Hell`s Angel BC Nomad Member Tony Pires Owns LA Embroidery (818 Renfrew St) And 250,000 Shares Of Tora Technologies
Greg Carr
David Baines
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, July 01, 2006
For several weeks, I have been trying to impress upon B.C.
Attorney-General Wally Oppal that the B.C. Securities Commission has
not been able to contain the proliferation of Vancouver-related
companies that are being floated on the lawless OTC Bulletin Board and
"pinks sheets" in the United States.
These companies -- 880 at last count -- have been perpetuating
Vancouver's infamous sub-culture of chicanery, where crooks and
accountants and lawyers and other professionals come together to
produce stock market scams, most of which are foisted on investors in
the United States, Germany, or other foreign countries. The net result
is that Vancouver's reputation as a haven for scams is as bad as ever.
I have been trying to persuade Oppal, as the Cabinet minister in charge
of the commission, that he needs to appoint an independent inquiry
commissioner to review the problem and make recommendations on how to
deal with it.
I have been citing the example of De Beira Goldfields Inc., a company
that was created last year by Vancouver longshoreman Mike Fronzo,
ostensibly as an exploration company, although the mineral property was
an insignificant piece of moose pasture.
After it went public in April, Fronzo handed off the company to a
couple of Australian promoters who were previously involved in adult
porn and Internet gaming. These promoters announced an option to
explore a project in Colombia and -- without drilling a single hole --
pyramided the company's market capitalization from zero to $600 million
US within several weeks.
The commission, under media pressure, issued a cease-trade order
against De Beira last week. This order prohibits people in B.C. from
trading the company's shares, but since the stock trades mainly on the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange in Germany, the order has little effect.
What exactly have we unleashed on these foreign countries? My inquiries
have turned up some interesting information which, I think, sheds more
light on the insidious nature of these bulletin board deals.
As mentioned last week, the Australian promoters were introduced to De
Beira by Ralph Biggar, a former broker with Georgia Pacific Securities
in Vancouver.
Biggar is no stranger to bulletin board companies. In 2003, he set up
Tora Technologies Inc., which has no appreciable assets except a
services agreement with a Vancouver company called LA Embroidery Inc.
The agreement gives Tora the right to market LA's custom embroidery
services via the Internet. The owner of LA Embroidery is Tony Pires.
For granting the rights, Pires was given 250,000 shares.
Pires is an interesting business partner, to say the least. He is a
full-patch member of the Nomads, an elite chapter of the Hells Angels.
On Thursday, I asked Biggar whether he knows Pires is a member of the
Hells Angel. He refused to answer, instead referring questions to his
lawyer, Gary Snarch. But that didn't get me very far, either. "My
advice is not to talk to you," said Snarch.
In 2005, as a prelude to going public, Tora filed a prospectus with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It included audited financial
statements showing the company had only $78,000 in assets and no sales
to speak of. With no real track record or assets, there is no way the
company could have gone public on a Canadian exchange.
The statements were prepared by the Vancouver chartered accountancy
firm of Manning Elliott, the same firm that audited De Beira's
statements. As in the case of De Beira, Manning Elliott filed a consent
form with the SEC authorizing the use of its audit report in
conjunction with the going-public process.
The stock started trading at five cents in May 2005. In June, a private
Panamanian company, Fete Enterprises Inc., filed documents with the SEC
disclosing that it had acquired 595,000 shares for $125,000.
The following month, another Panamanian company, Silver Road Corp.,
revealed it had also acquired 425,000 shares for $125,000. The
beneficial owners of these companies was not revealed.
In August 2005, former Vancouver lawyer Susan Jeffs, who now lives in
England, disclosed that she had acquired 510,000 shares, once again for
$125,000.
Susan Jeffs is the wife of Rick Jeffs, who was cited by the securities
commission in November 2002 after BCSC investigators raided a stock
boilerroom run by Rick Jeffs and his brother, Leigh, who have made
small fortunes promoting speculative stocks, most listed on the
bulletin board.
Of particular concern to the commission was the fact that Rick Jeffs
had hired Eron fraudster Frank Biller, who had already been suspended
from the market, to supervise the phone room. Jeffs was initially
charged with providing securities advice without being registered to do
so, but that charge was later dropped and he moved to London with his
wife.
Tora shares are now trading at just over a dollar, giving the company a
market capitalization of about $50 million US, but this is a largely
artificial figure, as the stock rarely trades. It essentially remains a
shell company that, like De Beira, will likely be used as a vehicle for
some later promotion, at which point the offshore investors will rain
paper on the market.
RCMP Insp. George Pemberton, head of the Vancouver Integrated Market
Enforcement Team, refused to say whether his team is investigating
Tora. "As a general rule, we do not discuss whether or not we are
investigating particular matters. That is especially true for matters
alleged to be connected to organized crime groups."
There are some interesting links between Tora Technologies and De Beira
Goldfields. As mentioned, Biggar has been involved in both companies.
In addition, Fronzo and Pires have been co-investors in two unrelated
deals.
In 1999, they were among a half-dozen investors in a U.S. company
called Value Software Inc. The same year, they participated in private
placements in International En-R-Tech Inc., a Vancouver Stock Exchange
company. Other investors included:
- Ronald Lising, a full-patch member of the East End chapter of the
Hells Angels. In 2001, Lising and Pires' brother, Chico, were convicted
of trafficking drugs through No. 5 Orange strip club and the Marble
Arch Hotel. Each was sentenced to four and half years in jail.
- John Punko, another full-patch member of the East End chapter of the
Hells Angels. In 2001, he was convicted of threatening the Crown
counsel who was prosecuting Lising and Chico Pires on their drug
trafficking charges.
The fact that Fronzo invested in these deals along with several Hells
Angels may be entirely coincidental. I tried to ask him about this on
Friday, but he did not return my phone calls.
dba...@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
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The raw materials for our products come from our sole supplier, LA
Embroidery
Inc. (LA) of Vancouver, BC, Canada. We are working closely with LA
Embroidery
under the terms of a service agreement which is presented as an exhibit
to this
prospectus. We have entered into a five-year service agreement with LA
for the
non-exclusive right to market LA's custom embroidery products and
services via
the Internet. The benefits of this agreement to us is that we are able
to obtain
wholesale pricing from LA and that LA will handle order fulfillment
including
shipping. We need to only collect orders and pass them onto LA for
processing.
The non-exclusive right means that LA is not restricted to working with
us for
Internet sales which means they could work with other Internet
embroidery
vendors like us. We are committed to ordering a total of CDN$10,000 of
LA's
products and services by October 20, 2004. For the remaining four years
we are
committed to ordering a total of CDN$50,000 per year. If we do not meet
this
commitment LA may terminate the service agreement and we will be left
without a
wholesale supplier. None of our directors or officers are affiliated
with LA
Embroidery Inc., Antonio Pires the owner of LA owns 250,000 shares of
our common
stock which he earned as part of the service agreement with us.
-28-
LA Embroidery Inc. is located in Vancouver, BC, Canada and has an 1000
sq.ft
shop and storefront. LA owns two computer controlled embroidery
machines one
with a single head and the other with six heads. LA has trained staff
to
manufacturer and ship custom embroidered products. We are required to
email them
the order and they will completely fulfill the order for us. This
completely
eliminates the need for us to maintain our own embroidery equipment and
trained
staff.
Our website is located on the Internet at
http://www.teamsportsembroidery.com.
The current status of our website is that it is operational and we are
conducting initial business through it. We have a catalog of
approximately 56
items and our customers have the ability to upload a custom graphic to
be
embroidered onto their ordered items. We currently support payment by
check,
money order or wire transfer and Paypal. Since inception to June 30,
2004 we
have expensed $2,400 on website development costs. Additionally,
website
development costs of $6,236 remain as an asset on our balance sheet.
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Form 8-K for TORA TECHNOLOGIES INC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://biz.yahoo.com/e/060707/tora.ob8-k.html
7-Jul-2006
Termination of a Material Definitive Agreement, Changes in Registrant's
Cer
Item 1.02 Termination of a Material Definitive Agreement.
On July 6, 2006, Tora Technologies Inc. terminated all previous service
agreements with LA Embroidery Inc. Additionally, both companies agreed
that there will be no further financial commitments between them. Tora
will fulfill embroidery orders via independent embroiderers in British
Columbia, Canada. Tora will not use any services of LA Embroidery Inc.
Item 4.01 Changes in Registrant's Certifying Accountant.
a. Previous independent accountants
i. On July 5, 2006, Manning Elliott LLP ("Manning Elliott") resigned as
the independent accountants of Tora Technologies Inc.
ii. The report of Manning Elliott on the financial statements for the
two fiscal years ended December 31, 2005 and 2004, contained no adverse
opinion or disclaimer of opinion and were not qualified or modified as
to uncertainty or audit scope. The report of Manning Elliot on the
financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2005 and
for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004 contained an explanatory
paragraph related to substantial doubt about the Company's ability to
continue as a going concern.
iii. Tora's board of Directors did not recommend the decision to change
independent accountants.
iv. In connection with its audits for fiscal years December 31, 2005
and 2004, and through July 5, 2006, there have been no disagreements
with Manning Elliot on any matter of accounting principles or
practices, financial statement disclosure, or auditing scope or
procedure.
b. New independent accountants
Tora has not engaged a new independent accountant at this time. Tora is
currently looking for a new independent accountant to replace Manning
Elliott.
Item 9.01 Financial Statements and Exhibits.
d. Exhibits
Exhibit Number Description
Status
10.1 Termination Agreement with LA Embroidery
Included
Inc.
Consent letter from Manning Elliot
16.1 regarding change in certified
Included
accountant.
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Symbol:
Company: TORA TECHNOLOGIES INC Industry: Services-Business Services,
NEC(7389)
Tel: 604-306-2525
Business Address:
503 - 989 RICHARDS STREET , VANCOUVER
also
205 - 1990 East Kent Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia
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L.A. EMBROIDERY & APPAREL
818 Renfrew Street
Vancouver BC V5K 4B6
604-254-5483
604-254-5493
la...@telus.net
Tony Pires
Maybe Tony Pires is the Hell's Angel behind the Aldo International at
810 Granville St. If not maybe he will take it over from the associatte
that does run it. His brother Francisco (Chico) Peres has a conviction
for cocaine dealing .
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The Hells Angels and their t-shirt and baseball cap wearing supporters
do no
good for the community. They manufacture and sell meth, pimp out
prostitutes, sell cocaine and crack and engage in extortion, arson and
homicide. Put them in prison, confiscate their assets and put their
children in foster care. Liberal MP David McQuinty who sits on the
House of Commons
Justice Committee is trying to get HA designated a terrorist group
which is great if it happens. If you agree send him a letter or email.
Liberal MP David McQuinty
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6 Postage not required.
Telephone: (613) 992-3269
Fax: (613) 995-1534
EMail: McGui...@parl.gc.ca
Web Site:* www.davidmcguinty.com/
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http://www.secinfo.com/d18bW5.ve.htm claims that Ralph Biggar bought
all the stock from Pires for $1,270 on 7/7/2006. Biggar lives at 2015
FRASERVIEW DR. VANCOUVER V5P 2N2 and is obviously comfortable with
criminals. He used to be a broker at Georgia Pacific Securities. He is
linked to companies doing business in Australia.
Manning Elliot has resigned its positions since the news of its links
to the Hell's Angels became public.