(NEW YORK) Today NABAs Public Affairs director Paul Davis announced that "The North American Barter Association reaffirms our commitment to merchants of barter exchanges nation-wide" after NABAs Executive Director received a threatening phone call. In response NABA is issuing a free 27 page report and checklist for merchants that want to arm themselves against barter fraud. The report follows the conclusion of a 3 month national investigation.
NABA is now asking permission from 139 complainants of a yet unnamed barter exchange to publish their complaints in next months newsltters especially since the barter exchange in question has now begun to publicly deny its past NABA membership and current complaints. From a point of professionalism we will not identify the exchange, but since it has publicly attacked our organization, and we value our reputation, we find it necessary to confirm the following for the record as confirmed by NABA investigators, Delaware state officials, and internet searches of public records. NABA issues the following chronological summary with full legal and financial responsibility accordingly:
*The subject exchange is a Delaware corporation that incorporated in 2000. The exchange claims to have a seven-year operational history yet corporate records in Delaware indicate the company was ?inactive? from 2001 through 2004 and no annual reports, nor taxes were filed/paid for those years.
*They joined NABA in July of 2004 and had a relatively good record for that year with only a handful of typical minor complaints that were mostly resolved. They informed us and prospective investors that they operated ?40 locations nation-wide?, but only seven were identified to NABA. Our investigators then found records indicating 28 locations were opened in 2005 and by Februray of 2006, 22 had closed and six remained in operation. NABA also learned that the exchange was including NABA?s certificate of good standing in all of their sales packages to merchants and investors.
*In the fall of 2005, three serious complaints arrived at NABA and officials from the exchange began dragging their feet, evading phone calls and denied they received correspondence from NABA. They then refused to identify their accounting firm that allegedly issued impressive financial statements. At this point our investigators learned they operated from an ?executive suite? in Morristown, New Jersey as their ?headquarters?.
*We were advised by the company?s receptionist that the company was acquired by a ?TTI Holdings? company but TTI told our investigators they never heard of this barter exchange and refuted any affiliation. At this point our investigators became very suspicious. Our lead investigator David Stryzinski then learned that between 2001-2005 the company?s headquarter offices moved four times from one executive suite to another in three different states in Maine, Connecticut, and New Jersey, and most recently to Pennsylvania and New York.
*In June of this year, very serious complaints were received by NABA that involved allegations of fraud, theft, financial misrepresentation, and bad checks. Documentation of same was provided to NABA by the complainants. We notified the exchange of the allegations and by our standard policy gave them 30 days to respond. When they failed to respond, an arbitration hearing date was set and the exchange was notified to attend or be suspended from NABA. Company officials failed to appear for the hearings (held on July 19th) and NABA suspended the exchange. The subject company then moved its offices to Mt. Pocono, Pennsylvania.
*At this point the exchange was notified by certified mail that if they continued to ignore the complaints they would be fine or expelled. At this point our investigators learned from public DMV and property tax records that the president of the company was using an alias name and sales calls from the exchange to prospective investors were being made from public pay telephones. Directory searches at www.infospace.com, Allpages.com, and 411.com listed numbers and addresses for the exchange that did not exist, were disconnected, or call-forwarded to a single location. One of the listed phone numbers ?973-285-3363 which appeared on the company?s letterhead in 2004-2005 has since been linked to other non-barter related consumer fraud involving a defunct employment agency, modeling agency, and mortgage company which listed the same address of the barter exchange. NABA thought it was prudent to issue a national barter fraud alert at this point in time.
*Since that national fraud alert was issued NABA has been contacted by over a hundred merchants and/or investors from five countries and twelve states claiming they were swindled with sophisticated cons of over $4.8 million. NABA decided to refer all of the above information to State and Federal authorities for their own appropriate action.
*On its web site the company now attributes all of its problems to a single ?fired employee? who they refuse to provide contact information for but on 3 different occasions have told NABA investigators three different names for the single employee that was ostensibly responsible and fired. NABA investigators spoke with a former secretary of the exchange, which claimed the company hired a ?hacker? to make sure negative items appearing on the internet about the company ?disappeared?. She also claimed a man claiming to be an attorney was hired to call and threaten people with law suits if they ?caused problems? for the exchange.
*Since updating our barter fraud alerts, which mentioned the company?s latest move to Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, the exchange moved again, back to New Jersey and yet another executive suite in Manhattan. The same 800 number has been forwarded to six ?new locations? in the last two years trying to project the image of ?company expansion?.
*On September 12th at 4:52 pm NABA?s executive director Nathan Forbes received a threatening telephone call from the president of the subject exchange who was enraged and threatened bodily harm if NABA didn?t ?back-off?.
NABA stands firmly behind this summary with full legal and financial responsibility and if the related complainants grant permission, we will publish their complaints in our next newsletter.
Anyone wanting a free copy of our 27 page report regarding the above matter can contact NABA directly at NABA@Email.com.
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