNatures hurt a lot of people and a few specific people led the actions. These points are arguable and the nice part and for those who want to see justice served, nothing needs done about it at this point for it to play out.
None of the charges that LeNature's face has to do with this post, newspapers, the new mgmt., or anyone else except LeNatures and those who led it. They have to face the charges brought on by themselves regardless of whether they want to take any responsibility or not. For the 10 people that read here, I made my point and it doesn't make any difference to any outcomes.
The ethnic or religious background used the way you put it shows your lack of concern for any person, not just the owner of this blog. I'm familiar with Christianity so I can't speak for others but some force of evil will bear down on you, maybe in the up and coming trials.
Either way, I'm signing off...good luck to all and let's sit back and watch justice be played out. Hope you read this before the god fearing racist fills the blog up with useless jibberish.
Psalm 40
God Sustains His Servant.
For the choir director. A Psalm of David.
1I (A)waited [a]patiently for the LORD;
And He inclined to me and (B)heard my cry.
2He brought me up out of the (C)pit of destruction, out of the miry clay,
And (D)He set my feet upon a rock (E)making my footsteps firm.
3He put a (F)new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;
Many will (G)see and fear
And will trust in the LORD.
4How (H)blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust,
And (I)has not turned to the proud, nor to those who (J)lapse into falsehood.
5Many, O LORD my God, are (K)the wonders which You have done,
And Your (L)thoughts toward us;
There is none to compare with You
If I would declare and speak of them,
They (M)would be too numerous to count.
6(N)Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired;
My ears You have [b]opened;
Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required.
7Then I said, "Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
8(O)I delight to do Your will, O my God;
(P)Your Law is within my heart."
9I have (Q)proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation;
Behold, I will (R)not restrain my lips,
O LORD, (S)You know.
10I have (T)not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have (U)spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation.
11You, O LORD, will not withhold Your compassion from me;
Your (V)lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me.
12For evils beyond number have (W)surrounded me;
My (X)iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see;
They are (Y)more numerous than the hairs of my head,
And my (Z)heart has failed me.
13(AA)Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me;
Make (AB)haste, O LORD, to help me.
14Let those be (AC)ashamed and humiliated together
Who (AD)seek my [c]life to destroy it;
Let those be turned back and dishonored
Who delight [d]in my hurt.
15Let those (AE)be appalled because of their shame
Who (AF)say to me, "Aha, aha!"
16(AG)Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
Let those who love Your salvation (AH)say continually,
"The LORD be magnified!"
17Since (AI)I am afflicted and needy,
(AJ)Let the Lord be mindful of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
Do not delay, O my God.
Footnotes:
Psalm 40:1 Or intently
Psalm 40:6 Lit dug; or possibly pierced
Psalm 40:14 Or soul
Psalm 40:14 Or to injure me
Cross references:
Psalm 40:1 : Ps 25:5; 27:14; 37:7
Psalm 40:1 : Ps 34:15
Psalm 40:2 : Ps 69:2, 14; Jer 38:6
Psalm 40:2 : Ps 27:5
Psalm 40:2 : Ps 37:23
Psalm 40:3 : Ps 32:7; 33:3
Psalm 40:3 : Ps 52:6; 64:9
Psalm 40:4 : Ps 34:8; 84:12
Psalm 40:4 : Job 37:24
Psalm 40:4 : Ps 125:5
Psalm 40:5 : Job 5:9; Ps 136:4
Psalm 40:5 : Ps 139:17; Is 55:8
Psalm 40:5 : Ps 71:15; 139:18
Psalm 40:6 : 1 Sam 15:22; Ps 51:16; Is 1:11; Jer 6:20; 7:22, 23; Amos 5:22; Mic 6:6-8; Heb 10:5-7
Psalm 40:8 : John 4:34
Psalm 40:8 : Ps 37:31; Jer 31:33; 2 Cor 3:3
Psalm 40:9 : Ps 22:22, 25
Psalm 40:9 : Ps 119:13
Psalm 40:9 : Josh 22:22; Ps 139:4
Psalm 40:10 : Acts 20:20, 27
Psalm 40:10 : Ps 89:1
Psalm 40:11 : Ps 43:3; 57:3; 61:7; Prov 20:28
Psalm 40:12 : Ps 18:5; 116:3
Psalm 40:12 : Ps 38:4; 65:3
Psalm 40:12 : Ps 69:4
Psalm 40:12 : Ps 73:26
Psalm 40:13 : Ps 70:1
Psalm 40:13 : Ps 22:19; 71:12
Psalm 40:14 : Ps 35:4, 26; 70:2; 71:13
Psalm 40:14 : Ps 63:9
Psalm 40:15 : Ps 70:3
Psalm 40:15 : Ps 35:21; 70:3
Psalm 40:16 : Ps 70:4
Psalm 40:16 : Ps 35:27
Psalm 40:17 : Ps 70:5; 86:1; 109:22
Psalm 40:17 : Ps 40:5; 1 Pet 5:7
What about:
Thou shalt not commit wire fraud.
Thou shalt not threaten employees.
Thou shalt not lie about sales.
Thou shalt not get loans based on lied about sales.
Thou shalt not judge others by their physical condition.
Thou shalt not judge others by their ethnic background.
Thou shalt not hide money.
How about the Golden Rule that all Christians are to live by:
"Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."
Maybe GP needs to do some soul searching.
Please provide a Biblical reference for the your Golden Rule.
question to any former lenatures employees. whats with old man fred and the young blonde girl who ran a filler? is it just me or is there some weird innapropriate relationship going on there?
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: (AJ)immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20idolatry, (AK)sorcery, enmities, (AL)strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, (AM)disputes, dissensions, (AN)factions,
21envying, (AO)drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not (AP)inherit the kingdom of God.
God Podluckys should of read the blob above this..Greg did you and Johnathn SHARE those sex toys on each other?..you both seemed a little funny..And Fred..well he crawled when Manny Spoke..britnany just shows what a tramp can get done..Britnany if someone does take over..you think fred being there over 10 years and not knowing what went on goes over good for who ever buys it?..daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..rember he made a product that never left the building...
Please provide a Biblical reference for the your Golden Rule.
Response to the above posting.
If you were a "Good Christian" you would not need a biblical reference. You would know this rule and where it is in the bible. Live what you preach!
REmember Sal brought them. There is no biblical reference to the Golden Rule.
What about:
Thou shalt not commit wire fraud.
Thou shalt not threaten employees.
Thou shalt not lie about sales.
Thou shalt not get loans based on lied about sales.
Thou shalt not judge others by their physical condition.
Thou shalt not judge others by their ethnic background.
Thou shalt not hide money.
Do not add to Scripture or be cursed.
from the desk of the human resource manager and sal "fatass" lobiondo dated 10/30/2006 (who by the way is still employeed along with many others):
Le-Nature’s, Inc.
Management Transition Questions and Answers
1. What exactly has happened?
The firm of Kroll Zolfo Cooper (“KZC”) has been appointed as custodian of the Company pursuant to an order issued on October 27 by the Delaware Chancery Court (the “Order”) to protect the rights of the minority shareholders.
KZC has, on an interim basis, replaced certain members of the executive management team, including CEO Gregory J. Podlucky, COO Jonathan E. Podlucky, EVP Robert Lynn and Consultant Andrew Murin, all of whom have retained their management titles and membership on the Board of Directors, but have been temporarily relieved of their management duties pending the resolution of legal issues between the minority shareholders and the Company.
The legal issues involve the minority shareholders’ right to control the Board of Directors under the terms of an agreement with the Company’s majority shareholders. Messrs. Podlucky, Podlucky, Lynn and Murin will all continue to serve on the Board of Directors during the interim period.
2. What is a custodian?
KZC’s role as custodian is to serve as an agent of the Court and the interim management team of Le-Nature’s. The Court’s order authorizes the KZC management team to, on an interim basis, take possession and control of Le-Nature’s and its business, operations and assets, to temporarily administer and manage the assets and to operate the Company’s business.
3. Why did the Court order the appointment of a custodian?
The Court ordered the appointment of a custodian, in part, based on evidence that members of Le-Nature’s management team, including the majority shareholders, had violated the terms of the Shareholders’ Agreement, and the Court believed it was necessary to appoint an interim management team to ensure that Le-Nature’s business continues to operate in the normal course until the legal issues are decided. In short, KZC is here to maintain the status quo of Le-Nature’s operations.
4. Is the Board of Directors still intact?
Yes. KZC will report to the Board of Directors. In the event the Board disagrees with any aspect of KZC’s management of the Company, KZC will ask the Court to resolve any issues.
5. Why did the Minority Shareholders pursue this legal action?
The minority shareholders took this action to protect their rights under the Shareholders’ Agreement to control the membership of the Board of Directors.
The Chancery Court ordered the appointment of a custodian, in part, based on evidence that members of Le-Nature’s management team, including the majority shareholders, had violated the terms of the Shareholders’ Agreement.
As a result, the minority shareholders have taken actions, with the full support of the Company’s outside Directors, which they believe are in the best interests of the Company, its shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers and other business partners.
6. Why was Kroll Zolfo Cooper chosen as Custodian?
KZC has a wealth of experience handling complex engagements and stabilizing businesses while protecting long-term financial growth. The KZC interim management team also has extensive experience in the food and beverage industry, having most recently served as the interim management team for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.
7. How long will KZC act as custodian?
KZC has been appointed custodian on an indefinite interim basis to ensure that Le-Nature’s business continues to operate as usual during the pending litigation. The next hearing in the litigation involving the minority shareholders has been scheduled for January, 2007. The KZC management team will be in place until then; however, their role beyond that will be dependent upon the outcome of the legal proceedings
8. How does this affect the financial stability of the Company?
There should not be any adverse impact on the Company’s financial stability. Le-Nature’s is a strong company with great products and recognizable brand names. The current legal issues and management changes should not have an impact on the fundamental strength of the business. The Company’s lenders and other investors are aware of the situation and have indicated their support of the appointment of KZC as custodian.
9. Will these actions disrupt the Company’s operations or in any way affect the Company’s dealings with customers and suppliers?
There should be no disruption to the Company’s operations - the parties all share the common goal of preserving the value of the Company and ensuring that it continues to operate without disruption and distribute products to customers just like it always has.
10. Does this mean that the Company is going to be put up for sale?
There are no immediate plans to sell Le-Nature’s. In fact, no such transaction could even be considered until we know the outcome of legal issues scheduled to come before the Court in January 2007.
11. Does this announcement have any effect on my job and my pay and benefits?
There will be no changes to your pay or benefits as a result of this management transition.
KZC is doing everything possible to ensure that it is a smooth management transition and business as usual for employees, customers and suppliers. There should be no change to the day-to-day operations of the company, so please continue to report for work on the usual schedule.
12. Kroll Zolfo Cooper is known to do a lot of work with companies involved in financial restructurings and Chapter 11 reorganizations. Does this mean the Company is going to file for bankruptcy?
No, there is no plan to file for Chapter 11. Le-Nature’s is a strong company with great products and recognizable brand names. The current legal issues and management changes should not have an impact on the fundamental strength of the business. The Company’s lenders and other investors are aware of the situation and have indicated their support of the appointment of KZC as custodian.
13. What should I do if I am contacted by one of the four executives who have been temporarily relieved of their management duties?
Due to the legal issues involved, all Le-Nature’s employees should know that, according to the Court order, they should not communicate about the Company in any manner with the four executives who have been temporarily replaced; nor should any employee take direction from those executives regarding anything having to do with Company business. Also, the Court order prohibits the destruction of or tampering with any Company documents or books and records.
14. What are the next steps in this legal procedure? How will employees know what happens next?
The next hearing scheduled for the pending litigation is in January, 2007. During this process, the interim management team from KZC will do it’s very best to keep all employees updated on significant developments.
i challenge my former fellow production teammates and office employees to read through these and see how many points were actually true and/or intended to be followed through. it seems to me that there has been much more criminal activity at lni after the former management left.
Anonymous said...
MUCH MORE CRIMINAL ACTIVITY AFTER THE FORMER MANAGEMENT TEAM LEFT
MUCH MORE CRIMINAL ACTIVITY AFTER THE FORMER MANAGEMENT TEAM LEFT
MUCH MORE CRIMINAL ACTIVITY AFTER THE FORMER MANAGEMENT TEAM LEFT
to 3/01...we are all moving on...but we would like to know why greedy shareholders would jeopardize their interest, our lives, and the economy in general without even thinking...i think we have a right to know the outcome of this situation...we worked our asses off to build that place into what it was and now some idiot is going to auction the place off for 10% of its REAL value...the question i want answered is this...WHO WON IN ALL OF THIS???
1. EMPLOYEES LOST JOBS
2. CREDITORS LOST HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS
3. SHAREHOLDERS GET DICK
4. LATROBE/PHOENIX LOST TAX REVENUE AND JOB MARKETABILITY
DOES THAT SOUND LIKE ANYBODY WON?
NOW LETS EXPLORE OTHER POSSIBILITIES...
1. KROLL ZOLFO COOPER GOT PAID $5 MILLION TO BASICALLY DRIVE AROUND IN CORPORATE MERCEDES BENZ SUVS ALL THE WHILE NOT PAYING THE LEASE PAYMENTS (SEE TRIBUNE REVIEW ARTICLE). ALSO, A COUPLE OF EMPLOYEES THAT ARE STILL WORKING THERE TODAY (NO NAMES WILL BE GIVEN SO THAT MARRIAGES WONT BE JEOPARIZED BUT THE STOLI ELITE DIRTY MARTINI DRINKERS KNOW WHO THEY ARE) WERE SEEN DURING XMAS/NEW YEARS SEASON PARTYING WITH KROLL ZOLFO COOPER EMPLOYEES AT THE AIRPORT...WOW DID THOSE PEOPLE LOSE OUT OR WHAT?
2. THE HUNDREDS OF ATTORNEYS THAT ARE WORKING THE VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THIS DISASTER (OR PLAN) DEPENDING WHOSE SIDE YOU ARE ON. THEY ARE GETTING PAID $500-$1000 AN HOUR TO MAKE SURE THIS THING DRAGS OUT FOR YEARS...YEAH LOOKS LIKE THEY LOSE OUT TOO
obviously you are a kroll employee and it is very clear you either did not read the bullshit memo you supposedly wrote via carol wetmore or you never intended anything you wrote in it. kroll was never supposed to turn things around??? let me refresh your memory sal, i know its hard to concentrate when you havent eaten in 10 minutes:
point three of the memo:
The Court ordered the appointment of a custodian, in part, based on evidence that members of Le-Nature’s management team, including the majority shareholders, had violated the terms of the Shareholders’ Agreement, and the Court believed it was necessary to appoint an interim management team to ensure that Le-Nature’s business continues to operate in the normal course until the legal issues are decided. In short, KZC is here to maintain the status quo of Le-Nature’s operations.
is it status quo to make wild mangaerial decisions (i.e. lay people off, close down factories, and claim revenue is off by hundreds of millions)???
point six:
KZC has a wealth of experience handling complex engagements and stabilizing businesses while protecting long-term financial growth. The KZC interim management team also has extensive experience in the food and beverage industry, having most recently served as the interim management team for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.
oops, i saw krispy kreme in there and thought sal might get hungry, sorry.
points 11 and 12:
11. Does this announcement have any effect on my job and my pay and benefits?
There will be no changes to your pay or benefits as a result of this management transition.
KZC is doing everything possible to ensure that it is a smooth management transition and business as usual for employees, customers and suppliers. There should be no change to the day-to-day operations of the company, so please continue to report for work on the usual schedule.
12. Kroll Zolfo Cooper is known to do a lot of work with companies involved in financial restructurings and Chapter 11 reorganizations. Does this mean the Company is going to file for bankruptcy?
No, there is no plan to file for Chapter 11. Le-Nature’s is a strong company with great products and recognizable brand names. The current legal issues and management changes should not have an impact on the fundamental strength of the business. The Company’s lenders and other investors are aware of the situation and have indicated their support of the appointment of KZC as custodian.
im not even going to comment on these, as the hypocritical lies behind them are gross. maybe the phrase "turn around" was inappropriate, however, when this memo was written, the company was not in bankruptcy. common sense tells me that they were in charge during the chapter 11 filing which in turn makes them responsible for a "turn around" plan of attack.
i really think it is pathetic that the big bad kroll employees such as sloppy sal and pussy panagos are going to get on here and lie about what happened at lenatures during their time in latrobe. i also think it is pathetic that they are going to compare themselves to the previous management and its tactics to justify their behavior in latrobe. if by chance the previous comment was written by somebody other than kroll (which i highly doubt), i suppose you should take a closer look at the reality of the situation:
1. why buy kroll a drink? they stole $5 million from the creditors pocket so im pretty sure they can afford their own drinks.
2. employee eyewitnesses saw panagos and lobiondo carrying gems, watches, etc. to the executive offices and never saw them come back out
3. employee eyewitnesses saw panagos and lobiondo come to and from lenatures everyday via a silver mercedes benz suv and also to denunzios restaurant at the airport (drunk) with office employees, according to the tribune review, the lease payments were three months behind
4. kroll and the shareholders responsible for the accusations face severe liablities if it in fact turns out the picture is not as they have painted it in the tribune review (which would then also face severe liabilities). for the sake of those entities, lets hope they know what they are purporting to the public.
Facts:
Per the current trustee there has been no foresic accounting completed by Kroll, so all disclosures are just a cover up for what then?
I am surprised the Podluckys have not been shot yet.
For what, why and by who?
Guys, let's face the facts here. Jay and his friends are the only people writing negative stuff on this blog. Like I pointed out earlier, his other blogs get little to no recognition and he needs to keep this one going. It’s becoming blatantly obvious that his continued vendetta against the company stems from “Bob Lynn” calling him out on his “girlfriend” Jodi and all the other hilarious posts from back when Jay posted a review of their bottled water (that was when Jay didn’t have the awesome receding hairline and beard he has now). For being such a peace-loving hippy, you really should think about letting this go Jay. It was just words—I’m sure “Bob Lynn” no longer has any hard feelings.
Including the incite of a capital crime. Which has been reported.
Seems there is alot of repeat retoric. Let's move forward and deal with the present situation.
Is there any hope of a plant running again and creating a positive economic environment?????
Again, the past is the past. Lets not deal with things that cannot be changed.
No, Latrobe is a dead location for the manufacturing of alternative beverages.
The plant has potential. There will be a buyer if all of the creditors done cry over spilled milk. They should have been a little more careful on lending money to any potential lendee. Let's get the plant open and create some economy. We all benefit when people are working.
Never be resolved that way. What if your leased equipment was in there and worth more than your portion of the settlement? Not to mention all legal costs in it going foward for a lender.
The only one who can put Humpty Dumpty back together again is GP.
TO: Board of Directors of Le-Nature's, Inc.
FROM: Albert H. Manwaring, IV
Phillip T. Mellet
DATE: August 24, 2006
RE: Repurchase of Corporate Stock under Delaware General Corporation Law § 160
I. Overview
The purpose of this memorandum is to discuss relevant issues surrounding Le-Nature’s, Inc.’s (“Le-Nature’s or the “Company”) ongoing decision to repurchase for $281.5 million the stock held by two equity funds who also control three of the seven seats of the Company’s board of directors. The initial determination to repurchase the shares came after the two equity funds brought a lawsuit against the Company for breaches of fiduciary duty and to enforce contractual rights, particularly the equity funds’ purported right to control a sale of the Company on October 1, 2006. A thoughtful and well-reasoned decision to approve the repurchase is necessary in light of the interests of the minority shareholders to whom the Le-Nature’s board owes fiduciary duties. The memorandum explores the following two issues below: (1) fiduciary duties while repurchasing corporate stock under Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”) § 160, and (2) whether the Company possesses sufficient surplus under § 160 to affect the repurchase the equity funds’ stock.
II. Fiduciary Duties and the Repurchase of Corporate Stock
In carrying out their managerial roles, directors of a Delaware corporation are charged with unyielding fiduciary duties to the company and its stockholders. Generally, with regard to board decisions, the business judgment rule applies meaning that a court will presume that the board acted on an informed basis, in good faith, and in the honest belief that an action taken was in the best interests of the company. Unless the procedural presumption of the business judgment rule is rebutted, a court will not substitute its judgment for that of the board’s if the board’s decision can be “attributed to any rational business purpose.” The business judgment rule may be rebutted if there is proof of fraud, bad faith, self-dealing, or uniformed decision making.
Delaware law expressly permits a corporation to repurchase its own shares so long as the corporation abides by certain restrictions, namely DGCL § 160 and Delaware case law, and its decision to do so is protected from judicial interference by the business judgment rule. In the leading decision involving a board of directors’ fiduciary duties in the context of a stock repurchase, the Delaware Supreme Court noted that “if the actions of the board were motivated by a sincere belief that the buying out of the dissident stockholder was necessary to maintain what the board believed to be proper business practices, the board will not be held liable for such decision, even though hindsight indicates the decision was not the wisest course.” “On the other hand, if the board has acted solely or primarily because of the desire to perpetuate themselves in office, the use of corporate funds for such purposes is improper.” Thus, when a board purchases stock with the primary motive of entrenchment, the presumptions of the business judgment rule fall by the wayside and the burden of proof shifts to the board who must demonstrate that the transaction was entirely fair to minority shareholders.
Entire fairness review has two aspects: fair price and fair dealing. “Fair dealing” focuses on the actual conduct of corporate fiduciaries in effecting a transaction, such as its initiation, structure, and negotiation. This element also embraces the duty of candor owed by corporate fiduciaries to disclose all material information relevant to corporate decisions from which they may derive a personal benefit. The latter aspect, “fair price,” mandates that directors commit themselves, inexorably, to achieving the best value reasonably available to the stockholders under the circumstances.
When a board initiates a stock repurchase in response to the threat of a takeover, a Court will view the so called defensive tactic with “enhanced scrutiny.” In such cases, the court will examine the adequacy of the decision-making process employed by the directors, including the information on which the directors based their decision, and judicial examination of the reasonableness of the directors’ action in light of the circumstances then existing. Courts will examine how the directors arrived at their decision to buy the shares: whom did the directors consult before making their decision, what were the directors told about the “threat,” and how much time did the directors take in making the decision. If the court is satisfied that these measures have been met, the business judgment rule will apply.
Here, with the foregoing in mind, the Le-Nature’s board must rest its decision to repurchase the outside directors’ shares on sound business reasons and avoid circumstances where the board is considered materially interested in the transaction thereby giving rise to an entire fairness review if a lawsuit is commenced. Specifically, the board should not base its decision to repurchase the outside directors’ shares on the following:
• As a way to protect the board’s directorial positions in light of Section 8 of the Stockholders Agreement which permits the equity funds to control a sale of the company and to remove certain directors who do not comply with their demands; and
• As a resolution to a lawsuit where the officers and directors may have been exposed to personal liability for breaches of fiduciary duty.
Instead, the decision to repurchase the shares of the equity funds should originate from sound business reasons which take into account the interests of all shareholders. For example, the board should consider that the buyout will create the following benefits:
• Southeast expansion project will recommence allowing the Company to adjust to national customer just-in-time inventory demands and to retain business from major customers;
• Future expansion in operations or products lines will occur without the interference of the outside directors which will allow the Company to react more quickly to changes in market demands;
• Elimination of consent requirements of the equity funds will remove impediments to crucial decision making by the board concerning the Company’s direction, investment strategy, and management;
• Avoiding an immediate sale of the Company controlled by the equity funds will result in a greater return to shareholders within the next few years in light of the continued growth of the Company;
• Internal decision making among the board and shareholders will be more facile without the involvement of the equity funds; and
• Reduction in administrative costs related to compliance with contractual rights of the outside directors and shareholders.
The above recommendations serve as a non-exclusive list of items that the board should discuss while approving the repurchase of the equity funds’ shares. Indeed, no perfect set of facts or recommendations exist to ensure that the board’s decision receives protection from the business judgment rule as the Delaware Supreme Court has rejected the use of a singular test with regard to director misconduct. The Court noted that it has “generally and consistently refrained from adopting a bright-line rule for determining when a director’s breach of duty of independence through self-interest translates into evidence sufficient to rebut the business judgment presumption accorded to board action.” The decision to repurchase the equity funds’ shares and the sound business reasons for the repurchase should be discussed at length during a board meeting and recorded in the board minutes.
III. Repurchasing Corporate Stock under DGCL § 160
A. Calculation of Surplus
In addition to the restrictions imposed by courts on a board’s decision to repurchase company stock when personal motives play a primary role, DGCL § 160 provides that a corporation may not affect a repurchase that would cause an impairment of capital. Stated differently, “[n]o corporation may repurchase or redeem its own shares except out of ‘surplus,’ as statutorily defined, or except as expressly authorized by provisions of [Section 160] . . .”
Impairment of capital “means the reduction of the amount of the assets of the company below the amount represented by the aggregate outstanding shares of the capital stock of the company.” “A repurchase impairs capital if the funds used in the repurchase exceed the amount of the corporation’s ‘surplus,’ defined by 8 Del. C. § 154 to mean the excess of net assets over the par value of the corporation’s issued stock.” In other words, a corporation may only use the amount by which the value of its net assets exceeds the aggregate amount represented by all the shares of its capital stock.
The chart below represents a simplistic, but useful analysis in determining whether a corporation possess sufficient surplus to repurchase its shares.
CALCULATING SURPLUS
Section 160 Rule: Corporation may only repurchase shares with surplus (and not capital)
Assets In determining whether a company possesses sufficient surplus to repurchase its shares, DGCL § 154 provides the following equation (see left).
- Liabilities
Net Assets
- Capital
Surplus
Example A:
Over the course of its existence, Company XYZ issues 10,000 shares with par value of $.01. Company XYZ currently has assets worth $5 million and liabilities worth $4.9 million. Does Company XYZ have enough "surplus" to repurchase $50,000 of its own stock?
Analysis:
Assets $5,000,000
- Liabilities $4,900,000
Net Assets $100,000
- Capital $100 (10,000 shares * $.01 par value)
Surplus $99,900
Company XYZ may proceed with $50,000 repurchase
Example B:
Over the course of its existence, Company ABC issues 10,000 shares with par value of $6. Company ABC currently has assets worth $5 million and liabilities worth $4.9 million. Does Company ABC have enough "surplus" to repurchase $50,000 of its own stock?
Analysis:
Assets $5,000,000
- Liabilities $4,900,000
Net Assets $100,000
- Capital $60,000 (10,000 shares * $6 par value)
Surplus $40,000
Company ABC may NOT proceed with $50,000 repurchase
Significantly, a corporation is not bound by its financial statements and may actually revalue its assets and liabilities while determining whether it possesses sufficient surplus to affect a § 160 repurchase. Indeed, when valuing a corporation for purposes of Section 160, “the books of a corporation do not necessarily reflect the current values and assets and liabilities.” “It is unrealistic to hold that a corporation is bound by its balance sheets for purposes of determining compliance with Section 160.”
When valuing assets under § 160, a court defers “to the board’s measurement of surplus unless a plaintiff can show that the directors ‘failed to fulfill their duty to evaluate the assets on the basis of acceptable data by standards which they are entitled to believe reasonably reflect present values.’” Accordingly, “[i]n the absence of bad faith or fraud on the part of the board, courts will not ‘substitute concepts of wisdom for that of the directors.’”
B. The Board Must Rely on the Opinion of an Expert in Determining Whether
It Possesses Sufficient Surplus to Proceed with a § 160 Repurchase
Although courts grant deference to a “board’s measurement of surplus” when valuing assets for purposes of a § 160 repurchase, here, the board has contractually agreed to rely upon an outside expert in determining surplus. The Settlement Agreement entered into between Le-Nature’s and the two equity funds states the following: “the Defendants’ Payment Obligation is also conditional and subject to the Company’s Board’s good faith determination that the payment by the Company of the Settlement Amount on the Closing date will not result in an impairment of the Company’s capital, in compliance with Section 160 of the Delaware General Corporation Law ("Section 160"), which determination shall be supported by an opinion from the Underwriter Wachovia which shall be provided to Plaintiffs at the Closing. Although the Settlement Agreement provides that Wachovia shall issue the § 160 expert opinion, because Wachovia stands to gain approximately $9 million upon the closing of the repurchase, an independent financial consultant, who does not have a monetary interest in the repurchase, is preferred in order to avoid an inherent conflict of interest of Wachovia both serving as the investment banker and also issuing the § 160 expert opinion.
As provided for in the Settlement Agreement, the reliance upon outside experts by a board of directors is customary and recommended. DGCL § 141(e) provides that “a member of the board of directors . . . shall, in the performance of such member’s duties, be fully protected in relying in good faith upon . . . any other person as to matters the member reasonably believes are within such other person’s professional or expert competence and who has been selected with reasonable care by or on behalf of the corporation. In fact, in certain instances, e.g., a merger, although the decision not to hire an expert or procure a fairness opinion is not gross negligence per se, a court would view such a decision as suspect. In the landmark case of Smith v. Van Gorkom, the Delaware Supreme Court held that while Delaware law does not require a fairness opinion or an outside valuation of the company before the directors could act on an offer, the directors were required to have before them adequate information regarding the intrinsic value of the company, upon which a proper exercise of business judgment could be made. In sum, in most situations, a board is unable to discharge its fiduciary duties without an appropriate fairness opinion or expert valuation.
Because of the Company’s contractual obligations, and given the weight courts defer to expert opinions under Delaware statutory and case law, the Company must obtain the expert opinion of an independent financial consultant as to whether it possesses sufficient surplus to repurchase of the equity funds’ shares. More specifically, and as set forth in the equation below, the board requires an expert’s valuation of its outstanding assets and liabilities, from which the board can derive the amount of the Company’s surplus. This valuation should also be discussed at length by the board during a board meeting, and the discussion recorded in the board minutes. The expert’s valuation should be appended to those board minutes.
C. Pursuant to an Expert Opinion, Does Le-Nature’s Hold Sufficient
Capital To Proceed With The $281,500,000 Repurchase?
§ 160 Valuation Based on Expert Opinion
Repurchase Price $281,500,000
Assets ???
Liabilities ???
Net Assets
Capital ???
Surplus
Surplus > $281,500,000
WOULD NOT OF PASSED THE TEST. IT WOULD BE BETTER TO TRUMP UP SOMETHING AGAINST MGT.
Whatever happened to the Grant Street Bank?
1988—Mellon announced a historic asset disposition/equity capitalization program to improve asset quality and increase its capital base. Through the program, Mellon sold to Grant Street National Bank, a limited-purpose bank independent of Mellon, approximately $1 billion of lower-quality domestic assets and raised approximately $525 million of new equity capital.
Ok fire up the smoke machine what do you mean the mirrors are all cracked.
I know, it is ashamed that Kroll came in and installed mirrors and now the mirrors are broken by the new trusttee. Tisk, tisk. I wonder why they used their own company security versus an independent firm? Makes want to say, huh!
You mean it was a $1,000,000,000 loss pushed off on a shell bank for purposes of making something look better than it really was? Is their a problem with the air in Ligonier?
Is there a Lloyd Avenue Bank?
Everybody settle down, we don't want to get Jay all fired up and lose more hair.
gay 101
i like how he dresses up in gay outfits to cover his balding...what is he like 5
gay 101
hahaha. looks like a cross between splinter and raphael. although splinter has always had a full head of hair in the tmnt movies. either that or it is the rare balding grizzly turtle species. i didnt know they wore socks to make their "package" look bigger. either that or jay has some serious issues with his dick.
To 3/18/07 9:45 and 9:52..you both must have issueses unresolved..your the one thats looking at his package and comparing..i never would of looked that close..anyway what part did bob lynn and drew have with the sex toys?..bet you only got to watch..betting your old ladies have something to say..you were all fags anyways..
To 3/18/07 9:45 and 9:52..you both must have issueses unresolved..your the one thats looking at his package and comparing..i never would of looked that close..anyway what part did bob lynn and drew have with the sex toys?..bet you only got to watch..betting your old ladies have something to say..you were all fags anyways..
..but now you have..FAG!
ps. i have not a doubt in the world drew murin is a fag. why do you think he was exiled from lni for the better part of the early 2000s?
They would need a Lloyd Avenue Bank for a different reason than Mellon, to deposit the receipts from the sales produced outside the country nobody knows about. The sales were definitely understated. GP was in with the CAFTA crowd.
The Secretary of Treasury is in-charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Who would be a better person to look the other way when potato whiskey was being sold during Prihibition. I wonder who was the SOT during Prohibition?
Is it true Senator Casey is going to re-open the Kangas file.
Definitions:
Experience at LeNatures: Following the catastrophic events that happened in Latrobe under the owner and managements leadership.
LeNature Politics:
The continued effort of some to lead people down a path away from the truth through diversions and other non-related matters.
Comments
I’m sure there are plenty of other message boards where you can bring up all your points and people may care. No matter, two wrongs don’t make a right and they never will. Maybe you can send away for a secret decoder from the back of your cereal box and solve all the crimes since prohibition. For now that doesn’t matter to the people who need to pay bills and feed their families. Pack up your bags unless it’s filled with the cash and being returned to the people. If it is and I doubt it, after dispensing, pack your overnight bags and beat it because nobody believes or follows your bullshit postings. The people here quit arguing with you on this board based on the fact that you can’t argue with someone dumber than you. Dumber in every sense; morals, intelligence and soon to be financials.
The Strange Death of Steve Kangas
This page is one of several questioning the death of Steve Kangas. In many ways it is a fusion of my own theories and a melting of both the work of Jason's and Doug's pages. The reader should view both sites as Jason provides many of the same questions but also the only time line of the events available along with links to all of the media articles through mid April.. Doug likewise sets forth the serious nature of many of the questions and sets forth on a proof of murder. A proof that is entirely consistent with the views presented in this paper. In effect both pages are extraordinary and preceded this page, making them a particularly valuable resource and resources the reader should consult.
The Mirror Sites for Liberalism Resurgent
Resurgence
Kangaroo
Resurgent
Kangaroo Resurgence
Informative Sites
Jason's Site
Doug's Site: Who Killed Steve Kangas?
Mike Huben's Eulogy
On Feb 8, 1999 at 11:30 PM Steve Kangas was found lying on the restroom floor of One Oxford Center, Pittsburgh in a semi conscious state by electrician, Don Adams. Adams reported blood on the floor around the spot and left to call for help. Upon returning they found Steve sitting on the toilet slumped over covered in blood, the victim of an apparent suicide. On Feb 12 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette broke the news in a terse 46 word article that police had ruled the death a suicide. Note to the reader, the reader should refer to Jason's page as he presents the best time line as well as links to all of the news articles. The following is not a complete time line of events nor is it intended to be such.
But what appears to have been a simple suicide at first is much more complex and several questions has arisen from a set of bizarre circumstances. It is hoped that in airing these questions in an open an unbiased manner that a non-partial investigation can be triggered in an effort to get to the truth. The reader is referred to Doug's page for a similar view and mission. This page will present some of the more troubling questions of Steve's death in the mind of this writer as well as present links to other pages that likewise question the events around Steve's death. In addition links to mirror sites of Steve's award winning web site, Liberal Resurgent will be included. The man can be killed but his ideas can live forever.
At one point I was nearly convinced that the death was a suicide, but there was still the troubling question of why anyone would travel from Las Vegas to Pittsburgh just to commit suicide. And the more that several web warriors and myself dug the more unanswered questions we kept finding. In much the same vein as each new article from the media that was published more troubling questions were raised for which the answer went begging.
On March 14 Scaife's lap dog and reporter, Richard Gazarik for the Scaife owned Pittsburgh Tribune Review published a smear article on Steve. The article could be describe in no other terms other than a smear, it was inherently a vicious attack. Much of the article was factually incorrect and served no purpose other than to smear Kangas. But it was the beginning of a vicious mean spirited attack by the right wing media involving the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Tony Snow and Tucker Carlson. Gazarik made wild claims about Steve being obsessed with Scaife, the fact remains that only 7 pages in Liberal Resurgent even mentions Scaife and 5 of them only in passing. In one case the only mentioning of Scaife was in a list of right wing foundations. The reader is reminded that Steve's web page consisted of over 400 files. With only two percent of those files even mentioning the name Scaife one is very safe in concluding that Gazarik was only trying to inflame his readers. Its hardly the case of being obsessed.
Gazarik attacked with vigor Steve's page The Origins of the Overclass as being false. This is hardly a surprise for someone working for a member of that Overclass. Its inclusion could be to serve but one purpose to inflame the right wing reactionaries and mean spirited greed heads that are unfortunately all to common today. My own research has found that Overclass in this country to be real and a topic of scholarly research. Perhaps Gazarik could try and refute the book by G. William Domhoff entitled Who Rules America before sounding off on a topic that he obviously knows nothing about. It is a somewhat of a classic on the topic and is in its 3rd printing. Incidentally Domhoff was a professor at Santa Cruz where Steve had been working on his Doctoral degree, although he didn't know Steve.
Gazarik also attacked Steve's opinions of the close association of the media (reporters and editors) with the CIA. Probably in a vain attempt to build credibility for himself and to distance the fact that the Scaife foundations had served as a conduit for the CIA to funnel money through and in at least one case to be an out right front organization for the CIA to spread disinformation. Perhaps Gazarik isn't old enough to remember the Church committee back in the mid 70s in which the CIA's use of the press was made public in a congressional hearing. Perhaps Gazarik should spend less time investigating liberals in an effort to smear them and spend a little time getting the facts straight. If he had he would realize that the New York Times' web site has one page devoted to exposing the CIA-media connection. But then I doubt if the facts are any concern of Gazarik, the Tribune-Review or Scaife.
On March 28 the Post Gazette prints the article Mission: Implausible; Dick Scaife couldn't keep his probe of Kangas a secret. The Post-Gazette details the efforts of Scaife using Gazarik along with the hire thug Rex Armistead whose name has arisen in Ken Starr's fiasco and the possible bribery of some of Starr's witnesses. It's the first print article to raise the question of why Scaife hid his investigation from the police. If we are to believe Scaife that he was only concerned with his safety why then hide any information that he may have gathered from the very people that could help him the most and guards his home, the local Pittsburgh police? Also troubling is if we were to believe smears appearing in the Scaife owned paper portraying Steve as a loser down on his luck why did Scaife apparently still believe him to have been a threat and launch an all out mean spirited attack?
As autumn approaches it appears that the Pittsburgh police have yet to interview Scaife. Although on March 17 the Post Gazette printed an article entitled Police seek to question Scaife in man's suicide stating that the Pittsburg police were then wanting to take a second look at the case due to the information coming forth from the media coverage. The exact quote from the police was as follows "are going to interview Mr. Scaife, if he'll submit to an interview." Excuse me but just when the hell did police interviews in a crime investigation become voluntary for the rich elite?
But even more troubling is the reckless disregard for common decency displayed by the Tribune-Review towards Steve's family. We now know that much of the Tribune-Review stories was blatantly false. For example the story about Mein Kampf being one of the books in Steve's backpack has now been shown to be false. The media source of this information appears to have been from Steve's mother. She is unsure who had told her that and thinks she may have misunderstood the original statement and believes it may have referred to finding it in Steve's apartment instead. The only source of that information would have been through the Scaife organization and his private thug Rex Armistead. But Steve's parents mistakenly gave their ok for Armistead to search Steve's apartment and access his email.The police never conducted an investigation beyond the autopsy. This is evident from the Feb10 Tribune-Review article in which it was stated that the autopsy was ruled a suicide on Tues Feb 9th. Again we can see the rush to close the case, this would not have been time enough for the completion of toxicology tests. The reader needs to ask himself what kind of a low down snake would imply to a grieving parent that their child was a Nazi admirer. Apparently the answer is the same kind of low down snake that would publish knowingly false smears and call it news.
It was in this time frame of late March early April, that Scaife directed another member of the Tribune-Review, Adam Music into the lion's den of the Usenet political groups to quell stories concerning Steve's death. Mr. Music announced his presence as an editor and stated he hoped to clear up any questions. This is one writer among many web active warriors that hit Mr. Music with a barrage of questions. Unfortunately Mr. Music was long on bullshit and short on answers. His all too familiar refrain of not knowing the answers to questions and that the questions should be directed to the reporter was hardly reassuring and flew against his stated purpose for posting in Usenet. Needless to say Mr. Music probably still awakes nights in a cold sweat over his experience on Usenet. I am sure from some of his responses to queries from others as well as myself that the experience was less than pleasant for him. I am also left wondering just what kind of paper the Tribune-Review is when the reporters seem to know more than the editors. But that is a logical summation of Mr. Music's presence on Usenet.
In the course of a normal investigation the number of unanswered question first rises then falls as the scope of the investigation is established and testimony and evidence is gather. However this is not the case in the death of Steve Kangas with the passing of time and with each outside investigation the number of unanswered questions just keeps rising.
With this short background it is time to look at the serious questions that have arisen and the need for some straight answers if not a full investigation. Some of these questions may indeed have harmless answers. I would be willing to overlook a couple such questions and conclude that Steve's death was a suicide. But when not one or two but several such questions start clustering around an event its obvious that someone has not done a proper investigation or that someone is trying to feed the public a lot of hooey. Many of these questions Jason has asked on his web site a couple however are new.
1. Why Pittsburgh, Why Suicide??? This is perhaps the most troubling and elusive of all questions to answer. The fact remains most people commit suicide at home or work or in close proximity to one or both. No one travels 2000 miles to a town in which he's and unknown just to commit suicide. Nor do those planning to commit suicide make long range plans or even short range plans. In a later question we will show that Steve was indeed making some long range plans. As for the short range plans it is known now that Steve had a list with him. Was this a list of people to interview as part of his longer range plans? Or was it a list of people to interview for a job or some other reason? One thing is certain it established that he had a plan and given that he had only arrived that day in Pittsburgh he could have hardly spoken to more than one or two.
2. Why did Steve buy a gun and install a burglar alarm??? This is the question that troubles his mother the most. Was Steve trying to protect himself or something of value? There is no other answer for the burglar alarm. It has one purpose only. But then what was he protecting and who was threatening him? And why if we were to believe the Scaife stories about a man down on his luck and broke would he spend some of his last money on a burglar alarm? And what would he have to protect? Why would a person with strong anti-gun views even buy a gun? Why would a man planning suicide and yes most suicides are planed as long as six months in advance would bother to register the gun as reported by the media?
3. How Did He Remain Undetected for almost 9 hours in One Oxford Center??? How could anyone remain undetected wondering about a major upscale office building for a total of 9 hours while carrying a backpack. One guard from the building remembers observing that he was wearing expensive shoes. Sitting in the restroom down the hall from Scaife's offices is one answer but it's hardly satisfying. It's hard to imagine that no one else used that facility without observing the presence of someone else.
4. Why Did Scaife refuse to answer Steve's parents questions??? This is another question that troubles his mother. Why did Scaife refuse to answer her questions of whether he had met with Steve that day? Likewise why did building security officials refuse to answer her questions and in her own words give her a run around? Coupled with the immediate preceding question it raises only more questions and hoists a red flag.
5. Why does the police report and autopsy report differ??? This is the biggie. Why does the police report list the wound to the left temple area but the autopsy state it was through the roof of the mouth? The ambulance report also lists a gunshot wound to the left side of the head. How was it that the corner missed this wound? Why did the electrician state there was blood already on the floor when he first found Steve but there is no mention of that fact in the autopsy report? Once again we encounter a question that needs to be thoroughly answered before any doubt can be removed.
6. Why no exit wound??? Another biggie that has never been addressed. I find it impossible to believe that a 9mm would not have made an exit wound. I would with trouble accept the lack of an exit wound if it had been a 22 rimfire. (This writer has the scars in his left leg to know what a 22 can do even after ricocheting twice. Once off a rock, I saw the rock explode through my scope then of a car fender before hitting me in the calf and traveling through about 3 inches of muscle.) Even more troubling is from the articles printed in the media was the fact that two fragments was retrieved from the back of the skull. I will acknowledge that bullets can do strange things but I find it hard to believe a 9mm slug would fragment going through 4 inches of soft tissue. The normal expected outcome would be for the slug to remain intact and to mushroom not fragment. Nor has the media ever stated that these two fragments composed the majority of a 9mm slug. Were these fragments large or were they small? Combined would these fragments compose an entire 9mm slug or not? In light of further evidence an considering the other oddities surrounding this case it leads this writer to the conclusion that the slug was of a devastator type, the bullet of choice for an assassin. Once again until a complete thorough answer to the size and number of fragments is forthcoming all doubt must remain.
7. How was the death ruled a suicide within one day??? One day for an autopsy would not have allowed time for toxicological tests to be completed. Yet according to the news article of Wed. Feb 10 from the Tribune-Review the autopsy was completed on Tuesday. Was this just part of a rush to sweep it under the floor? Why didn't the corner check the mouth for powder burns? According to one of the articles it was because of rigormortis. If thats the case how did they determine the wound was through the roof of the mouth? Its just another example of how rushed this autopsy was. At the very least it shows a corner jumping to conclusions before all results are in.
8. Why no Nitrate residue on the hands.??? Another mystery from the autopsy report, no nitrate residue was found on Steve's hands. The corner tries to make a claim that only 50% of suicide victims show a residue. That some weapons have next to no blowback and that the residue could have been rubbed off in the handling of the body. Well maybe but then I am old enough to remember that Oswald went home washed his hands and changed clothes, yet they still found nitrates on his hands.
9. The blood alcohol content why the discrepancy??? Adams reported first finding Steve one the floor in an almost comatose state and unable to answer intelligibly. The toxicology report stated a blood alcohol level of .14. Certainly high enough to be arrested for drunk driving but far from the level to render a person semi-comatose. And even if factual then how did a stumbling down dead drunk pick himself up find his gun and commit suicide without anyone hearing the shot all in the manner of a few minutes.
10. Why did Scaife seek out Steve's parents??? We know that Scaife associates sought out Steve's parents. Scaife people obtained permission from them to search his Las Vegas apartment, to read his Email and who knows what else. What was Scaife looking for? Coupled with a question below it seems that it was more than just paranoia, but part of an almost hysteric search. From the text above it seems that the Scale organization used Steve's parents in one of the most iniquitous manner I have ever heard, to feed disinformation to the press as in the false story about Mein Kampf. Even Steve's mother admits to feeling somewhat used or taken advantage of in one of the media reports. Simply put taking advantage of another's grief is the lowest form of malevolent behavior.
11. What was Music doing in usenet??? From the text above we know that it was not for his stated purpose of answering questions and to clarify any questions. Was Music nosing around Usenet in hopes of stumbling onto whatever it was that Armistead couldn't find in Las Vegas? And remember Armistead is a top notch thug for Scaife.
12. Why the vicious mad dog media attack??? Why did Scaife launch and all out mad dog attack on Steve? It served no purpose other than maybe unwittingly attracting more attention to the case. There still is no evidence that Steve intended to threaten or in any way harm Scaife. Such rumors are solely based on conjecture and are noting more than playing fast and loose with the facts.
13. Why sell Steve's computer??? This is another puzzling question that defies logic. According to the media reports Steve's roommate had returned from an extended trip to find Steve hadn't paid his share of the rent so he sold the computer for $150. This roommate was also Steve's former business partner. A partner that had bought Steve's interest for $30,000 after telling him it was worth $100,000. But Steve had refuse the higher offer not wishing to become part of the 2% top income earners that he deplored in his web page. Are we to believe that a person that had received essentially a $70,000 gift from Steve would quibble over $150? It simply doesn't make sense.
14. What was Steve's plan??? This writer believes very firmly that Steve had a coherent plan and was in the process of executing it when he was killed. The story appearing on April 11 in the Washington Week mentions the first step of this plan. It refers to an October post in Usenet in which Steve sought out advice if the computer he had just purchased would be adequate for a high volume server application. The article concludes that if Steve had the funds, the time and the presence of mind to expand his political activism how could anyone believe the Scaife smears. Confirmatory evidence from Deja News reveals that this is one of the first posts in which Steve used a new Email address of Liberalism Resurgent and that he also had registered the server as Resurgent. It fully destroys the Scaife smear that he was going to use the computer for a sex site. This I believe was the first step in the plan in January the second step of his plan is revealed on his web site. On Jan 9 he modified the file Help_the_Fight revealing his plans for Liberalism Resurgent. In it he detailed plans to hire writers in particular college students, as well as setting a maximum cap on income for any employee. Now we know beyond a doubt that he had a plan and what the computer was for. It also shows a continuing effort over an extended period requiring time, money and a presence of mind. But the plan doesn't end here. There is one final piece of evidence of this plan. It was found with his knapsack upon his death. It was the list of names. It is this writer's opinion that the list of names were people that Steve was going to interview for the initial expansion of his web site. Up to this time there is every indication that Steve had but one plan and that he was diligently working toward that goal of expanding his web site. The list should be viewed in that light. When it is things begin to make sense. The reader of this page is now invited to go back and reread each of the questions keeping in mind Steve's plan and notice how many of the previous questions have suddenly been answered. In fact if one assumes that Steve had other information as put forth in the final paragraph here it wipes out 7 of the preceding questions and leaves only the questions about the autopsy report left. But now even those questions have a plausible answer as part of an on going cover up.
These interviews with people on that list would then be used as the basis for additional pages. Perhaps even as collaborating evidence for additional information that he may have had. If such was the case it would certainly explain and remove any doubt about the Armistead search in Las Vegas and the presence of Music in Usenet.
Definitions:
Experience at LeNatures: Following the catastrophic events that happened in Latrobe under the owner and managements leadership.
LeNature Politics:
The continued effort of some to lead people down a path away from the truth through diversions and other non-related matters.
Comments
I’m sure there are plenty of other message boards where you can bring up all your points and people may care. No matter, two wrongs don’t make a right and they never will. Maybe you can send away for a secret decoder from the back of your cereal box and solve all the crimes since prohibition. For now that doesn’t matter to the people who need to pay bills and feed their families. Pack up your bags unless it’s filled with the cash and being returned to the people. If it is and I doubt it, after dispensing, pack your overnight bags and beat it because nobody believes or follows your bullshit postings. The people here quit arguing with you on this board based on the fact that you can’t argue with someone dumber than you. Dumber in every sense; morals, intelligence and soon to be financials.
Guys, let's face the facts here. Jay and his friends are the only people writing negative stuff on this blog. Like I pointed out earlier, his other blogs get little to no recognition and he needs to keep this one going. It’s becoming blatantly obvious that his continued vendetta against the company stems from “Bob Lynn” calling him out on his “girlfriend” Jodi and all the other hilarious posts from back when Jay posted a review of their bottled water (that was when Jay didn’t have the awesome receding hairline and beard he has now). For being such a peace-loving hippy, you really should think about letting this go Jay. It was just words—I’m sure “Bob Lynn” no longer has any hard feelings.
Including the incite of a capital crime. Which has been reported.
Why does the police report and autopsy report differ??? This is the biggie. Why does the police report list the wound to the left temple area but the autopsy state it was through the roof of the mouth? The ambulance report also lists a gunshot wound to the left side of the head. How was it that the corner missed this wound? Why did the electrician state there was blood already on the floor when he first found Steve but there is no mention of that fact in the autopsy report? Once again we encounter a question that needs to be thoroughly answered before any doubt can be removed.
Rumor has it that Burkle is going to fund a private investigation into Kangas.
More than $120 million is missing from bankrupt LeNature's Inc. in Latrobe and may have been converted into "black market currency" -- expensive gems and gold watches -- so it could be hidden from creditors, says an attorney involved in the case.
James McLean, of the Downtown law firm of Manion McDonough & Lucas, on Thursday accused Wachovia Bank of being so wedded to LeNature's finances and management that a bankruptcy judge should uphold a subpoena requiring the bank to turn over financial records on its relationship with LeNature's.
He called the financial scandal "perhaps the most egregious business fraud perpetrated in 2006."
"The magnitude of the wrongdoing is staggering," McLean said.
Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge M. Bruce McCullough on Tuesday is scheduled to hear arguments from Wachovia attorneys on why the financial institution should not be forced to comply with the subpoena on its dealings with the company that produced bottled water, fruit-flavored juices and tea.
A Wachovia spokeswoman has declined to comment on the case.
McLean represents the committee of secured creditors that includes banks and investors owed $200 million, according to the motion. Wachovia Bank loaned LeNature's $278 million for expansion and then sold pieces of the debt to other institutions to spread out the risk.
LeNature's accumulated three-quarters of a billion dollars in debt before it was forced into bankruptcy in November and CEO Gregory Podlucky, of Ligonier, and other executives were removed from the company.
Since then, a criminal probe, spearheaded by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Pittsburgh, began investigating allegations of fraud, perjury, destruction of evidence and other financial crimes by the company's managers.
Wachovia has argued the subpoena goes beyond the scope of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The creditors want the information as part of their investigation into LeNature's financial relationship with Wachovia. McLean said Wachovia's motion to dismiss the subpoena was an attempt to shield itself from scrutiny and potential lawsuits.
Wachovia worked with LeNature's on several levels. In 2005, it prepared a confidential memorandum that was given to potential buyers who offered $1.2 billion to buy LeNature's. The same year it helped arrange the sale of the bank debt to other lenders. In 2003, the bank was the underwriter for a $150 million bond issue.
Richard Gazarik
He called the financial scandal "perhaps the most egregious business fraud perpetrated in 2006."
yeah,i heard that too,but i heard they were going to take rich gazarik with them after he wins a pulitzer prize for the hard hitting and incredibly accurate articles he's been writing about lenatures and podlucky and podluckys 250,000 square foot house (which would be big enough to house an airbus a380 by the way),then they will start the tribune review moon edition and gazarik can write hard hitting articles about rocks and stuff,in fact i think his first article is going to be a research piece on the size of the moon and we're all going to be quite surprised to find out the moon is actually 10x the size actual scientists determined it to be and we will all believe it bc gazarik is a master of all and everything he writes should be taken at face value,keep up the good work rich,you're the man!!!
from the desk of the human resource manager and sal "fatass" lobiondo dated 10/30/2006 (who by the way is still employeed along with many others):
Le-Nature’s, Inc.
Management Transition Questions and Answers
1. What exactly has happened?
The firm of Kroll Zolfo Cooper (“KZC”) has been appointed as custodian of the Company pursuant to an order issued on October 27 by the Delaware Chancery Court (the “Order”) to protect the rights of the minority shareholders.
KZC has, on an interim basis, replaced certain members of the executive management team, including CEO Gregory J. Podlucky, COO Jonathan E. Podlucky, EVP Robert Lynn and Consultant Andrew Murin, all of whom have retained their management titles and membership on the Board of Directors, but have been temporarily relieved of their management duties pending the resolution of legal issues between the minority shareholders and the Company.
The legal issues involve the minority shareholders’ right to control the Board of Directors under the terms of an agreement with the Company’s majority shareholders. Messrs. Podlucky, Podlucky, Lynn and Murin will all continue to serve on the Board of Directors during the interim period.
2. What is a custodian?
KZC’s role as custodian is to serve as an agent of the Court and the interim management team of Le-Nature’s. The Court’s order authorizes the KZC management team to, on an interim basis, take possession and control of Le-Nature’s and its business, operations and assets, to temporarily administer and manage the assets and to operate the Company’s business.
3. Why did the Court order the appointment of a custodian?
The Court ordered the appointment of a custodian, in part, based on evidence that members of Le-Nature’s management team, including the majority shareholders, had violated the terms of the Shareholders’ Agreement, and the Court believed it was necessary to appoint an interim management team to ensure that Le-Nature’s business continues to operate in the normal course until the legal issues are decided. In short, KZC is here to maintain the status quo of Le-Nature’s operations.
4. Is the Board of Directors still intact?
Yes. KZC will report to the Board of Directors. In the event the Board disagrees with any aspect of KZC’s management of the Company, KZC will ask the Court to resolve any issues.
5. Why did the Minority Shareholders pursue this legal action?
The minority shareholders took this action to protect their rights under the Shareholders’ Agreement to control the membership of the Board of Directors.
The Chancery Court ordered the appointment of a custodian, in part, based on evidence that members of Le-Nature’s management team, including the majority shareholders, had violated the terms of the Shareholders’ Agreement.
As a result, the minority shareholders have taken actions, with the full support of the Company’s outside Directors, which they believe are in the best interests of the Company, its shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers and other business partners.
6. Why was Kroll Zolfo Cooper chosen as Custodian?
KZC has a wealth of experience handling complex engagements and stabilizing businesses while protecting long-term financial growth. The KZC interim management team also has extensive experience in the food and beverage industry, having most recently served as the interim management team for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.
7. How long will KZC act as custodian?
KZC has been appointed custodian on an indefinite interim basis to ensure that Le-Nature’s business continues to operate as usual during the pending litigation. The next hearing in the litigation involving the minority shareholders has been scheduled for January, 2007. The KZC management team will be in place until then; however, their role beyond that will be dependent upon the outcome of the legal proceedings
8. How does this affect the financial stability of the Company?
There should not be any adverse impact on the Company’s financial stability. Le-Nature’s is a strong company with great products and recognizable brand names. The current legal issues and management changes should not have an impact on the fundamental strength of the business. The Company’s lenders and other investors are aware of the situation and have indicated their support of the appointment of KZC as custodian.
9. Will these actions disrupt the Company’s operations or in any way affect the Company’s dealings with customers and suppliers?
There should be no disruption to the Company’s operations - the parties all share the common goal of preserving the value of the Company and ensuring that it continues to operate without disruption and distribute products to customers just like it always has.
10. Does this mean that the Company is going to be put up for sale?
There are no immediate plans to sell Le-Nature’s. In fact, no such transaction could even be considered until we know the outcome of legal issues scheduled to come before the Court in January 2007.
11. Does this announcement have any effect on my job and my pay and benefits?
There will be no changes to your pay or benefits as a result of this management transition.
KZC is doing everything possible to ensure that it is a smooth management transition and business as usual for employees, customers and suppliers. There should be no change to the day-to-day operations of the company, so please continue to report for work on the usual schedule.
12. Kroll Zolfo Cooper is known to do a lot of work with companies involved in financial restructurings and Chapter 11 reorganizations. Does this mean the Company is going to file for bankruptcy?
No, there is no plan to file for Chapter 11. Le-Nature’s is a strong company with great products and recognizable brand names. The current legal issues and management changes should not have an impact on the fundamental strength of the business. The Company’s lenders and other investors are aware of the situation and have indicated their support of the appointment of KZC as custodian.
13. What should I do if I am contacted by one of the four executives who have been temporarily relieved of their management duties?
Due to the legal issues involved, all Le-Nature’s employees should know that, according to the Court order, they should not communicate about the Company in any manner with the four executives who have been temporarily replaced; nor should any employee take direction from those executives regarding anything having to do with Company business. Also, the Court order prohibits the destruction of or tampering with any Company documents or books and records.
14. What are the next steps in this legal procedure? How will employees know what happens next?
The next hearing scheduled for the pending litigation is in January, 2007. During this process, the interim management team from KZC will do it’s very best to keep all employees updated on significant developments.
i challenge my former fellow production teammates and office employees to read through these and see how many points were actually true and/or intended to be followed through. it seems to me that there has been much more criminal activity at lni after the former management left.
3/05/2007 10:00 AM
Anonymous said...
MUCH MORE CRIMINAL ACTIVITY AFTER THE FORMER MANAGEMENT TEAM LEFT
MUCH MORE CRIMINAL ACTIVITY AFTER THE FORMER MANAGEMENT TEAM LEFT
MUCH MORE CRIMINAL ACTIVITY AFTER THE FORMER MANAGEMENT TEAM LEFT
He called the Kangas scandal "perhaps the most egregious killing cover up perpetrated in 1999."
"The magnitude of the wrongdoing is staggering," McLean said.
On the afternoon of Feb. 8, 1999, a man named Steven R. Kangas entered One Oxford Center in downtown Pittsburgh. He carried a Kel Tek 9-mm semiautomatic pistol, 47 rounds of ammunition and a 65 year old bottle of Potato Whiskey.
Kangas took the elevator to the 39th floor. He reportedly paused at the door of the Sarah Scaife Foundation, pressed his face against the glass and tried the door. It was locked. Kangas moved on. For nine hours, he holed up in a men's room down the hall, getting drunk. A building engineer discovered him at about 11:30 p.m., lying on the floor, mumbling incoherently. When the man left to call police, Kangas evidently sat up on a toilet and shot himself in the head. The building engineer returned a few minutes later with a coworker, only to find Kangas slumped over dead.
Police wrote off Kangas's death as a simple suicide. However, further investigation revealed that the 37-year-old Kangas may have been an assassin.
He had arrived in Pittsburgh only that morning on a Greyhound bus, with $14.63 in his pocket. It turned out that Kangas ran a popular leftwing website called "Liberalism Resurgent: A Response to the Right." Several of Kangas' writings attacked Richard Mellon Scaife – oil and banking heir, philanthropist, newspaper publisher and funder of political causes. Scaife's office was right down the hall from the men's room where Kangas killed himself. Some investigators speculate that Kangas – unable to enter the locked office – had retreated to the men's room to wait in ambush for Scaife while steeling his nerves with whiskey.
Kangas was a former Army intelligence specialist from a conservative, Michigan family. The bio and resumé he published online state that he learned Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., in 1983 and later shipped out to Berlin, where he intercepted and translated Soviet military communications for NATO. Kangas claimed in his online bio that he was stationed for a time in Central America, "doing things I am not at liberty to discuss."
After leaving the Army in 1986, Kangas earned a bachelor's degree in Russian Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz. "I visited Russia in 1989," he writes, "and the trip was one of the most incredible experiences of my life."
By this time, for reasons he does not clearly explain, Kangas had rejected both his conservative upbringing and his military indoctrination, to become a leftist. His writings hint that he may have felt some regret about this choice. On his website, he summarized his life in these tongue-in-cheek, yet oddly self-punishing words: "I left religion at age 12, and conservatism at 26, to become a godless pinko commie lying socialist weasel."
A few months before he died, Kangas quit his job with a Las Vegas company that made gambling software for betting on horse races. Kangas tried to launch his own Web pornography business, shooting sadomasochistic sex scenes in his apartment and selling them online. The venture failed, mainly because Kangas blew his money on booze and prostitutes.
In real life, Kangas had become a loser. But on the Web, he had achieved something akin to celebrity. An entity calling itself the Robert F. Kennedy Democrats honored Kangas' "Liberalism Resurgent" page with its 1997 "Excelsior Award" for websites that "communicate the highest progressive ideals."
"Help Fight the Right!" Kangas exhorted readers. He recommended Al Gore's "Earth in the Balance" as one of his favorite books. He railed against Rush Limbaugh. "The CIA and its allies turned American AM radio into a haven for conservative talk-show hosts," Kangas ranted. More ominously, Kangas portrayed Scaife as a leader of what he called the "New Overclass," a cabal of rightwing forces that "undemocratically control our government."
On his website, Kangas warned leftwing activists that their efforts would be wasted, "if they are not directed at the heart of the problem. It is absolutely critical to identify what the true core problem is, because all other problems in society stem from it." Evidently, Kangas had decided that Scaife was the "core problem." But why Scaife?
One answer may lie in an article from Kangas's website entitled, "Myth: There's no 'vast rightwing conspiracy' to get Clinton." He opened his essay with a famous quote from Hillary Clinton, excerpted from her Jan. 27, 1998, interview on NBC's "Today Show." Readers will recall that interview from Part 3 of this series, in which Hillary said, among other things, "[B]ill and I have been accused of everything, including murder … drug running … [I]t's part of an effort … to undo the results of two elections. … I do believe that this is a battle." Kangas highlighted the following quote from Hillary:
"The great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it, is this vast rightwing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president. A few journalists have kind of caught on to it, but it has not yet been fully revealed to the American public. And actually, you know, in a bizarre sort of way, this [the Lewinsky scandal] may do it."
It would seem that Kangas took up Hillary's challenge to "find it, write about it and explain it." In his essay, he set out to prove that Hillary was right, that there was indeed a vast and sinister conspiracy bent on toppling the Clintons. Like Hillary, Kangas painted the various Clinton scandals as frame-ups, funded by shadowy, rightwing moneymen. In his view – as in the view of many mainstream media commentators – the most prominent of the anti-Clinton moneymen was Richard Mellon Scaife. "Scaife is undoubtedly the most important figure behind the Clinton scandals," he writes. Nearly 60 percent of Kangas' 2,059-word text focuses on Scaife.
Significantly, Kangas charges that "Scaife is obsessed with proving that Vince Foster's suicide was actually a murder. He goes so far as to call his death 'the Rosetta Stone of the Clinton administration.'" Kangas also notes that Scaife had assigned a full-time reporter named Christopher Ruddy to investigate Foster's death.
We may never know for sure why Kangas took a gun to Scaife's office, nor why he decided, at the last minute, to shoot himself instead. We do know one thing, however. In the tortured recesses of Kangas' mind, the figure of Hillary loomed large. Kangas studied Hillary's words with care. He believed her story. He felt her pain. Kangas made Hillary's enemies his. In the final analysis, he may have died for her – shedding his blood to guard the secret of the Rosetta Stone.
The Rosetta Stone
Would-be assassin Steven Kangas was correct about one thing: Richard Mellon Scaife had indeed described the Vincent Foster case as a "Rosetta Stone" – an unreadable tablet whose decipherment might one day illuminate every mystery of the Clintons.
"It is the Rosetta Stone to the Clinton administration," Scaife told the late John F. Kennedy Jr. in an exclusive interview in the January 1999 issue of George magazine. "Once you solve that one mystery, you'll know everything that's going on or went on." Pressed to explain further, Scaife responded:
"Listen, [Clinton] can order people done away with at his will. He's got the entire federal government behind him. … God, there must be 60 people … who have died mysteriously – including eight of Clinton's former bodyguards. … There have been very mysterious deaths."
The Vincent Foster "Rosetta Stone" remains undeciphered to this day. But the struggle to decode it, in large measure, gave birth to the Web Underground.
What really happened at the small beverage producer located in the small, rural community of Latrobe, Pennsylvania? Aside from the chatter of understandably disgruntled (yet misinformed) employees and wannabe rebels against Corporate America who have very little knowledge of what they are getting involved in (hello, Jay Silver) through various weblogs, I believe a greater truth must be realized. At the root of the deception being concocted in the media and other struggling entities we find the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The massive assault against Le-Nature's—actually more so against Chairman and CEO Gregory J. Podlucky—began with an article titled Naughty by LeNature's. The article, circulated in the Sunday edition on August 20, 2006, would set the stage for a great production of false allegations, greed, and jealousy. Since that article, many other fine works—all authored by a questionable character in his own right (Richard Gazarik)—have been published. However, no matter how poor his journalism skills may be, Gazarik does make a few key discoveries that piece together this mess.
1. Preferred Shareholders—The group of people responsible for triggering the implosion of the Company. Originally, the lawsuits filed in Delaware claimed “breach of contract, wasting corporate assets, fraud and negligence.” Such claims stem from an alleged document that “proves” all of this. I would really like to see such a document. One document (supposedly containing a forged signature) that proves all of the aforementioned allegations? I find it insulting they would have us believe such nonsense!
What really happened? Any person who has ever built a business from scratch understands that growth requires some form of debt. Le-Nature's obtained such funding from private entities who would in turn receive a return on investment. In this case, Le-Nature's received approximately $25 million in funding (the real number remains a mystery due to the varying numbers published by Gazarik). At the time of the August 20th article, Le-Nature's had offered close to $300 million to buy the shareholder's equity of the Company. We ran a series of complex calculations and determined that the shareholders would have received a measly (gasp) 12 times return on investment—all in a matter of a few years. Now I do not spend a whole lot of time researching the stock market, nor do I claim to be an expert, but I would fare to say that no stock or investment option would yield that kind of return. For the sake of simple comparison, you would be fortunate to find an investment fund that offered a 12 percent return. The kind of return we are talking about here is 1,200 percent. Where am I going with all of these facts? I will tell you simply: greed. The preferred shareholders saw an opportunity to exploit what they viewed as a “small player” in the beverage community that was growing rapidly; seemingly under the radar of “big players” such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi. They figured they could use loopholes in the legal system to steal the shares of the Company they did not already own, turn around and sell to somebody who was offering even more money (remember hearing about that magical $1.2 billion). Eyes got bigger than stomachs! In closing, let's just say the preferred shareholders lost—big time. Not only did they forfeit the $300 million they could have had free and clear, they basically threw $25 million out the window because they will never see a dime of the initial investment. I’ll bet whoever ends up with the Latrobe bottling facility (shout out to Giant Eagle) at bargain basement pricing will be thankful! Lesson number one: greed is a blinding evil that kills those who become entrapped in its grasp.
Unfortunately, this does not end here. The next group I will analyze is the custodian that was hired as a crisis management team.
2. Kroll Zolfo Cooper—We need to determine the function this group played in the demise of Le-Nature’s. Let’s review the facts. Kroll was appointed as the custodian and they infiltrated the facility on Friday, October 27, 2006 after business had concluded for the day. It should also be noted, contrary to Gazarik’s fine reporting that Gregory Podlucky, his brother Jonathan, Andrew Murin, Jr., and Robert Lynn were escorted out of the office, the four were not even in the building at noon—six hours before Kroll’s “crisis management team” showed up. I just wanted to point out one of the many discrepancies found in Gazarik’s work. So now we have Steve Panagos, Sal LoBiondo, and many other “professionals” in place. Le-Nature’s employees are told their jobs are secure and that its “business as usual.” Monday, October 30, 2006 rolls around and reports are already coming out of Latrobe via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that 2005 revenues have been overstated by $200 million. Now let me get this straight, you’ve set up shop for less than a full business day and already you conclude that revenues were overstated by 725 percent? I could have sworn there was a huge factor missing from this equation, oh yeah, the 2005 financial statements were audited by BDO Seidman! Now you’re saying “wait a minute, Layne, they could have been fooled by Le-Nature’s.” Yes, they could have been fooled by Le-Nature’s, it’s been done before (i.e. Enron) However, don’t you think it would take a little bit longer for Kroll, who is NOT an auditing firm, to realize such a gross overstatement if a large accounting firm scrutinized the financial statements using strict accounting guidelines for several weeks? Common sense tells me ‘yes.’ Okay, so a few days go by and now a witch hunt has begun by the United States Federal Government to track down “missing assets” and what do you know, a secret room is found within the building containing two safes filled with precious gems and large quantities of fine jewelry. Now we have fraud. Wrong! First, let’s keep in mind that Le-Nature’s, while it does have outside investors and outside board members, is NOT a publicly traded company. It is a private organization whose majority shareholder is Gregory J. Podlucky. If he decides he has some assets that he wants to store in a building that he owns a majority of, where is the crime? I hear all this nonsense that “if it were legitimate, why the need for a secret room?” Hmm, let’s see, I have a large collection that is very high in value, maybe I should keep it out in the open so it is a target for thieves. Or better yet, why do banks “hide” their money in safes that cannot be seen by account holders who go to the counter to cash their paycheck on Friday? Open your eyes, people! If you want to trash talk people because they have and you do not have, that is your freedom as an American, but do not slander people by saying that they are criminals when they do things any intelligent person would also do. Let’s continue to assess Kroll. So now we have overstated revenues and secret rooms filled with gems (oh yeah, I forgot to mention sex toys were found too, way to make the story believable Rich). It is hard to believe that so much has happened in one week. I wonder what happened the other 15 weeks Kroll was at Le-Nature’s? Well that’s a good question. The Company was forced into bankruptcy so they were obviously pretty busy with that. Then there was that little issue of money (they demanded $5 million to render such “professional” services) which is odd considering the Company could not even pay the creditors who legitimately had a right to be paid. And my personal favorite is the holiday shindig at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport. According to an employee of the airport, employees of both Kroll and Le-Nature’s drove two leased Mercedes-Benz SUVs to the restaurant and were drinking merlot, vodka martinis, and White Russians. Their tab was in excess of $1,000 before they drove the vehicles back to Le-Nature’s. How do I know all of this? Let’s just say Layne knows a lot of people and leave it at that! Funny fact concerning the Mercedes-Benz SUVs used that night—Kroll had been using the vehicles as personal accommodations during the entire time they were in Latrobe even though the lease payments were long past due (sixth one down).
More to come…
Nobody cares what GP collected or where he chooses to store his collections. Although his company was private, he solicited other financial investors which made them part owners. He is then accountable to them as per any agreements they had when the investment was made. Obviously, they had a major part in blowing whistles which led to the downfall because GP didn't meet those agreements. When so much debt accrued and payments weren't being made then yes people were suspicious of where the gems fit in. Were they obtained by the loans made by companies who aren’t receiving the payments as agreed? If GP could have continued to meet all the agreements that he made then there would be no problem between him, the other investors, the creditors and the ex-employees. However, GP couldn’t meet all his agreements and the house of cards started to crumble. If you’re saying that he was the only one that could run this house of cards then you are right. The management company was terrible at running the company based on having to do it legitimately. If you saying this was a conspiracy theory and GP was running everything legitimately and as agreed, I think the entire world would disagree with you. GP brought this on himself by a) involving others and then b) not meeting agreements he made with others. Then he resorted back to his dictatorship style and too many people were involved and wouldn’t put up with his style.
So where did he do anybody wrong? His obligation to employees was technically met if they were paid up through their last day of work. However, many of them claimed a personal pride stake in the company. The investors are and were part owners and GP continued to run it like he was the sole owner. I bet when he solicited funding it was laid out a little different. Obviously or they wouldn’t have any grounds for starting the entire process. The creditors were mis-led on the sole basis that they weren’t being paid as agreed. Along the way perhaps all the other fraud stories are made up but again I doubt it….(wire fraud, pretend customers, two sets of books) all of which defraud everyone that was involved at every level. Let’s watch this one play out. The money he used to create a lavish lifestyle with body gauards, etc. quite simply wasn’t his to use that way. GP should be happy as at some point the demise was inevitable and now he can face the music and get on with his life. Nobody started out wishing him any harm. He brought everything thing on himself. Are some stories embellished and is everything over scrutinized at this point….probably. The papers need to sell! He invited everyone in to his house of cards.
The entire premise for the previous comment:
"However, GP couldn’t meet all his agreements and the house of cards started to crumble."
is very ignorant. It shows you know very little about what kick-started the whole implosion by the outside investors. The creditors were paid and that had nothing to do with the investigation. Now if you want to discuss the bankruptcy, which is an entirely different matter, that occurred because Kroll was incapable of running the business after the previous management left (a moot point really because they had no intention of keeping the business alive; they were only there to collect fees) and creditors were not being paid at THAT time. As for the outside investors, they were offered $300 million (12 times their initial investment) to buy their shares of the Company. Greed set in and they ended up destroying their entire investment. I think a lot of people will be very surprised when the dust settles on this one. It is becoming quite clear that very little evidence of any criminal activity exists or ever existed, for that matter, and a lot of people who feel a sense of satisfaction out of beating on Greg, Jonathan, Bob, and Drew (and their families) are going to be very disappointed. The problem was not them; it was the people they trusted around them.
I'd like to take the last comment one step further to combat the comment before that slightly more effectively.
It should also be pointed out, when you mention the buyout of the shareholders, that a 12% ROI in a matter of four years far exceeds expectations in the venture capital industry. That being said, if the preferred shareholders would have been even slightly wise and taken the $300 million they would not have been in a position or even wanted to be in a position to file lawsuits against Le-Nature's. It seems to me that they had an ulterior motive that backfired miserably. If that is the problem that started this whole mess then I am sort of confused as to why all the other allegations even matter. You start talking about two sets of books and inflating sales figures, who cares even if that is true? The banks surely do not care as long as they are getting paid insane amounts of interest and the government does not care because not only are they bringing in more taxes, but they also get taxes from the hundreds of employees that are a product of economic growth. They had an opportunity to bring economic growth to Latrobe, Phoenix, Atlanta, and other smaller cities around the United States and that is all gone now. I think you people should take a little more time to think your nonsense through before you get on here and start spewing out every little tidbit you think makes sense. The business world is filled with practices that may seem "wrong" to the common person who is not involved in it day in and day out. And if you think Le-Nature's, or Microsoft, or Enron, or whoever are the only ones that operate that way you are completely ignorant to the world around you. However, if it weren't for big bad corporations we would not enjoy the lives we ALL currently enjoy and you wouldn't be able to "run to the grocery store" or "go out for the night" as effortlessly as we do on a daily basis. Now I know big shot Jay Silver will get on here and rebut these comments, but unfortunately we cannot all be free-spirited, wannabe hippy, live off the earth, wash my clothes by hand, and not waste money on a razor-type people. If you want to be that way, that is completely and 100% fine but just remember who makes those laptops you work on, the 50 cent clothes you buy, the textbooks you study, and who host your blogs—big corporations—and they all play ball the same way.
To the poster above..your a FUCKING nut..bring what to latrobe?..it was a matter of time before he got caught..hell he was losing suppliers by the day..he never paid a bill..he was to busy buying sex and playing with his toys to run a business..he was a nothing but a good con..father like son..screw the rest of the little people..well greg a cell is 6 by 10..enjoy your stay..only one smart here was the mayor of Florida..she said they didn't need him there..she saved her little town..you have to be a bigger ass then podlucky to say that shit..thats why theretrying to pass law that stock holders give the last say on these ceo's big payouts..all i got was 6 months unemployment that greg didn't pay into ..lucky they paid it for us..your an ass..
Wow. All those big words. The mayor of Florida, huh? Is that what they call those people now? I could have sworn they were called governors. They only lost the suppliers that were overcharging for materials and services and cutting into YOUR fucking paychecks. Trying to pass a "law" that makes sure the big bad CEOs don't get paid too much? I'm pretty sure the boards of directors, who are appointed by the shareholders, have been doing that for quite some time. It's called a corporation dumbass; you know they've operated that way for a long time. The Gospel According to Gazarik said Podlucky was getting paid $360,000. That seems like a lot I guess but then again he did personally guarantee over $40 million in loans for the Company. But I guess that’s fair, as long as you’re sorry ass can take home your precious paycheck and drink it away over the weekend. Aww, what's the matter? Did Greggy come down and yell at you? Aww, poor baby. He was such a Meany! I'll bet he was the only boss to ever expect something out of his employees. Cry me a river dickface! Hey everybody, check out another fine example of the morons who get on here and post gibberish before they think things through!
what greg..to save your kid an ass beating? that why you post this shit...take it like the cunt you are..
Wait a minute whose upset about the "have" and "have nots"?
what greg..to save your kid an ass beating? that why you post this shit...take it like the cunt you are..
aww, look at this. little fag wants to get on dat dere in-ernet and make threats against kids because he'd get his ass beat by greg himself. all under 'anonymous.' you must be really tough if you can't even post your name. if your so fucking tough you should act on these threats and prove to everybody how bad you are. i'd say YOU are the cunt boy.
We don't owe anything to big corporations, they owe consumers and to compare Microsoft and LeNatures in the same sentence in ludicrous. Yes I think you can compare LeNatures and Enron in the same sentence for obvious reasons. This type of thinking is politics at its best or should I say worst. Yes we buy their products at retailers who have driven out all the small business and filled the stores with dumbass people who can’t answer a question. Hell the prices aren’t even the lowest but we think they are. Yes we continue to fall for ploys like free gas by paying 20% too much for products. Yes it’s called marketing. However, your mentality of big corporations is OK to practice business in ways that the common person would not advocate or understand is 100% asinine. A practice is not right or wrong based on the cash it generates or based on not getting caught which is what your type of thinking supports. It’s not right or wrong based on what you gained which is 100% hypocritical to any religious thinking. You see those are your reasons for you to state your superiority and believe that you are part of the elite group that really understands which is the furthest from the truth.
LeNatures downfall is about someone who got in over their head with their own ability. If that weren’t true he would still be in charge. If all of LeNatures practices were on the up and up, they wouldn’t be being investigated. I’m tired of reading your posts about this is how the world turns in corporate America and because of some witch hunt LeNatures is now a victim and we should be thanking corporate America. GP overstated his ability and should have kept it manageable and legal and he could have practiced business however the hell he wanted to.
Golly Gee thanks corporate America for allowing me to buy your products and for making my life so great. Give me a freakin break and for God’s Sake and I mean it literally understand that the working families that make up Latrobe and towns alike are the real leaders. Not the politicians who think they are on the inside. WE RUN IT!
Everyone see this?
http://www.harrydavis.com/
I knew Jay would respond sooner or later.
We don't owe anything to big corporations
I do not recall stating that we do owe anything to big corporations; I merely stated a truth that big corporations make the acquisition of goods easier and more efficient.
and to compare Microsoft and LeNatures in the same sentence in ludicrous
Again, I never compared Microsoft and Le-Nature’s in the sense that they are the same size or same industry, however, both face and have faced intense scrutiny as to how their businesses operate. Also, if you are implying that Microsoft has a track record of running a 100% legitimate business and Le-Nature’s does not I think you need to go back and get a better understanding of Microsoft’s corporate history and all of the intense governmental scrutiny that continues to plague that company. Obviously they are not involved in the same kind of investigation Le-Nature’s is, but the anti-trust suits in the United States, Europe, and Asia have yet to be settled to this day. I know, I know—it’s convenient for you to love Microsoft because Bill Gates sponsored your free ride to Cambridge.
This type of thinking is politics at its best or should I say worst
Maybe true but this happens to be the way the business world operates.
retailers who have driven out all the small business
I could write an encyclopedia on the many reasons why small businesses don’t make it. The bottom line is that people control economics and if you are not willing to pay higher prices, small retailers will die. Wal-Mart did not become the massive corporation it is by clever or devious marketing ploys. They offer the least expensive products and consumers as a group have favored lower prices over quality and customer service.
and filled the stores with dumbass people who can’t answer a question
I’m surprised to see you use this type of ignorant language. I seem to recall you busting Bob Lynn’s balls back in 2005 for calling people “faddy and gullible.” What makes you so great that you can call people dumbasses but the minute somebody else does it that is wrong? It’s THAT kind of hypocritical bullshit that makes you sound like a dumbass.
Hell the prices aren’t even the lowest but we think they are
If you can make them cheaper I think you have an entire planet that would be willing to buy your products exclusively. I think we are starting to part ways however, because it seems you are starting to criticize retailers as opposed to manufacturers. Retailers are the ones that control the price you pay. I will agree that retailers overprice the products they sell. And the worthless protection plans they try to sell on top of that is just a kick in the balls if you ask me. Manufacturers make very slim margins on the products they make and sell. I recall you defending Microsoft earlier. You want to talk about a manufacturer gone bad let’s talk about the way they charge insane markups on the MANFACTURING end just because they can.
However, your mentality of big corporations is OK to practice business in ways that the common person would not advocate or understand is 100% asinine. A practice is not right or wrong based on the cash it generates or based on not getting caught which is what your type of thinking supports
I’m not going to get into a moral debate with you on this issue Jay. All I’m saying is that if YOU want to bust Le-Nature’s for the situation it is in right now based on your superior morality, then you have a moral obligation to start blogs about 99% of corporations out there because they all operate the same. Trust me I’ve been involved in too many not to know better. Right or wrong, all corporations operate the same way.
It’s not right or wrong based on what you gained which is 100% hypocritical to any religious thinking
I’m not really sure what this means but it is quite clear by your continued usage of the word “religion” that you are trying to charge some sort of weak allegation against Podlucky for his beliefs. Why is it okay for you to attack Christianity but the attack of any other religion is considered discriminatory? The answer is that you have a deep hatred towards Christians. Understand one thing Jay, true Christianity does not teach that humans can be saved through any works of their own. However, true Christians rely on Jesus Christ exclusively for salvation. That said, you are charging Podlucky based on the world’s view of Christianity and not Christ’s view of Christianity and Christ’s view of Christianity is that unless we put our faith in Him, we are all worthless and will perish. We should strive to do the right thing as proof of our faith in Christ, but that does not mean that we will not fail at times. For some reason you are trying to associate Christianity with human perfection and your view of “religion” does not allow humans to fail. In that case, I reject your religion for sure.
You see those are your reasons for you to state your superiority and believe that you are part of the elite group that really understands which is the furthest from the truth
What are my reasons? I never said I was part of an elite group, I am simply saying that I have been involved in a number of businesses and I know what goes on. If this is some sort of knock on Christianity again, please refer to the above comment.
LeNatures downfall is about someone who got in over their head with their own ability
Wrong! Le-Nature’s downfall is about outside investors who thought they saw the big payday and got extremely greedy and thought they could take over the entire company and sell it to a larger company for billions of dollars.
If that weren’t true he would still be in charge
I’m not sure how Greg feels about not being in charge anymore but from my perspective I wouldn’t want to be in charge of that place. There are better opportunities out there.
If all of LeNatures practices were on the up and up, they wouldn’t be being investigated
This is not true. You have obviously not read anything about this investigation. Once again, this was a case of greed by the outside investors and it backfired miserably. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done now to reverse the irreparable damage that was inflicted by the investors and Kroll. If what you say is true, where are the charges? This should have been a slam dunk indictment by now.
I’m tired of reading your posts about this
Simple solution: don’t read them.
GP overstated his ability and should have kept it manageable and legal and he could have practiced business however the hell he wanted to
Once again we need to ask, where are the charges? Is this America or do we assume he is guilty just because an under qualified investigative journalist from a small market newspaper implies that he is guilty as a ploy to sell newspapers?
WE RUN IT!
Oh really? This is an interesting comment. I’d really like for you to elaborate on this a little more. I’ll bet this isn’t your belief when things are NOT run properly. Then, its guys like George W. Bush or Gregory J. Podlucky who run it. How convenient!
Bottled beverages is an $86 billion industry in the United States. LeNature's was considered a small player, according to a Standard & Poor's industry analysis. Of the top 36 beverage producers, Moody's Investors Services listed LeNature's at No. 33.
No, I'm not Jay, don't know him, never met him and I'm Catholic. I'm honored that you disected my blog by line. I'm in a related industry and have known of the Podluckys for years and never said anything personally (only expressed my opinions)attacking him or his father (or anyone unlike you) and fully agree with innocent until.....However, I don't agree with his business practices and continual blaming of everyone else. I don't have all the facts nor do I want them. At a top level your excuses for everything is that is how everyone else did it to get ahead. Your defenses are so abstract. Then you throw out these constant diversions about so many irrelevant facts and I have to relate it (not fall for it) to politics. I don't put my fate in any one else's hands except my own. George Bush is a guy on TV and hasn't fed my family yet or made a car payemnt for me right or wrong thats my opinion. Once again putting him and Greg in the same sentence is asinine. I pay my taxes and I take responsibility for my actions and more importantly my fate. All the employees need to take the same stance and probably have. OK, you made a point so lets sit back and watch it play out. If you believe in the justice system we should all be fine as I doubt it is a witch hunt that you described. Good Luck!
Hey, Rich get ready for Hillary! There's no SOL on AATFOM/M.
Why do we get that icky feeling when we review the 2006 compensation record for top executives of Mellon Financial Corp. of Pittsburgh? No doubt it's because the banking giant paid its top three bosses a combined $37.2 million to effectively strip Pittsburgh of yet another corporate headquarters.
Mellon, of course, isn't long for this world. Sometime this year it is expected to be subsumed by The Bank of New York in a $16.5 billion deal. The new entity, Bank of New York Mellon, will be headquartered in New York City. Mellon's nearly 140-year Pittsburgh headquarters run will end; there are dubious promises of increased employment locally.
The co-architect of the deal is Mellon CEO Robert Kelly. On the job with Mellon for a mere 10 months in 2006, his compensation was $16.5 million. Steven Elliott, the senior vice chairman, received $13.5 million. Ronald O'Hanley, the executive vice chairman, got $7.2 million.
Not a bad 10 to 12 months' pay for knocking down another notch the city of your corporate birth, right?
Ickier still: Mellon paid departed CEO Marty McGuinn $17 million last year.
Ah, yes, we are told, this is all "business." And, gee, Mellon really is doing quite well when you review its "financials," observers add. But the ick is thick with Mellon packing its HQ bags. And there may never be enough soap for the community to wash its hands of it
When will the spin come?
The telephone call came just before dawn: Production of Rolling Rock beer in Latrobe is ending after 67 years.
George Sharkey, business agent for Local 144 of the International Union of Electricians-Communication Workers of America, learned at 4:30 a.m. Friday that Latrobe Brewing Co. had sold the Rolling Rock brand to brewing giant Anheuser-Busch for $82 million.
The sale doesn't include the production facilities, which are owned by InBev. About 250 employees will lose their jobs on July 31 unless a buyer is found.
"It reminds me of Robert Irsay when he moved the Colts out of Baltimore in the dead of night," Sharkey said, referring to the NFL team's move to Indianapolis that outraged Maryland fans.
The sale marks InBev's last American-brewed beer. The company -- which had worldwide sales of $2.2 billion -- no longer will make beer in the United States. Rumors of a pending sale have been brewing for several months.
"The U.S. beer market is very competitive, and it's difficult to do everything well. We didn't want to spread ourselves too thin, and we had to make a choice," said Brenda Williams, a spokeswoman for InBev USA in Norwalk, Conn., which also makes Labatt.
James Villeneuve, vice president of corporate affairs for Labatt's North America, held out hope yesterday that the plant in Westmoreland County could be sold to another brewer. The company produced 850,000 gallons of beer last year, which is below the plant's 1.2 million-barrel capacity.
"We're in the process of trying to find a buyer and looking at various groups," Villeneuve said. "We are negotiating and looking. They're definitely not going to brew it here. They clearly see a future with the brand."
What's on tap
As part of Anheuser-Busch, the leader in the U.S. beer industry, Rolling Rock could flourish under the company's world-class distribution system and its huge advertising and marketing budgets.
"Rolling Rock is an attractive brand, and it has a strong following," said Patrick Schumann, a securities analyst who follows Anheuser-Busch for Edward Jones in St. Louis. "We view this as positive for Anheuser-Busch, whose marketing and distribution network should revive sales of the brand."
"The price was higher than many anticipated, but I wouldn't say they overpaid, and I do believe they had their rationale," said Ben Steinman, editor of Beer Marketer's Insights in Nanuet, N.Y.
Latrobe has long been identified with such cultural icons as Rolling Rock, Arnold Palmer and the late Fred Rogers. The city unsuccessfully tried to lay claim to being the home of professional football. The Pittsburgh Steelers hold their training camp at nearby St. Vincent College.
"This is another thing Latrobe has lost," said Tom Marflak, the city's mayor. "When you travel and somebody asks where you're from, you say, Latrobe, Pa. People would respond, that's where Rolling Rock is made or where Arnold Palmer is from."
"Rolling Rock is a significant part of our culture, our identity," said Julie Donovan, public relations manager for the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau. "It was a very important part of our identity. Rolling Rock was part of our history here."
"When you talk about Rolling Rock, you can't separate it from Latrobe and Westmoreland County," said John Skiavo, president of the Economic Growth Connection of Westmoreland County.
"For beer drinkers, it's not going to be the same unless it's brewed here," Commissioner Tom Balya said.
Former Latrobe Mayor Jim Gebicki worked for 27 years at the brewery before retiring in 2000. He still wears a gold watch with Rolling Rock's insignia.
That will change.
"The watch comes off my wrist when they go," Gebicki said. "It's hard to believe there won't be Rolling Rock in Latrobe. It's a real sadness. I won't drink Rolling Rock again. How can Rolling Rock be Rolling Rock when it's not in Latrobe? They can take it to New Jersey, but it will never be Rolling Rock."
Brewing up a change:
Joe Mulheren, chief shop steward for Local 144 of the IUE-CWA, has worked at the brewery for 18 years. He also was awakened by a pre-dawn phone call from the plant.
"We sort of had an inkling (Thursday)," Mulheren said yesterday as somber-faced workers streamed out of a meeting room at the Four Points Hotel by Sheraton in Hempfield, where the unions held a joint meeting to inform members of the sale. Some of the workers left angry or on the verge of tears after hearing the news.
Jay Peters, of North Huntingdon, vice president of Local 144, said brewing beer "is in our blood."
"We've been doing this all our life," said Peters, who has worked at the plant for 21 years. "My family is devastated. I have a kid in college and one in high school. You don't want a buyer who buys the plant and starts layoffs."
Ed Dobies, of Latrobe, started working at the brewery when he was 19. That was 42 years ago.
"There is a lot of pride," Dobies said. "You say Latrobe. Rolling Rock is synonymous with Latrobe. People work hard and put out a great product."
Dobies said InBev, the international parent company, stopped advertising and marketing Rolling Rock, the last of its domestic brands, to concentrate on its foreign brews such as Stella Artois or Bass Ale.
"Rolling Rock wilted on the vine, so to speak. They started looking for a buyer. Nobody can beat Anheuser-Busch," Dobies said.
Steven Zamiskie, who worked at the plant for 26 years, said employees strived to make Rolling Rock successful.
"We were the most effective line -- line five -- in the world for InBev system, and they still decided to sell us," said Zamiskie, of Latrobe. "Thirteen guys produced 750,000 bottles of beer. We got a line that was a pig in a poke, and our ideas turned it around."
For decades, Rolling Rock was a regional beer that became a cultural icon. The distinctive green bottles with a white horse head began appearing in movies as product placement, and it became a favorite brew among upscale drinkers along the East Coast.
Then there's the Rolling Rock mystique about the number "33" printed on the bottles.
In a film on the history of company at the Latrobe Historical Society, former president James Tito said the "33" may denote the 33 words on the label. Other theories are that the number denotes the year Prohibition was repealed or that 33 monks brought the recipe from Germany to Latrobe.
Latrobe is DEAD!
Company workers also said they saw "an individual described as Mr. Podlucky's bodyguard" making four to five trips per hour with four to five boxes per trip to the onsite trash compactor between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Friday, according to the affidavit.
Some of Le-Nature's financial statements showed "significant discrepancies" between customer shipment and accounts receivable information, it said.
"For example, the company's 2005 audited financial statements show annual revenues of $275 million," Panagos said in the affidavit. "KZC, however, has found information suggesting that the company's actual 2005 revenue may be as low as $32 million."
"Upon inquiry, an accounting department employee admitted to me that the books and records of the company had been falsified at the direction of Gregory Podlucky," he said.
Panagos said the U.S. Attorney's Office in Pittsburgh had launched an investigation. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment.
Le-Nature's has $1.8 million in available cash reserves and outstanding checks totaling $2.9 million against that cash, while vendors are making demands for past due payments of more than $10 million, according to Panagos.
The company was sued by two investment firms that had given it a total of $28 million between 2000 and 2003 and held a combined 45 percent stake, said Brenda Adrian, a spokeswoman for Kroll Zolfo Cooper and Le-Nature's.
In Friday's ruling, Judge Leo E. Strine Jr. said the investors had presented evidence that Le-Nature's violated its fiduciary duties and forged and falsified documents.
Strine found the company violated a June injunction by spending or incurring debts of $1 million or more without notifying the plaintiffs, and falsified documents, including those used to get a $25 million loan for equipment for a proposed plant in Florida.
Le Nature’s continues to trade at significant discount to other well known frauds such as Worldcom, Tyco and Enron on the All Time Scandal Exchange. We chalk this discount up to the fact that the company was privately owned with only bank debt and a couple hundred million of senior bonds. We maintain our position that any company which can turn $30mm of actual sales into $300mm (an unheard of 10x topline fraud multiplier) without being a blackbox or service type company deserves a first ballot entry into the Fraud Hall of Fame. We expect the Le Nature’s fraud to realize substantial fraud appreciation as sophisticated investors begin to take notice, and institutional money begins to flow in.
LeNature’s also is accused of “fraudulently inducing” a lending company to loan it $25 million for the purchase of equipment for its proposed Florida plant, according to Strine. The money, according to the judge’s order, was placed with an equipment manufacturer.
Then using forged documents, LeNature’s got the equipment company to transfer more than $20 million of the loan to LeNature accounts, Strine said.
Strine also found evidence that LeNature “intentionally doctored” minutes of a board meeting.
I am a former employee in Phoenix. I was lucky enough to see that somethng was amiss and left just before the end came. In fact my last day, turned out to be everyones last day. I have no idea what it was like in Latrobe. I know that I met a fine former Marine Officer Lt Manny Stoupis from there. We had some some good employees in Phoenix, as I am sure there were in Latrobe, Jimmy, Monica, Edwin, Bob, Rachel, Patricia. I hope everyone finds a good job and can put the pain behind. I wish the best for all.
Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2000, saying it was difficult to compete for a reasonable share of the market. Jones owes creditors about $2.8 million. The company said it would lose $577,190 this year and be unable to pay creditors it if kept brewing beer.
It would seem that Kangas took up Hillary's challenge to "find it, write about it and explain it." In his essay, he set out to prove that Hillary was right, that there was indeed a vast and sinister conspiracy bent on toppling the Clintons. Like Hillary, Kangas painted the various Clinton scandals as frame-ups, funded by shadowy, rightwing moneymen. In his view – as in the view of many mainstream media commentators – the most prominent of the anti-Clinton moneymen was Richard Mellon Scaife. "Scaife is undoubtedly the most important figure behind the Clinton scandals," he writes. Nearly 60 percent of Kangas' 2,059-word text focuses on Scaife.
Vote for Hillary!
Just think if Letterio Distributing would give back the $3MM of beer it received stolen by Al Kitz and Diana Henry then the Jones could pay the creditors.
1. KROLL ZOLFO COOPER GOT PAID $5 MILLION TO BASICALLY DRIVE AROUND IN CORPORATE MERCEDES BENZ SUVS ALL THE WHILE NOT PAYING THE LEASE PAYMENTS (SEE TRIBUNE REVIEW ARTICLE). ALSO, A COUPLE OF EMPLOYEES THAT ARE STILL WORKING THERE TODAY (NO NAMES WILL BE GIVEN SO THAT MARRIAGES WONT BE JEOPARIZED BUT THE STOLI ELITE DIRTY MARTINI DRINKERS KNOW WHO THEY ARE) WERE SEEN DURING XMAS/NEW YEARS SEASON PARTYING WITH KROLL ZOLFO COOPER EMPLOYEES AT THE AIRPORT...WOW DID THOSE PEOPLE LOSE OUT OR WHAT?
Anonymous said...
Just think if Letterio Distributing would give back the $3MM of beer it received stolen by Al Kitz and Diana Henry then the Jones could pay the creditors.
Guessing that is over 500 truckloads of beer stolen...wow how did they pull that off?
this website has completely veered off the course. actually this happened some time ago. this blog was supposed to be an exclusive place to express employee experiences, good or bad. that has never been the case and instead has become a cesspool for moronic logic and gossip. i've been checking out a new blog by this dude named layne cobain.
layne's site after the jump
his views are positive, but he seems to know what he is talking about and seems much more level headed.
layne's site after the jump
layne's site after the jump
Is does not take long over 20 years, 25 trucks per year or a pallet per day out of production. The PI has photos.
VOTE FOR HILLARY.
VOTE FOR HILLARY.
VOTE FOR HILLARY.
VOTE FOR HILLARY.
VOTE FOR HILLARY.
VOTE FOR HILLARY.
VOTE FOR HILLARY.
VOTE FOR HILLARY.
So Steve's gets justice!
Should be a slam dunk then. I'm sure they didn't load secretly so your saying they got extra product at each pickup. How do pictures help?
Kitz delivered it at night.
I think Lumpy from Bradenville had his black hand in it.
I figured, hope he shows up in the pictures being that it was night.
Yep, everyone else is the blame for failed businesses. Pallets of beer are large and very countable. At close time if there is 4 and in the morning if there is 3 wouldn't someone have been alarmed? That is a tough way to get $3m worth of beer over the years. You can defend millions of dollars missing at LNI because it just couldn't have been done but some people drove big trucks in the middle of the night and stole pallets of beer for 25 years in Mayberry.
In business, poison pills are often used to avoid takeover bids. Takeover bids are attempts by a potential acquirer or outsider to obtain a controlling right in a target company, and thereby gain control of the board and, through it, the company's management. There are several types of "poison pills" that can be planned and activated by the management of a company that thinks it may be the target of a takeover by a potential acquirer or outsider.
Was it better to poison the whole company than lose control?
Not if the production manager, Al Kitz, did not include it in production inventory. Please stop, you are displaying your ignorance.
It is great that all the commerce is gone in Latrobe. The council were anti-business and wanted the "city"/borough to cater to social clubs. The Trib never help keep business around, look it drove Mellon out and now is working on driving PNC out. If I were PNC, I also would ask the city of Deadsburgh for money to stay when I could relocate to Texas and get a new building for peanuts.
Nice split personality, guess all the best actors aren't in hollywood. Wouldn't click on any link from this site nor should anyone else.
His blog is blogger.com too, Jay. I guess you don't like the competition. Either that or you are afraid people will have the opportunity to read the truth and think for themselves. You really need to give up the act that you are not the one posting the majority of shit on here. Playing both sides of the fence to make it look authentic isn't working anymore.
http://laynecobain.blogspot.com/2007/03/le-natures-unnecessary-demise-of-great.html
I'm not Jay or know him just a person that probably has a lot of people that share the same opinions with many. What I don't understand is why this stupid blog is so important to you. I don't agree with any of your rationale or political diversions and I simply state my opinions...hence a blog. If you don't want to read others opinions stay off a blog. Its irrelevant to the outcome of everything and has absolutely no bearing at all. Its for people to share opinions. Thanks for all the credit for my work. To all the people: I don't trust any site posted here that someone wants you to visit. Could care less what anyone chooses to read and that opinion is based on what the content is.
yeah okay...that last post makes no sense whatsoever...anyway...im not an advocate of any website or blog but i would like to point out that whoever is pushing this layne cobain website has clearly shown the address and it is the same as this site...im curious as to what the fear would be to view or visit it?
I need to share my opinion as to what I think!
The Investors believed that the company was profitable and wanted to cash out their profits. They did not know that the 200 million plus in sales was bogus, they just wanted to take their profits and move on to their next investment. Thats not greed, to an investment company its good business.
Your not only responsible to your investors but to your lenders and employees. They all depend on corporate honesty .
The investors that bought into this private company were investing their clients money and did expect positive returns not a smoke and mirror company. Now, when there was an offer on the table to purchase the company at a real good profit to the investors and their clients, the investors would be derelict in their duties not to except it or explore their options. The investors are suppose to protect their clients interest.
Initial investment = $25 million
Buyout offer = $300 million
Return on investment = 1200%
The fact that the investors and their clients get nothing as a result of greed and self-imploding the Company = Priceless
Remember one important point before you get on your little soapbox and make mindless comments about the investors:
Le-Nature's had $300 million earmarked to buyout these clowns and they rejected the offer before crying wolf to the Delaware court. Don't get on here and give me some bullshit excuse and say that is not greed. If you gave me 1200% ROI over a period of less than 5 years I would take that in a New York minute and anybody else who wants to be honest with themselves would too. You people need to quit defending one evil entity just because you feel another entity is more evil. I didn't see anybody else putting their neck on the line for Le-Nature's. All I ever saw when I was there was a bunch of takers. Who do you think personally guaranteed all the loans for tens of millions of dollars? Who do you think gets stuck with those responsibilities now? The preferred shareholders? The almighty Kroll? The employees? Hell no, they soaked that place for all the money they could and split. I know there were a lot of good people that worked there and I was proud to work there and work with those certain people. But I know the good people wouldn't get on here and start crying around about losing a job. Most of them probably had jobs right away because they are winners and not like the rest of you whining babies. As for the person who wrote the comment about the investors: Get your facts straight dude.
I’m really confused as to your motive for wondering what site I would or would not visit. Let me bring you up to speed and then I’d like to offer you some advice. I don’t push my religion or beliefs on anyone. Having said that I run my life based on the Lord’s Serenity Prayer:
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
So, where does that lead me? This is a web blog. It’s a place to go state opinions and read other peoples views and or experiences. I’m not writing to change any one person nor do I care if they share my views. Your position as the blog police has intrigued me to further state my opposing positions. I don’t have all the facts, never will or want to and still believe that there was a lot of fraud at LeNatures when it was led by the furloughed management. It’s my choice. As I read other people that disagree with you I have seen you post your blah blah crap to make the site hard to follow and sabotage writings. I have seen you or people who share your position threaten others, invite them to meet in person I would guess for some sort of violence and criticize others based on their appearance or ethnicity. You have always been free to disagree and state your opinion but based on the other actions I have to assume that you’re running out of intelligence and need to resort to these tactics. It’s an honor to Jay’s Blog that you continue this behavior as the Blog Police and an honor to me to see you respond to every single reply. In reality, it’s a joke and re-read the prayer above if you don’t get it.
Whats not a joke is the reality of what happened to the business and people who worked their, invested in it or took them on as a creditor. However, innocent until proven guilty prevails and I’m interested to watch everything play out. It affects me zero either way.
I’m not interested in visiting any other sites you recommend and for the reason that I don’t trust you or your motives for wanting me to are secondary. The primary reason is that I don’t care enough to do so. What I am interested in knowing relates once again to the prayer. Have other people appreciated my writings and efforts to keep the blog on track and keep with the facts that there were wrong doings? If so speak up please. I’m signing off for a while and I guess the Blog Police will view it as a victory. I have said all that I can and enjoyed reading and writing. However, I have many other things that require my focus and this doesn’t affect my life. (Re-read the prayer again please) I would love to know why you care so much about this Blog when it has no affect on any outcomes for anyone. How about one last blah blah post in my honor?
Thank you for the prayer. May Jesus Christ bless you with His saving grace!
We haven't seen that personality for a while welcome back.
I am writing a feature-length screenplay based roughly upon the fraud that occurred at Le Nature's. Is there anyone with a prodigious amount of inside knowledge on the incident?
Would you consider a screen-play on Steve Kangas?
Thank you for your response.
To 3/26/07 at 7:51..thanks..you hired those employees that were seen drinking with Kroll..you hired the stooge and his young girl friend still there..you hired and fired very good people that worked there..i even like that your best friends wife is still there..Hi Chris..lol..or did you play him too..well he took all he could after you were barred..polo shirts'jackets'wine..i like the feds..they never looked to see if anything was being taken..this whole mess will be covered up..you know it..so does everyone else..its a fucking joke..sure fred keeps you updated as does Chris C..
anonymous...hmmm... what a joke you are. Good people still work there not because of friendship. Get it right!!!!!!Ass
It would seem that Kangas took up Hillary's challenge to "find it, write about it and explain it." In his essay, he set out to prove that Hillary was right, that there was indeed a vast and sinister conspiracy bent on toppling the Clintons. Like Hillary, Kangas painted the various Clinton scandals as frame-ups, funded by shadowy, rightwing moneymen. In his view – as in the view of many mainstream media commentators – the most prominent of the anti-Clinton moneymen was Richard Mellon Scaife. "Scaife is undoubtedly the most important figure behind the Clinton scandals," he writes. Nearly 60 percent of Kangas' 2,059-word text focuses on Scaife.
Vote for Hillary! So the roundup can take place. Mayberry no more! Outside investigators are coming to Pittsburgh.
great example of too much information
Hey Layne, remember the local sales girl from Ligonier, Daugherty, who got caught stealing and terminated, she gets her daughter to write a misguided article in a low grade school publication. You talk about sour grapes! I hope Mr. Podlucky litigates.
I was just reading ditto's comment on Layne Cobain's blog and was wondering if Podlucky has anything to do with the mess at Ligonier ministries. Does anybody know anything?
Hey Garazik prepare yourself, we're coming after you!
WASHINGTON - Shattering previous records, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton collected $26 million for her presidential campaign during the first three months of the year and transferred an additional $10 million from her Senate fundraising account, aides said Sunday.
The New York senator's total included $4.2 million raised through the Internet. The campaign did not specify how much of the $36 million was available only for the primary election and how much could be used just in the general election, if she were the party's nominee.
The amount outdistanced past presidential election records and set a high bar by which to measure the fundraising abilities of her chief rivals.
Gazarik, you can't hide behind the school newspaper and the AP. We are watching you just like we watched and heard the conversations of Kroll. We saw them give you cash to write those fictional stories. We are everywhere and you don't even know who and/or what you're dealing with. Every dog has his day!
What does Hillary Clinton have to do with any of this? Its retorical please don't answer. She doesn't have a prayer of winning a presidential election anyway, trust me. This site again is filled with bullshit distractions and the ongoing LNI philosphy that a good defense is a good offense which I point out again as bullshit. Now everyone that every thought or read anything about LNI is in trouble. School newspapers, come one wake up. Your problems don't lie on this blog. The offer posting is 100% irrelevant basically saying none of the crimes count because you made a financial offer. Just like all your other ones about this is how big business works and others committed more crimes. The worlds tired of your kind and this time you can't buy out. The investors were tired of the bull and obviously at some point decided to go with the LNI exposure plan over the financial gain plan. Criminal is criminal and now there are way too many involved to sweep it under the rug. Guess maybe you could have pulled it off if they signed but they didn't. Why? They didn't trust you on any front and yes it backfired on them and you but keep in mind the reason, THEY DIDN'T TRUST YOU based on how you acted and managed the company.
Seperate the two issues here; criminal charges and money. They are two different things and now will be treated as such.
Well this is Richard..Greg you a computer tough guy?..the picture you took for the paper..you should of been taking your steriods and lifting more then those sex toys and beers..you let yourself go there greggy..you'll have time to work out in federal prison..
Hey look everybody, it's Gazarik! He writes on blogs with the same high quality he does in the Trib.
You're not fooling anyone, pal. Hmm, let's see, smells like Jay Silver again. This kid just won't let this go. Do a Google search on "wakeupsilver" and check out all the blogs he posted on about his silly review back in 2005. He's in for a real surprise when he finds out that the people that called him back in 2005 were a bunch of college kids with frat connections at Reed-Smith. (I'm not gonna suger-coat it Jay, we're just picking on you for being one of the ugliest dudes ever and your nack for acting like a faggot know-it-all gives us all the more reason). "Hey I'm Jay, I have no life so I think I'll write a review about bottled water." Or "Hey I'm Jay, I post blogs on stupid contraptions I make in my house." What a loser! We sure played you for an idiot. Go through the blogs and see how we had him thinking he was in legal trouble. Let's get real Jay, you've been played since day one.
If ANYBODY here honestly thinks that this joke Jay likes to call a blog attracts the likes of Greg Podlucky or Richard Gazarik to waste time defending themselves to some computer geek at MIT who clearly has no life you really are a loser.
Since November, we've posted 357 comments on here (all archived of course) just to make you think it was getting hits. You guys like all the copy and paste? We even threw in a couple of conflicting points of view to make it look like genuine dialogue.
For the record (and I think I speak for all of us) we could care less what happens to anybody at Le-Nature's, even the big dogs like the Podlucky boys, Murin, and Lynn. If they do hard time in federal prison its no sweat off our balls. We've had a good two year run at making Jay Silver look like a complete idiot and we will continue to do so by any means necessary.
GO GATORS!!!
Hey DICK HEAD at 4/2/07at 10:55..glad you got the joke.but you bought into it to write you simple fuck..only one telling you whats going on in there are the employess still working there..thanks fucker..kiss my ass greg .jackass..i mean johnath ..drew you small minded ass..like i said..you got to be sick people to bring your dead family into this..to exploit there name and make a symbol in there honor..sick sick sick..greg you look me up fucker..i'll play your game..i played it at work..you taught me one thing..i owe you..
I bet the LN people are really frustrated here being the Blog Police. Tried threats of violence and litigation and they just can't figure it out. I'm not Jay or know him its comical that its all you can come up with. Some guy hits the timing perfect on busting on LN products at the same time their entire empire crumbles. Can't imagine anyone else would write here other than Jay. Let's draw some conlcusions;
1. This blog has been very important to LN and top management as they continue to be the Blog Police here. That in itself is a compliment to Jay.
2. I'm sure some college kids didn't have a copy of the offer posted to the investment group complete with ABA routing numbers and bank accounts.
3. LN top people knew the floor was caving and the only way out was the offer. When investors didn't accept LN shit their pants. Or do you think they just made the offer because it was the right thing to do?
4. I agree with you on multiple postings by split personalities. Its funny to see posts use non common words and pretend to be others. Funny thing is each one of them defended LN.
5. Guranteed Conclusion - Plea bargain will happen. LN managment will once again be shitting their pants when the formal presentation is made and they will have no choice but to plea bargain. Smoke and mirrors doesn't work in court and neither does "this is how big business works". Too bad we can't place bets.
Come on LN Blog Police, fire up your sirens and hurry up and copy and paste your blah blah. If you can't run for politcal office we can nominate you for the Jay Silver Blog Police Chief.
Sorry Jay. We knew the truth would be difficult for you to handle. However, you've been played. You can write whatever you want, claiming NOT to be yourself, but the fact remains that we played you. The offering and other misc. docs we posted on here were fakes. Like I said, it's not too hard to be convincing when your friends are attorneys. Glad to see jackoffs got up at the crack of dawn to respond though. Thanks for helping us continue to make you look like a fool. Good job Silverstein.
Hey DICK HEAD at 4/2/07at 10:55..glad you got the joke.but you bought into it to write you simple fuck..only one telling you whats going on in there are the employess still working there..thanks fucker..kiss my ass greg .jackass..i mean johnath ..drew you small minded ass..like i said..you got to be sick people to bring your dead family into this..to exploit there name and make a symbol in there honor..sick sick sick..greg you look me up fucker..i'll play your game..i played it at work..you taught me one thing..i owe you..
nice writing skills dude. did you work at le-nature's or did you just graduate from kindergarden? how is anybody going to "look you up" if we don't know your name? and while we're on the subject, would it not be easier for you to just give us the info? we all know how hard it is to function properly after getting wasted before work and then having to watch those magic machines that fill the bottles spin round and round all day. i'll cut you a break this time loser, but next time your going down!
Is that really the best you can come up with Jay? Go for it! This little game has become interesting for us once again.
Hey 4/3/07 at 9:35..fuck you and your break..got your attention..yeah i did work there..and i was one of the few that kept passing your fucking stupid drug tests that never mattered till a union was brought up..now i see why..you would of had to open up one of your sets of books..mother fucker you tell me when and where..then you'll get my name..and more you little fucking bitch..i'll spell my name with a marker on your head so you rember me..
hahaha...are you going to use a crayola or a sharpie for that there job butch? by the way...you might want to reconsider thinking that i am somebody who gave you a drug test or employeed you or whatever other paranoid thoughts you may have...i never worked at lenatures nor would i have ever cared to...however i have a really good idea of who you really are and if you dont watch your mouth i have a feeling you might find yourself getting jumped by some brothers in the near future...you see that address up there "https" that may make some people think they are secure online but we've found a neat little way of picking off the ip addresses and we'll track your ass down faster than you can make it to battleships after work...better watch your back tough guy
Its the ... (three dots) in all your writings that give you up. Change that and you will be fine to write and answer your own blogs. I'll get back to you shortly on the bank accounts.
Duly noted, Jay. Wow, you are really smart. With deduction skills as bright as the ones you just displayed, it’s no wonder you got into MIT. I guess I'm the only person in the blogosphere that uses ... (three dots) to separate comments. If you will notice, sometimes I use them and sometimes I don't. It’s kind of like Almond Joys, Jay, sometimes I feel like a nut, and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I feel like using proper sentence structure and sometimes I don't. See how I just ended those sentences with contractions? Clearly against proper sentence structure. There I go again—fragment. I'm not really trying to fool anybody anymore as my tag "pitthoops2" has been clearly stated ever since I revealed our little game to you the other day. By the way, did you know that it is a federal crime to trace bank accounts without due cause? The Federal Reserve will love to know what you and your "friend" are up to. Therefore, I know that any information you subsequently post on here will be bogus as a law abiding citizen as yourself would never think to break the law. Have a great day!
Oh, I almost forgot. Silverstein, we know you’re the one posting the ridiculously large comments about Podlucky, Kroll, shareholders, etc. Nice touch. That’s a threefold solution for your blog: a) cover up comments you don't want people to see, b) make it look like Podlucky and friends are the ones doing it so it looks like they actually visit the blog, c) more hits for your bread-and-butter blog. Let's see, we're up to 600 comments almost and your other blogs have maybe 15 combined. You really are a genius!
Wait a minute, your telling me its a federal crime to trace bank accounts? I'm not the pea brain who posted them on a public blog. So lets leave it at that and how about I prove I'm not Jay. I'm going to send each company a short note today showing where their bank accounts have been posted complete with routing numbers since someone provided their addresses too. Perhaps your lawyers or theirs would contact Jay or the host and demand the site come down or at least remove the account information. I guess whoever did it should spend some time on getting them off asap. That was assinie.
GREG
YOU REALLY ARE GOING OUT OF YOUR WAY TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE JAY IS WRITING ALL THIS RIDICULOU STUFF--AREN'T YOU OR THE OLD LADY IN ENOUGH TROUBLE ALREADY? GO FIND JOBS SO YOU CAN PAY YOUR SUBS FOR WORK THEY HAVE DONE ON YOUR HOUSE/CHURCH WHATEVER IT IS THAT YOU CALL IT---OF COURSE ANYONE THAT DOES ALL THIS IN THE NAME OF A DEAD PERSON AND WITH THAT MONEY IS ONE SICK INDIVIDUAL---CLEARLY THAT MEANS YOU AND KARLA--NOONE ELSE CARES ENOUGH--TRUST US
Silverstein, I am certainly not a Podlucky or anybody that has EVER had anything to do with Le-Nature's, Inc. That's for the damn record once and for all! And to "anybody else" who is most likely Jay Silverstein, keep your fucking nose out of this. It's between me, the group of people that started this whole thing, and Jay. You sound like such a fucking retard when you direct messages to Greg like he would actually read them. As for the bank accounts, I don't care what you do with them. We can post anything we want; you’re the one that wants to commit a federal crime by running them without authorization. You think I give a fuck about some dumb shits that could be $281 million dollars richer if they wouldn't have had their heads way too far up their asses? By the way Silverstein, great job taking down all the idiotic posts you've been putting up here. I knew calling you out would work--it always does! I mean let's get serious, why would Greg Podlucky (who has been repeatedly labeled as a staunch Republican) put a bunch of stuff on here promoting Hilary Clinton? Only a broke ass Israelite from one of the biggest Democratic districts in the country would support a liberal woman president.
For the other damn record I'm not Jay and by the way Jay you left the bank accounts on their from the original post: 4/01/2007 2:53 PM. It's certainly a federal crime to make bank accounts that belong ot others public so I don't need any lessons on the criminal aspect of it, you do. I don't care who you and I have only expressed my opinions on here with no threats to anyone, it's a lousy blog! Please, let me draw some of my conclusions:
1) What three things are most important to a certain individual? Religion, Business and Politics not necessarily in any order. You have demonstrated much knowledge and passion for each category. Out of the blue you took the opposite political stance for no reason.
2) Nobody writes about others and uses their middle initial unless they are trying to decipher between the Bush s'.
3) Once you claimed a bunch of frat boys were behind all of this and then let me know it was a crime to run anyone's bank number for no reason. If they were made up you wouldn't have cared.
It's a blog, give it a damn break.
The epitomy of idiots, Bill Thomas!
SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT
This Settlement Agreement (the "Agreement") is entered into as of July 25, 2006 by and between Gregory J. Podlucky, Andrew Murin, Robert B. Lynn and Jonathan E. Podlucky (collectively the "Individual Defendants"), Le-Nature's, Inc., f/k/a Global Beverage Systems, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the "Company," and, together with the Individual Defendants, "Defendants"), and George K. Baum Capital Partners, L.P. ("GKB Capital Fund"), George K. Baum Employee Equity Fund, L.P. ("GKB Employee Fund" and, together with GKB Capital Fund, "GKB") and SW Pelham Fund, L.P. ("Pelham," and, together with GKB, "Plaintiffs"), and Plaintiffs’ Designee Directors of the Company, William D. Thomas, Venita E. Fields, Ruth J. Huet, and GKB’s former Designee Director Ford S. Bartholow (collectively the “Plaintiffs’ Designee Directors”). Defendants, Plaintiffs, and Plaintiffs’ Director Designees are each referred to herein individually as a "Party" and together as the "Parties."
WHEREAS, pursuant to the Stock Purchase Agreement dated as of July 13, 2000 (the "GKB Purchase Agreement"), by and among GKB Capital Fund, GKB Employee Fund, and the Company, GKB Capital Fund purchased an aggregate of 72,800 shares of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock, par value $0.01 per share, of the Company, and GKB Employee Fund purchased an aggregate of 3,500 shares of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock, par value $0.01 per share, of the Company (all such remaining shares, the "GKB Preferred Shares"); and
WHEREAS, each of GKB Capital Fund and GKB Employee Fund have converted certain shares of their Series A Convertible Preferred Stock and, respectively, now hold 21,840 and 1,050 shares of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock, 5,209,541 and 250,458 shares of Series B Preferred Stock (the "GKB Series B Shares"), and 50,960 and 2,450 shares of common stock (the "GKB Common Shares" and, together with the GKB Preferred Shares and GKB Series B Shares, the "GKB Shares") of the Company; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to the Stock Purchase Agreement, dated as of September 21, 2000, as amended as of July 12, 2002 (the "Pelham Purchase Agreement" and, together with the GKB Purchase Agreement, the "Purchase Agreements"), by and among Pelham and the Company, Pelham purchased an aggregate of 88,039 shares of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock, par value $ 0.01 per share, of the Company (all such remaining shares, the "Pelham Preferred Shares"); and,
WHEREAS, Pelham has converted certain shares of its Series A Convertible Preferred Stock and now holds 26,412 shares of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock, 6,300,007 shares of Series B Preferred Stock (the "Pelham Series B Shares") and 61,627 shares of common stock (the "Pelham Common Shares" and, together with the Pelham Preferred Shares, the Pelham Series B Shares, the "Pelham Shares") of the Company. The Pelham Shares and the GKB Shares, shall be known, collectively, as the "Plaintiff Shares"; and,
WHEREAS, Plaintiffs, the Company, Gregory J. Podlucky, Jonathan E. Podlucky, Robert B. Lynn and certain other persons, as holders of the Company's stock or options to acquire such stock, are parties to the Second Amended and Restated Stockholders Agreement dated as of June 6, 2003 (the "Stockholders Agreement"), setting forth certain agreements and understandings relating to, among other things, the respective rights and responsibilities of the Plaintiffs and Defendants in connection with the governance of the Company, the ownership of its stock, and the sale of the Company by Plaintiffs after September 30, 2006; and
WHEREAS, certain disputes have arisen between the Parties in respect of, among other things, the Company's compliance with certain reporting and information sharing obligations to Plaintiffs, the development of a new production plant in the southeastern United States, the conduct of efforts to sell the Company, and certain alleged breaches of the Stockholders Agreement and the Purchase Agreements and related matters; and
WHEREAS, the Plaintiffs and Defendants are parties to an action captioned George K. Baum Capital Partners, L.P., et al., v. Le-Nature's, Inc., f/k/a/ Global Beverage Systems, Inc., et al., Del. Ch., C.A. No. 2158-N (the "Litigation") pending in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (the "Court"); and
WHEREAS, to provide for the full and final resolution of all disputes between and among the Parties, including the Litigation and disputes which have arisen or may arise in the future in connection with the Purchase Agreements or the Stockholders Agreement, the Parties deem it advisable and in their respective best interests to resolve, compromise and settle all of their outstanding disputes related thereto, on the terms set forth below.
NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the promises and representations contained herein and for other good and valuable consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which are hereby acknowledged, the Parties, intending to be legally bound, hereby agree as follows:
1. Stay of Litigation. The Parties hereby agree to jointly request the Court to stay the Litigation pending the Closing (as defined below); provided, however, that the preliminary injunction order entered in the Litigation by the Court on July 6, 2006 shall remain in full force and effect pending the Closing. If the Closing does not occur by September 15, 2006, Plaintiffs may terminate this Agreement and request the Court to terminate the stay of the Litigation, without any waiver or prejudice to any right or claim therein asserted. This Agreement also may be terminated by agreement of the Parties.
2. Payment and transfer of shares.
(a) At the Closing, the Company shall pay to Plaintiffs a total of $281,500,000.00 (the “Settlement Amount”) to repurchase Plaintiff Shares allocated as follows and in the manner indicated:
(i) $124,699,635.58 will be wired to:
Bank of America
ABA# ***
For credit to George K. Baum & Company
Account No. ***
FBO: George K. Baum Capital Partners, L.P.
Re: ***
(ii) $5,996,792.99 will be wired to:
Bank of America
ABA# ***
For credit to George K. Baum & Company Account No. ***
FBO: George K. Baum Employee Equity Fund, L.P.
Re: ***
(iii) $150,803,571.43 will be wired to:
Bank of America
ABA# ***
For credit to SW Pelham Fund, L.P.
Account No. ***
(b) At the Closing, GKB shall sell, convey, assign, transfer and deliver (collectively “Transfer”) to the Company the GKB Shares free and clear of all liens, claims, charges, options, pledges, rights of other parties, voting trusts, proxies, stockholder or similar agreements, encumbrances or restrictions of any nature whatsoever (collectively, "Liens"). Prior to the Closing, GKB shall deliver to [Skadden] in escrow the stock certificates representing the GKB Shares, duly endorsed or accompanied by stock powers duly executed in blank with appropriate transfer stamps, if any, affixed, as well as resignation letters from its designees on the Company’s and its affiliates’ boards of directors substantially in the form annexed hereto as Exhibit A (the “Board Resignations”). Upon confirmation of the receipt of the payments provided in paragraph 2(a)(i) and (ii) above, [Skadden] shall release to the Company the GKB Shares, the stock powers (as applicable) and the Board Resignations. GKB represents and warrants (i) that GKB is the sole owner of the GKB Shares, free and clear of all Liens, (ii) GKB has full legal right and power to Transfer the GKB Shares to the Company as contemplated herein, and (iii) GKB owns no capital stock, or rights convertible or exercisable into capital stock, of the Company, or any other rights in the Company or its assets, except for the GKB Shares.
(c) At the Closing, Pelham shall Transfer to the Company the Pelham Shares free and clear of all Liens. Prior to the Closing, Pelham shall deliver to [Skadden] in escrow the stock certificates representing the Pelham Shares, duly endorsed or accompanied by stock powers duly executed in blank with appropriate transfer stamps, if any, affixed, as well as Board Resignations from its designees on the Company’s and its affiliates boards of directors. Upon confirmation of the receipt of the payments provided in paragraph 2(a)(iii) [Skadden] shall release to the Company the Pelham Shares, the stock powers (as applicable) and the Board Resignations. Pelham represents and warrants (i) that Pelham is the sole owner of the Pelham Shares, free and clear of all Liens, (ii) Pelham has full legal right and power to Transfer the Pelham Shares to the Company as contemplated herein, and (iii) Pelham owns no capital stock, or rights convertible or exercisable into capital stock, of the Company, or any other rights in the Company or its assets, except for the Pelham Shares.
(d) Notwithstanding anything in this Agreement to the contrary, the Defendants’ payment obligation in paragraph 2(a) (“Payment Obligation”) is conditional and subject to the Defendants’ securing and closing on debt financing in the amount of the Settlement Amount from [Wachovia] that the Defendants are relying upon to satisfy the Payment Obligation. If Defendants are not able to secure and close on such debt financing by September 15, 2006, or such later date as may be agreed to in writing by the Parties, the Defendants have no further obligation to satisfy the Payment Obligation, and either party may terminate this Agreement without liability to any Party under this Agreement.
(e) The Defendants’ Payment Obligation is also conditional and subject to the Company’s Board’s good faith determination that the payment by the Company of the Settlement Amount will not result in an impairment of the Company’s capital, in compliance with Section 160 of the Delaware General Corporate Law. If performance of the Payment Obligation would cause any impairment of the capital of the Company, the Defendants have no further obligation to satisfy the Payment Obligation, and either Party may terminate this Agreement without liability to any Party under this Agreement.
3. Dismissal of Litigation. At the time of execution and delivery of this Agreement, the Parties will execute the Stipulation Of Dismissal, substantially in the form annexed hereto as Exhibit B, to dismiss all claims in the Litigation with prejudice and without costs. Plaintiffs will retain possession of that Stipulation Of Dismissal and shall file it with the Court within two (2) business days after the Closing.
4. Closing. The closing of the transactions contemplated by this Agreement (the "Closing") shall take place at the offices of [Pepper Hamilton LLP, Hercules Plaza, Suite 5100, 1313 Market Street, Wilmington, Delaware 19801], on or before September 15, 2006, or such other date and place as may be agreed to in writing by the Parties. The Parties agree that time is of the essence, and that no Party has any obligation to agree to extend the Closing date for any reason.
5. Termination of agreements; director resignations. Upon receipt of the Settlement Amount by Plaintiffs as provided in paragraph 2 above, the Company shall be deemed the sole owner of the GKB Shares and the Pelham Shares, and may transfer such shares to the Company’s name on its stock record, and the Purchase Agreements, the Stockholders Agreement and any other agreement between any of the Plaintiffs and the Company, whether written or oral, related to the Company or its capital stock, shall be deemed to be terminated and of no further force and effect, except that the Plaintiffs’ rights and the Company’s obligations under section 7P(ii) of the Purchase Agreements shall continue in effect and are preserved.
6. Releases
(a) By Plaintiffs and Plaintiffs’ Designee Directors. Effective upon receipt of the payments by Plaintiffs as provided in paragraph 2(a) above, Plaintiffs and Plaintiffs’ Designee Directors for themselves, their direct and indirect parents, subsidiaries, divisions, affiliates, officers, directors, partners, shareholders, professionals, insurers, investment bankers, financial advisors, accountants, attorneys, employees, representatives, and agents, and each of their predecessors, successors, assigns, heirs and estates, hereby voluntarily, knowingly, willingly, finally and completely release and forever discharge Defendants and their direct and indirect parents, subsidiaries, divisions, affiliates, officers, directors, partners, shareholders, professionals, insurers, investment bankers, financial advisors, accountants, attorneys, employees, representatives, and agents, and each of their predecessors, successors, assigns, heirs and estates (the "Defendant Released Parties") of and from all manner of actions, causes of action, suits, debts, dues, sums of money, accounts, fees, covenants, contracts, controversies, bills, agreements, promises, damages, disputes, claims and demands whatsoever, whether individual, derivative or representative, known or unknown, at law or in equity, arising under federal, state or local law (collectively, "Claims") from the beginning of the world to the day and year first written above, including, without limitation, Claims which Plaintiffs and/or Plaintiffs’ Director Designees ever had, now have, or which they hereafter can, shall or may have, against the Defendant Released Parties in connection with, based upon, arising out of, concerning or relating to the Company, the Purchase Agreements, the Plaintiff Shares, the Stockholders Agreement, or the facts alleged, or which could have been alleged, in the Litigation; provided, however, that nothing contained in this Agreement shall be construed as a release or waiver by Plaintiffs or Plaintiffs’ Director Designees of any Claim (i) to en¬force the terms and con¬di¬tions of the Agreement itself, (ii) resulting from the action captioned Star Associates, LLC v. Le*Nature's, Inc., et al., Case No. 4:06-CV-00457 (JTM), currently in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri (the "Star Lawsuit"), (iii) arising under section 7P(ii) of the Purchase Agreements, or (iv) with respect to Plaintiffs’ Director Designees, arising under section 8.1 of the Second Amended and Restated By-Laws of the Company.
(b) By Defendants. Effective upon receipt of the stock certificates and transfer documents by the Company as provided in paragraphs 2(b) and (c) above, Defendants for themselves, their direct and indirect parents, subsidiaries, divisions, affiliates, officers, directors, partners, shareholders, professionals, insurers, investment bankers, financial advisors, accountants, attorneys, employees, representatives, and agents, and each of their predecessors, successors, assigns, heirs and estates, hereby voluntarily, knowingly, willingly, finally and completely release and forever discharge Plaintiffs, the Plaintiffs’ Designee Directors, and their direct and indirect parents, subsidiaries, divisions, affiliates, officers, directors, partners, shareholders, professionals, insurers, investment bankers, financial advisors, accountants, attorneys, employees, representatives, and agents, and each of their predecessors, successors, assigns, heirs and estates (the "Plaintiff Released Parties") of and from all manner of Claims from the beginning of the world to the day and year first written above, including, without limitation, Claims which Defendants ever had, now have, or which they hereafter can, shall or may have, against the Plaintiff Released Parties in connection with, based upon, arising out of, concerning or relating to the Company, the Purchase Agreements, the Plaintiff Shares, the Stockholders Agreement, or the facts alleged, or which could have been alleged, in the Litigation; provided, however, that nothing contained in this Agreement shall be construed as a release or waiver by Defendants of any Claim (i) to en¬force the terms and con¬di¬tions of the Agreement itself, or (ii) resulting from the Star Lawsuit.
(c) It is the intention of the Parties to extinguish all Claims settled herein and consistent with such settled Claims and consistent with such intentions, the Parties waive their rights, to the extent permitted by law, to any benefits of the provisions of section 1542 of the California Civil Code or any other similar state law, federal law or principle of common law, which may have the effect of limiting the release set forth above. Section 1542 of the California Civil Code provides:
A GENERAL RELEASE DOES NOT EXTEND TO CLAIMS WHICH THE CREDITOR DOES NOT KNOW OR SUSPECT TO EXIST IN HIS OR HER FAVOR AT THE TIME OF EXECUTING THE RELEASE, WHICH IF KNOWN BY HIM OR HER MUST HAVE MATERIALLY AFFECTED HIS OR HER SETTLEMENT WITH THE DEBTOR.
7. Best efforts. Each of the Parties shall each use its or his best efforts to (i) take, or cause to be taken, all appropriate action, and do, or cause to be done, all things necessary, proper or advisable under applicable law or otherwise to consummate and make effective the transactions contemplated by this Agreement, (ii) obtain any consent from any governmental entity or any third party required to be obtained in connection with the authorization, execution and delivery of this Agreement and the consummation of the transactions contemplated hereby, and (iii) make all necessary filings, and thereafter make any other required submissions, with respect to this Agreement required under applicable law. No Party shall take, or omit to take, any action that would result in, or would reasonably be expected to result in, such Party being unable to satisfy its obligations under this Agreement or consummate the transactions contemplated hereby.
8. Representations. Each Party represents that (i) it or he is authorized to enter into this Agreement and to grant the rights granted by it or him in this Agreement and (ii) to the extent any non-party consents are required for the performance of any of its or his obligations under this Agreement, it or he has, or prior to the Closing shall have, obtained such consents.
9. No admissions. This Agreement is in full accord and satisfaction of disputed claims and any counterclaims that were or could have been asserted in the Litigation. It is expressly understood and agreed that no Party hereto admits any liability or wrongdoing on its or his part whatsoever.
10. Confidentiality protective order. Notwithstanding anything in this Agreement to the contrary, the Stipulation And Order Governing The Protection And Exchange Of Confidential Information agreed to by the Plaintiffs and Defendants, and entered by the Court in the Litigation on July 2, 2006 shall remain in full force and effect, including after the dismissal of the Litigation as provided herein.
11. Construction. Each Party to this Agreement was represented by counsel of his or its choice and this Agreement was negotiated by and between such counsel. Each Party and counsel for each party to this Agreement has reviewed the terms of this Agreement and has participated in its drafting. Accordingly, no Party shall be entitled to invoke any rule of construction to the effect that ambiguities are to be resolved against the drafting party in connection with any dispute involving interpretation of this Agreement.
12. Covenant Not to Sue. Each Party declares, warrants and represents that this Agreement is fully understood and voluntarily accepted for the purpose of making a full and final compromise, adjustment and settlement of any and all Claims which were or could have been asserted in the Litigation, and covenanting not to sue and precluding forever Claims arising out of, concerning or relating to the Company, the Purchase Agreements, the Plaintiff Shares, the Stockholders Agreement, or the facts alleged, or which could have been alleged, in the Litigation; provided, however, that nothing contained in this Agreement shall be construed as a release, waiver, or bar by any Party of any Claim (i) to en¬force the terms and con¬di¬tions of the Agreement itself, (ii) resulting from the Star Lawsuit, (iii) arising under section 7P(ii) of the Purchase Agreements, or (iv) with respect to Plaintiffs’ Director Designees, arising under section 8.1 of the Second Amended and Restated By-Laws of the Company.
13. Governing law. This Agreement, and all disputes arising hereunder or related hereto, shall be governed by, construed and interpreted in accordance with the laws of the State of Delaware, applicable to instruments made, delivered and performed entirely in such state, without regard to the choice of law provisions thereof.
14. Choice of forum; consent to jurisdiction. Each Party hereto agrees that the Court shall be the exclusive forum in connection with any action to enforce, for breach of or involving this Agreement. In the event that the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over any such action, then that action can only be brought in a Delaware state court which does have subject matter jurisdiction. Each Party hereby consents to personal jurisdiction in the Delaware courts for purposes of any action to enforce, for breach of or involving this Agreement.
15. Notice. If a Party is required or permitted to give notice to any other Party under this Agreement, such notice shall be in writing and shall be deemed to have been duly given upon receipt of hand delivery, facsimile transmission or e-mail with confirmation of receipt:
If to Plaintiffs or Plaintiffs’ Director Designees:
Anthony W. Clark, Esq.
SKADDEN, ARPS, SLATE,
MEAGER & FLOM LLP
One Rodney Square
P.O. Box 636
Wilmington, DE 19899
Tel: (302) 651-3000
Fax: (302) 651-3001
E-Mail: tclark@skadden.com
If to Defendants:
Albert H. Manwaring IV, Esq.
PEPPER HAMILTON LLP
Hercules Plaza, Suite 5100
1313 Market Street
P.O. Box 1709
Wilmington, DE 19899-1709
Tel: (302) 777 6514
Fax: (302) 421 8390
E-Mail: manwaringa@pepperlaw.com
16. Third party beneficiaries. This Agreement shall have no third party beneficiaries other than the non-parties released in paragraphs 6(a) and (b), who are intended beneficiaries of those releases but of no other provisions of this Agreement.
17. Successors. This Agreement shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the Parties and their respective successors and permitted assigns, including, without limitation, any person or entities acquiring, directly or indirectly, all or a substantial portion of the stock, business or assets of a Party, whether by merger, restructuring, reorganization, consolidation, division, sale or otherwise.
18. Entire agreement. This Agreement sets forth the entire understanding among the Parties and, except as otherwise expressly provided herein, supersedes all prior agreements, representations, discussions, and understandings concerning the subject matter hereof.
19. Equitable relief. Each Party hereto acknowledges that money damages would be both incalculable and an insufficient remedy for any breach of this Agreement by such Party, and that any such breach would cause Plaintiffs, on the one hand, and Defendants, on the other hand, irreparable harm. Accordingly, each Party hereto also agrees that, in the event of any breach or threatened breach of the provisions of this Agreement by a Party, any non-breaching Party shall be entitled to equitable relief without the requirement of posting a bond or other security, including in the form of injunctions and orders for specific performance, in addition to all other remedies available to such other parties at law or in equity.
20. Consultation with attorney; voluntary agreement. Each Party acknowledges that it or he (i) has carefully read and fully understands all of the provisions of this Agreement, including the Exhibits hereto, (ii) has been advised of its or his right to consult with an attorney prior to executing this Agreement, (iii) has consulted with an attorney regarding the terms of this Agreement prior to executing it, and (iv) is entering into this Agreement knowingly, freely and voluntarily in exchange for good and valuable consideration.
21. Assignment. This Agreement may not be assigned by any Party without the signed written consent of a duly authorized representative of each of the other Parties.
22. No oral modification; no waivers. This Agreement may not be changed orally, but may be changed only in a writing signed by a duly authorized representative of each of the Parties. The failure of any Party to enforce any of the terms, provisions or covenants of this Agreement will not be construed as a waiver of the same or of the right of such Party to enforce the same. Waiver by any Party of any breach or default by the other Party of any term or provision of this Agreement will not operate as a waiver of any other breach or default.
23. Severability. In the event that any one or more of the provisions of this Agreement shall be held to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable, the validity, legality and enforceability of the remainder of the Agreement shall not in any way be affected or impaired thereby.
24. Descriptive headings. The section headings contained herein are for reference purposes only and will not in any way affect the meaning or interpretation of this Agreement.
25. Confidentiality. The terms of this Agreement shall be kept strictly confidential and shall not be disclosed to any person, corporation, or other entity not a Party to this Agreement, except:
(a) in response to a judicial order from a court of competent jurisdiction (including a subpoena) compelling disclosure (after notice to all Parties and an opportunity to object), or upon the mutual agreement of the Parties;
(b) to any counsel of the Parties, who shall be bound by the terms and conditions hereof; and
(c) to any auditors of or accountants or counsel to the Parties, upon their request, who shall be bound by the terms and conditions hereof.
The Parties agree that the confidentiality of this Agreement constitutes good and
valuable consideration for the Agreement. The Parties shall cooperate with each other to protect the confidentiality of this Agreement.
26. Counterparts. This Agreement may be executed in one or more counterparts (including those delivered by facsimile or other electronic means), which together shall constitute one and the same agreement.
[Signature Page Follows]
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties have executed this Settlement Agreement as of the date written above.
DEFENDANTS:
LE-NATURE'S, INC.
By:_____________________________
Name: Gregory J. Podlucky
Title: CEO and Chairman of the Board
GREGORY J. PODLUCKY
____________________________
ANDREW MURIN
____________________________
ROBERT B. LYNN
____________________________
JONATHAN PODLUCKY
____________________________
PLAINTIFFS:
GEORGE K. BAUM CAPITAL PARTNERS, L.P.
By: George K. Baum Merchant Banc, L.L.C., its investment manager
By: ____________________
Name: William D. Thomas
Title: Senior Managing Director
GEORGE K. BAUM EMPLOYEE EQUITY FUND, L.P.
By: George K. Baum Merchant Banc, L.L.C., its investment manager
By: ____________________
Name: William D. Thomas
Title: Senior Managing Director
SW PELHAM FUND, L.P.
By: Pelham Capital Management, LLC, its general partner
By: Smith Whiley Investment Management, Inc., its manager
By: __________________________
Name: __________________________
Title: ___________________________
PLAINTIFFS’ DESIGNEE DIRECTORS:
WILLIAM D. THOMAS
____________________________
VENITA E. FIELDS
____________________________
RUTH J. HUET
____________________________
FORD S. BARTHOLOW
____________________________
EXHIBIT A
RESIGNATION LETTER
September __, 2006
Le-Nature's, Inc.
Eleven Lloyd Avenue
Latrobe, Pennsylvania 15650
Re: Resignation as Director
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I hereby resign my positions as (i) a member of the Board of Directors (the "Board") of Le-Nature's, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the "Company"), and as a member of any committees of the Board, (ii) and the Board of Managers of Tea Systems, International, LLC, and as a member of any committees of such board, and (iii) all other such positions I may hold on the boards of directors or managers of any other affiliates or subsidiaries of the Company, including all committee memberships. All such resignations shall be effective as of the date hereof.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Name:
EXHIBIT B
STIPULATION AND ORDER OF DISMISSAL
IN THE COURT OF CHANCERY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE
IN AND FOR NEW CASTLE COUNTY
GEORGE K. BAUM CAPITAL PARTNERS, L.P., GEORGE K. BAUM EMPLOYEE EQUITY FUND, L.P., and SW PELHAM FUND, L.P.
Plaintiffs,
v. x
:
:
:
:
:
:
Civil Action No. 2158-N
LE NATURE'S, INC., f/k/a GLOBAL BEVERAGE SYSTEMS, INC., GREGORY J. PODLUCKY, ANDREW MURIN, ROBERT B. LYNN and JONATHAN E. PODLUCKY,
Defendants. :
:
:
:
:
:
x
STIPULATION OF DISMISSAL
The undersigned parties, by and through their respective counsel, hereby stipulate and agree, pursuant to Del. Ch. R. 41(a), that all claims and counterclaims asserted by or which could have been asserted by any party herein are dismissed with prejudice and without costs.
Dated: ____________, 2006
SKADDEN, ARPS, SLATE, MEAGHER & FLOM LLP
Anthony W. Clark (I.D. No. 2051)
Robert A. Weber (I.D. No. 4013)
One Rodney Square
Post Office Box 636
Wilmington, Delaware 19899
(302) 651-3000
Attorneys for Plaintiffs
PEPPER HAMILTON LLP
Albert H. Manwaring, IV (I.D. No. 4339)
Thomas H. Kovach (I.D. No. 3964)
1313 Market Street, Suite 1500
P.O. Box 1709
Wilmington, Delaware 19899-1709
(302) 777-6500
Attorneys for Defendants
Tell you what, let's test this out. I have a friend in the banking business. Let's run the ABA routing numbers and the account numbers and see who they belong to.
2. Payment and transfer of shares.
(a) At the Closing, the Company shall pay to Plaintiffs a total of $281,500,000.00 (the “Settlement Amount”) to repurchase Plaintiff Shares allocated as follows and in the manner indicated:
(i) $124,699,635.58 will be wired to:
Bank of America
ABA# ***
For credit to George K. Baum & Company
Account No. ***
FBO: George K. Baum Capital Partners, L.P.
Re: ***
(ii) $5,996,792.99 will be wired to:
Bank of America
ABA# ***
For credit to George K. Baum & Company Account No. ***
FBO: George K. Baum Employee Equity Fund, L.P.
Re: ***
(iii) $150,803,571.43 will be wired to:
Bank of America
ABA# ***
For credit to SW Pelham Fund, L.P.
Account No. ***
Signing out......so long and gotta love life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
greg you little ass..come get me..and THE BROTHERS.BRING THE sisters..there better game you ass....your a joke .like everyone there..i'll give you my name..no looking it up.i'll mark it on your head..yeah i am i tough guy..
Ford Motor Co. lost $12.7 billion last year. But it paid new CEO Alan Mulally $28.2 million -- including an $18.5 million bonus -- for four months of work.
Ceo Greg Podlucky made $250.000.000 million Profit..the rest owed out..guess he was smarter then Ford..If your going to steal..steal large.Ps..Johnatn. Greg going to pay for your house and kids..you know you can't dye your hair in jail..well maybe you could..they like rich little pricks there..your new name will be bitch..Lol..
I was not a worker at Le*Nature's, but I did know the Podlucky family growing up in Ligonier.
I didn't know Greg as well as the other brothers, but the few times I was around him he would ridicule people with handicaps and people who were overweight. Just a real class act.
I'm just amazed, but not surprised at who Greg or his associates have blamed for the collapse of the company:
1. The Tribune-Review (Gazarik)
2. The minority shareholders
3. Kroll Zolfo Cooper
4. Other large companies trying to take over. Of course, there is zero evidence to support this conspiracy theory.
The only person, of course, not responsible is Greg.
The pro-Greg forces fail to answer a few questions:
1. Why did Greg, and the other senior managers, take the 5th Amendment at a bankruptcy hearing? If you've done nothing wrong, wouldn't you answer questions honestly? Wouldn't you want to clear up the "misunderstanding" so you could have your company back? Wouldn't you want to provide every document and computer file you had to support the audited statements? Wouldn't you want to prove to the world that the company's revenues were $250 million?
2. Why did you hire a criminal defense attorney? Why not one who specializes in civil matters and go to court to get your company back? These types of shareholder lawsuits happen all the time. You made no effort to go to civil court to show that the company was profitable or that the books were accurate. If so, you'd already be back in charge if you were being honest.
3. Why did you take that ridiculous loan from your sons? You really expect us to believe they have $56 million to loan you? You really think we believe your family had that much money?
4. If you've been libeled on this blog or the Tribune-Review, why not file a lawsuit? Court records certainly show that you've filed plenty of lawsuits in the past.
This is a really sad case. Not for Greg. He and Jonathan will get what they deserve.
It's sad for the workers and their families. They've been ruined.
It's also sad for Mrs. Podlucky. Mrs. Podlucky already lost two sons and a granddaughter tragically.
Greg, fool me. Do the right thing. Do the Christian thing. Cooperate with authorities. Come clean. Then take the punishment the courts give you and Jonathan.
Why do I think that won't happen?
Everyone here is blaming Le-Natures and the Managment for their misfourtines. the truth is if you did not like the way you were treated you always had the opition to walk out the door and never look back. Like the saying goes fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me.You might ask why I feel this way because I was there and made the choice to walk out the door.
I appreciate your comment. Please feel free to e-mail me with anything you think may be pertinent to my informal investigation. I am all for anything we can do within our legal limitations to prove that somebody is making false accusations. By the way, make sure you stop back in the near future because I am almost finished writing a follow-up piece for what is shaping up to be a monumental case against a number of entities that have grossly mishandled the investigation of Podlucky and his management team. I can't delve into the major details at this time, but the latest buzz going around a small group of court insiders is that members of the crisis management team were paid under the table by an unknown source to "...discretely amend the books in such a manner as to implicate a second set of financial records..." This was taken directly from an alleged e-mail (whose authenticity is being verified by some close friends at Carnegie Mellon as I speak). Although less incriminating, the e-mail also states: "Time is of the essence. There is no way we will be able to provide a comprehensive crisis management solution simply because the company will not have sufficient funds to retain our services past February 2007." Things are starting to heat up in Western PA. It is likely that we will see a major turn of events within the next 90 days. Stay tuned.
Just sell some of those guns,toy trains and watches that were stashed away..that get you another month..greg at church auction off the sex tapes and toys..sure that will go over big..
Its really a joke that you think there are two people behind the fact that hundreds of people hold LeNatures responisble for certain things, a newspaper writer and a blog host. The fairy tales are over and nobody believes so give it up.
I will address a few issues that you have raised before I put a silver bullet in this conversation. First, you have raised the question as to why I never met Greg or Jonathan. The answer to that question is that I was a management-level sales figure in the Company (on the West Coast and thus on the road 99% of the time) and the only person I ever interacted with was Bob Lynn. I received e-mails from both Greg and Jonathan on a consistent basis and I will declare for the last time that these people were genuinely passionate in regard to what they were doing and the direction they were headed with the Company. Whether that comes off as being “mean” or “nasty” or whatever is essentially of no consequence. Management (and I am talking about all companies) cannot sacrifice the life of the company to appease lower level employees’ need to feel warm and fuzzy when they go to work. Yes, we live in a new generation but I like to think, even in my young age, that I have adopted old school work ethics when work is about busting your ass and getting the job done even though your iron-fisted boss will never believe it is good enough because inside you know that he must be that way. It’s that type of work ethic that made this country great. All the fluff working laws that exist today will surely be the demise of this country. You have new economic powers rising in Asia that still believe in old school work ethic and will destroy this country when it is all said and done. I’ve lived my life under one premise: You don’t work, you don’t eat; and the harder you work, the better you eat. It’s real simple. As for you sir, you are entitled to your opinion as are the "others" you claim feel the same way. I am just about tired of hearing people make vague accusations regarding Greg and how he was such a mean person without anything to specifically back it up. I worked there and I got all the so-called “nasty” e-mails and if you are so weak that you take those things to heart, you need to consider a new profession—like knitting. This isn’t like John Doe the local waste company owner who has the luxury of being best buddies with his small crew of 10 or so employees. We’re talking about three or four people (and ultimately one) who are in charge of hundreds of people’s livelihoods. Could you even fathom the pressure of that job? I highly doubt it! You say what you want to about Greg and/or the Podlucky family—I am sticking to my beliefs. By the way, I do feel a sense of "righteousness" as my position is unique in connection to this situation. That being said I will address one of the major lies that have been portrayed in the news. In regard to sales being only $32 million when four of the major accounts my team managed were in excess of $50 million alone. I will repeat what I said before; if you cannot provide specific proof of Greg's misconduct then you will have to be disregarded as a valid source of information. I’m sure you don’t care, but I started this blog to establish the truth, not gossip, or opinion, or anything else—only truth. A major injustice has been committed against Le-Nature's as an organization, from the employees all the way up to the officers of the Company and I am absolutely sure you will see that when this is all said and done.
Layne, I am in agreement with you on truths however the injustice started with LeNature's management not following the rules that were established by the board. That is just my opinion but maybe I'm wrong. It seems like Greg went off and did what ever he wanted and with the investors he didn't have some of those options. Maybe this never happened but I know you can bill at X and allow a customer to deduct for promotions, etc. and you could create a lower sales number. Maybe he never promoted the higher number as sales but actual sales rae the lower number. I also know of the Podlucky family's history in the beer business and don't agree with how they ran that. There is plenty of evidence to not agree with how Greg or managment did things and no prove "yet" of any legal wrong doings. Maybe they didn't have two sets of books to report to lenders and insurance companies? Maybe they didn't shred documents that day of the ousting? Mabye they didn't forge documents to have a company wire them money? Maybe they didn't have dummy companies set up that they sold to? They sure as hell didn't follow the boards rules and there must have been proof of that or the courts wouldn't have acted. Maybe we will all be suprised but I think the worst has yet to come.
QUIT COPYING AND PASTING THE SAME "PODLUCKY PROPAGANDA"--YOU REALLY THINK WITH ALL THE TROUBLE IN THE WORLD THAT LENATURES WAS A TARGET OF CORPORATE BUYOUTS?! PLEASE--- GREG WAS TOO STUPID TO RUN THE COMPANY, IT IS NOT HIS FAULT, SEEMS NO ONE IN HIS FAMILY CAN DO ANYTHING BUT RUN A BUSINESS STRAIGHT INTO THE GROUND----!!!
Layne, I am in agreement with you on truths however the injustice started with LeNature's management not following the rules that were established by the board. That is just my opinion but maybe I'm wrong. It seems like Greg went off and did what ever he wanted and with the investors he didn't have some of those options. Maybe this never happened but I know you can bill at X and allow a customer to deduct for promotions, etc. and you could create a lower sales number. Maybe he never promoted the higher number as sales but actual sales rae the lower number. I also know of the Podlucky family's history in the beer business and don't agree with how they ran that. There is plenty of evidence to not agree with how Greg or managment did things and no prove "yet" of any legal wrong doings. Maybe they didn't have two sets of books to report to lenders and insurance companies? Maybe they didn't shred documents that day of the ousting? Mabye they didn't forge documents to have a company wire them money? Maybe they didn't have dummy companies set up that they sold to? They sure as hell didn't follow the boards rules and there must have been proof of that or the courts wouldn't have acted. Maybe we will all be suprised but I think the worst has yet to come.
I can appreciate your views about this situation. In light of the way it has been portrayed by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, it's no wonder you think the way you do. The number of contradicting stories is unparalleled. Now all of a sudden Richard Gazarik hasn’t written an article in months. We go from the firestorm of campaign-style trash journalism in late 2006 and the first two months in 2007 to absolutely nothing. If in fact this was a slam dunk case of fraud, there would have been indictments by now. Everybody knows it. Don’t compare this to Enron, either. Enron, a publicly traded company, was involved in a highly complicated investigation of corporate and securities fraud on a level that makes the Le-Nature’s accusations look like a donation to the United Way. The fraud at Enron metastasized into the auditing firm (Arthurs Andersen LLP) and a number of insiders at prominent companies such Merrill Lynch as well. Ignorant, or just downright stupid people claim Le-Nature’s situation is even worse than Enron; they must not realize that Enron was one of the largest companies in the world. The task of constructing a case against 16 different individuals, including thousands of counts of criminal and civil charges was nauseatingly more complex than Le-Nature’s. A moderately simple comparative review of both investigations and the ensuing indictments (of Enron) would suggest to any normal person that a Le-Nature’s indictment would have taken place by now.
It’s comical how everybody who writes here seems to always claim they know the Podlucky family in some way, shape, or form. I think that is a tactic used by those who really have no clue what they are talking about but want to come off as being very wise. If you truly knew anything about the family, you would understand that an immense disagreement between Greg and his father Gabby of how Jones Brewing Company was being operated is what led Greg to leave that business in the late 80s. I am not going to lash out against the deceased, but the simple fact remains that Gabby was not a very wise businessman. You say what you want about Greg, but he built a significantly-sized company from scratch—way before the years when fraud was alleged to have taken place. Nobody ever wants to mention the multiple lenders who can be proven to be legitimately made whole during their relationships with Le-Nature’s. Nobody ever wants to mention that all the creditors involved in the current bankruptcy were paid to date before they shut the place down. They don’t want to mention those things because it might expose the error in the picture they have painted. With the amount of interest that Le-Nature’s was accruing on its loans, there is no way they would have been able to make payments each month—if you accept the Gazarik/Kroll theories. It is mathematically impossible. If you don’t believe Greg ran an honest business, please explain to me, in detail, how this company stayed alive and well for as long as it did. It’s kind of like a personal credit card. You can lie on your application and state your income is $150,000 dollars annually when, in reality, it is closer to $30,000. They will give you a line of credit of $50,000 or more. You go out and charge that baby to the max. In 30 days, you have to pay that back and if you don’t, those 15-30% interest rates start to kick in and you end up being screwed because your $30,000 salary will never come close to lowering that mounting balance on top of your other debt. You can go out and get another line of credit to pay the other one back, but that too will mount. Before you know it, you’ve extended your credit so far that you can’t get another loan to pay off all the other ones. It catches up real quick. The point is that Le-Nature’s was in business too long to believe a half-brained story like the ones written by Gazarik. On top of all this, if you believe Podlucky stole money from the company and is still living in western Pennsylvania you are really naïve and must have a skewed perception of the area. It’s not nice enough to stay here with hundreds of millions of stolen cash! If I stole the amounts they claim he did, I’d be in another, much nicer country/area. I will repeat what I wrote earlier in the month on my blog. And before I state what may be viewed as opinion, I will say that I respect your opinion as well. This case is really the case that never was. I have associates who are very close to the court proceedings and it is quite evident that this case spun out of control two months ago and the various agencies involved are desperately looking for ways to spin the investigation because they have no evidence of fraud on any level. They know they prematurely reacted to false evidence and the transcripts I’ve read clearly indicate that many people involved in this investigation do not know what to do now that they have “dug themselves this deep.” That is a quote from an attorney, by the way. They dissolved a company without any cause whatsoever and now hundreds of people are without a job. The number of lawsuits that experts believe will be brought against these agencies by the end of the federal fiscal year 2007 is staggering. Many of the attorneys, both civil and criminal, know that a major blow is coming down the pipe. I’m not even going to elaborate on the hundreds of news outlets that are serviced by the Associated Press and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that are in trouble. Many people are going to lose their jobs over this investigation for lack of due diligence. You can count on it!
We all know that Jonathan was very good with words and supported his demented (going straight to hell)brother all the way. We also know that Kevin was the latest and greatest sales expert the company ever hired. So guys, spend your spare time on someone else's blog and quit filling ours with such lengthy lyrics of bullshit!
Is it really true that good ole' boy Jesse was recently placed on house arrest for a second or third DUI? Word on the street is that he ran from the scene and the cops caught up with him at his front door after his GMC On-Star went off from the crash. If this is true, it would be the second time the sauce caused him to evade the scene of a DUI. Booze seems to be an ongoing family crutch here...first Jonathan and now Jesse!
Layne Cobain = Fraud
I think it's hysterical that the pro-Greg Podlucky crowd now has Layne Cobain on its side.
Does anyone seriously think this is not Greg or Jonathan or one of their cronies?
By his self-description, Layne is a mid-level sales person in California.
Okay. Why would an unemployed former employee of Le*Natures be spending so much time, and setting up a blog, to defend Greg and the gang?
Why would he be an expert on journalism coverage? Why would he even know who Richard Gazarik was?
(By the way, his argument that if this was a slam-dunk case of fraud, it would be over by now is silly. Layne, can you cite one example of corporate fraud--where senior executives were alleged to have destroyed documents--that was resolved so quickly? I didn't think so.)
And please explain why Greg took the fifth amendment? Please explain why Greg didn't go to civil court to get his company back.
Also, Layne, I like how a California boy like yourself ridicules people who actually know the family: "It’s comical how everybody who writes here seems to always claim they know the Podlucky family in some way, shape, or form."
What would you like to know about the Podlucky family? I don't claim to know them. I do know them. I was at their house dozens of times. I may even still have the fundraising t-shirt Mrs. Podlucky gave to people to helped raised money for the track in Pat's name.
You see, Layne, Ligonier is a town of 1,900 people. Nearly everyone in town knew--or went to school--with one of them. We all know how Jonathan thought he was a major college athlete and tried to get Coach Jones fired, for example.
Also, you expose yourself as a fraud when you talk about the clash between Mr. Podlucky and Greg. Yes, it existed. Mr. Podlucky didn't like Greg's business ethics.
But a few questions: How would a mid-level sales person know that clash existed? How would you know what kind of businessman Mr. Podlucky was? And how would you have courthouse sources? Why would you be talking to attorneys?
Wow, Layne, you have some connections for a California boy. I'd urge you to spend more time finding a new job, though, than talking to western PA people about Le*Nature.
As for your comment that there will be all kinds of lawsuits, there will be. But every case I see filed seems to be against the Podlucky family and the board of directors.
I just hope Greg and all do file lawsuits against the Tribune-Review and wire services.
They play a lot rougher than the contractors Greg tries to sue to save a few dollars.
Every time I can't see Greg or his buddies sinking any lower, they do.
To the dude who is talking shit on Jonathan:
You basically pegged yourself as a jealous loser that didnt have many friends in Ligonier. He has been one of my best friends and Ive known his family for almost as long as Ive been alive. Every kid in that family was popular in school. They were all good at sports and all of our friends would hang out up at their house and party in high school. And fuck you about Pud's nephew. He is a great kid. Everytime we've ever hung out with Jesse I see a little bit of each one of his uncles personalities in him, even Pat. Those guys both lost a lot of family in the past few years and Id like to see any of you fuckers walk in their shoes even for a minute. Who cares about DUIs. Most of the people I graduated with have at least one because of the fucking dickheads that patrol Ligonier. Whoever wrote all that shit about them is a dickhead. Just because the nigger cops in Ligonier need to flex their muscle because they used to get beat up in high school. Its fags like you that probably kiss their ass over at Joes so you dont get stopped for DUI.
Hey Rich, remember there is no statute of limitations on murder. Go Hiliary go!
Why is the Kangas case not listed as a cold case by the Trib?
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