This is getting to be a real competitive business enironment…so who do we trust, and when & why?

First, everyone acts in their own best interests, and most if not all of the time. People do what they do to avoid a loss, or gain a benefit.

Individuals can be contacted more easily than big companies, or certainly the government in most cases. We can talk at length and make determinations as to whether the veracity, or truth of an indvidual can be established. We can and do all make mistakes when dealing with individuals. But what are the difficulties we can experience when trying to determine if people working for companies or governments are telling us the truth? Lawyers, and many others are screening, or keeping information from us most of the time. Are we being told the truth by big companies, and government employees? In other words, I believe their size and pre-determined agenda’s make it hard to tell if they are telling us the truth.

Companies must make a profit to succeed no matter what size. Unless as we’ve discovered recently, our government believes large companies may be too big to fail, and then must be bailed-out with tax payers money, or an increase in the national debt through borrowing. Unfortunately our government is often borrowing from countries who don’t have our best interests in mind. Why don’t we factor in these losses when looking at our bottomline in business?

Okay, I’ll get to another point which is disturbing to me. If someone wants to make statements online, or on the internet, do we believe ‘due process’ has been followed, or more specifically, a court has actually ruled, or a judge has actually determined that a crime has taken place? Can we make the determination that we are hearing or seeing the truth about a person, or his company on the internet? I don’t believe so. Now, if a person has a felony on his record, and has served in a federal or state penitentiary, we can be sure this person has been found guilty of something we will want to know about if we are doing business with the former felon.

Warnings by government, or notices to correct errors are not court or judge rulings!

Competitors who write negative things about someone they fear are not legally determined court findings!

Heresay isn’t allowed in court during direct, or cross examination, and typically judges won’t admit heresay to make a determination to support an argument, or alleged charges. You must enter documents, or evidence as exhibits, and courts have ‘pre-trial conference’ meetings between judges with opposing lawyers for the plantiff’s and defendants to decide to admit any information as evidence to be heard.

Apparently, and obviously, this isn’t the case with most of the information circulating on the internet. Internet exchanges between people are therefore heresay, or second and third hand information which would never be admitted as evidence in court. So, what do we do?

Simple, the first thing we do is rely on all legal documents which we and our competent securities lawyers review about an offer from a company or indivdual. If its not in the memorandum its not something you should rely on, but most importantly it may be an ommission of a material fact you as an investor may need to know. If a private placement memorandum is thoroughly written, and properly done, all disclosures, and all pertinent information about an offer must be included in the offering circular, or for example, a federally exempt 506-D private placement memorandum. What does the federal exemption mean? It means, you don’t have to meet the same reporting standards as a publically traded company. The reason the private placement offering method is around is to enable companies and individuals to start and build companies to a point where they may want to go public, and are profitable enough at some point to do so. This doesn’t mean there isn’t oversight by state governments who review PPM’s and issue cease & desist, or cease & refrain notices with the purpose of getting private companies, and their lawyers to correct errors of ommission, or mistakes which need to be handled. State actions to correct mistakes made by lawyers, or their clients shouldn’t be considered an indictment against a company or individual who is telling the truth about a problem with a PPM, or warning by a state agency charged with securities oversight.