Washington, DCNASD Regulation, Inc., today announced that an NASD Regulation Hearing Panel expelled Premier Capital Management, Inc., Dallas, TX, for placing materially misleading advertisements in national publications to tout Continental Investment Corporation (OTCBB:CICGQ), failing to disclose compensation received from Continental, and other violations. The firms president and owner, Bryan James OLeary, was suspended for 325 days and fined $62,500, while Ryan Mark Reynolds, a former registered representative, was suspended for 720 days and fined $155,000. In addition, OLeary and Reynolds were ordered to buy back shares from, or to make restitution to, customers who purchased Continental stock based on one of Premiers advertisements. OLeary and Reynolds were also ordered to re-qualify and prove payment was made to customers prior to associating with a member firm. If they seek to re-enter the industry, they will be subject to pre-use filing requirements for future proposed advertisements and other communications with the public.
The Hearing Panel found that OLeary and Reynolds had placed a materially misleading eight-page insert advertisement touting Continental in the September 1997 issue of Mutual Funds Magazine. The advertisement, which purported to be a research report, was distributed to more than 625,000 individuals. In addition, single-page advertisements, which described Continental as "A Stock Whose Time Has Come," and invited readers to contact Premier for a copy of "our research report," appeared in issues of Town & Country, Individual Investor, Estates Internationale, and Leading Estates of the World. Continental is a Dallas, TX corporation, which owned a large parcel of land near Atlanta, GA, which it believed had a possible future as a waste management facility.
The Hearing Panel found that the advertisement contained in Mutual Funds Magazine failed to provide an accurate and balanced picture of the risks and benefits of the investment, projected returns without a reasonable basis, and contained exaggerated claims. The following were among the fraudulent statements contained in the advertisement:
"nless Bill Gates or the Japanese dig a Grand Canyonesque hole 9 miles from downtown Atlanta, the value of [Continentals] property has no place to go but up."
"Even if 99% of all stocks are dragged down with the overall market, in our opinion, [Continental] will be an extremely profitable exception."
"[W]e expect to see a tremendous upside run in [Continentals] stock price all the way up to, at least, the mid-fifties."
"Continental presents a textbook case ... wherein a small company holding an insurmountable strategic advantage can potentially achieve complete predominance over significantly larger competitors."
In addition, the Hearing Panel found that Premier, OLeary, and Reynolds failed to disclose the compensation they received from Continental for touting its stock. Premier received more than $200,000 to cover the costs it incurred for printing and publishing the research report and the single-page advertisements. The Panel also found that Reynolds received 10,000 shares of Continental stock, then worth over $200,000, as compensation for Reynoldss services on behalf of Continental. Premier and OLeary also failed to file the report with the Associations Advertising Regulation Department.
"They were THAT close"
They won 3/5 SBs. That's choking huh.
at more dominant since Spygate. Denial is a muthfukka ain't it? 
Something tells me that you wouldn't be giving an 18-1 team that lost in the SB props if it wasn't the Pats. The shifting that has gone on is amazing. All of a sudden its' not about winning it all. All of a sudden close losses/wins don't count the same. 
So the dude that wrote this got fined for publishing a misleading advertisement? 
