Previously Crown Corp, CCO. Institutional interest now and the Co has changed it's name for a fresh beginning. Still very speculative, but what isn't? but just a case of investing the huge amount of Cash sitting in a Brazilian bank a/c. There's no real difference here to an emerging markets investment fund apart from the obvious and very attractive discount to NAV of approx 75% !!!!!

Robstuff
Glad you opened a new thread for the new name and epic.
Quite a nice summing up of the company too.
Hopefully the institutional placing at a bargain 48p yesterday will get the Company a higher profile.

K******

An example of another investment company, clearly showing that the current CCO discount to NAV of 75% is a joke .... it cannot possibly stay like this for ever ....

"At the end of 2004, the shares were quoted at a discount of 5 per cent to the net asset value. By the end of June, this had become a premium of 1. 6 per cent."

http://www.companyannouncements.net/cgi-bin/articles/20050818151616P962D.html

paul - you're really stretching it a bit thin this time. Discounts to NAV of investment co's vary according to the perceived realisability/prospects of the Assets - in this case there is significant doubt that the funds are blocked in Brazil - even though there may well be worse places than Brazil to be blocked in.

This may be a great little punt for those with some fun money (I am certainly watching it with interest), but please don't go over-ramping this share like you do so many others. It's not necessary and not helpful - indeed, I believe it does your own interests a direct disservice, because your obvious ramping puts off more serious investors than it would ever encourage.

sd

SD Hi,

Ramping .... LOL !

Most active(LGB are not really active yet !) investment co's trade at around 20% discount to NAV.

When (not if !) LGB swap the cash in Brazil, for assets in Europe, they will be valued alongside other investment co's, and depending on the return those investments offer, they could be valued as highly as my example above.

A discount to NAV of 75% IS a joke, surely you cannot deny that ?

I'm in, I'm happy, DYOR
Cheers,
PM

Yep, agree. It's a sit and wait and don't be put off by short term volatility, Brazil cannot just refuse to release it, they need to attract trade and govt intervention cannot be ruled out in worse case scenario. There are many "ways" to get the money out of the bank.

I do hope you folks are right.........love the encouragement..........sitting on a huge loss currently, so feeling extremely nervous... Paul was right about Yoo, and put up with a great deal of flack, so I'm counting on you Paul.....do hope you are bang on this time...

there is a huge difference to the "nav" of a share when the assets are in respect of property, orders, goodwill etc and HARD CASH. that is the only reason this is at the top of my watchlist. CASH IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE KING.

still sceptical though. i find it hard to believe that if the story really is true that the red braces brigade havent pushed this WAY higher.

Superrod Hi,

The red braces brigade have been trying to push higer, even UK-Analyst stated just after the AGM "traders are suprised the stock is trading at such a big discount to NAV", but many are watching and waiting for the cash to be released from Brazil before they jump in, once it is released, there will be plenty of buyers, and those who had the balls to get in early will reap the reward.

I sent a message to HQ, and they said they will be updating shareholders as frequently as possible, about the Brazil cash progress, and after the placing, I think things will progress a lot quicker now.

Cheers,
PM

Paul

a trade set up ready for the whistle. dont have the balls to buy until the story hardens to the positive. after 20 years trading i have learned a lot and its cost me even more. my main lessons have been ( and some are courtesy of other traders/tipsters )

1)
if you see a bandwagon its too late to get onboard.
2)
your T trades will ONLY go up if you can afford to cover.
3)
there is NO free money in the stockmarket.
4)

with the advent of free financial sites/free streaming prices, VERY few are investing these days, just 95% chancers, which basically means that if i make a few hundred, some poor sap has lost a few hundred ( plus expenses ). ( and vice versa unfortunately ).


its a lot harder in the market these days.

superrod, another one "only invest what you're prepared to lose" it's not a great recommendation for stock market investment is it?

However, the stock market has sure enough been difficult in last few yrs and property has been the Only investment but that is all set to change again, as regular as clockwork you have cycles. It's generally true about not following the herd. Your point no.1 - well the bandwagon here has not started rolling has it?

no. 3 - sometimes there is and this may be one of them. It always amazes me that there is time to get in i.e. as the bandwagon starts rolling but if they get the cash released, there will be No time at all, the mms will mark it up in a second, so you need to be in it beforehand.

Good luck

Rock bottom now, topping up cos it's not going to be here for long, news of releasing the money for investment is just round the corner and the tips are being penned, worth over 2 CASH !!!

still not looking good.....still waiting

a mike walters nugget

"always leave something for the next punter".

ie sell just before the top......if ONLY it was that easy.

Any of you lot tried getting money out of Brazil without providing proof of delivery of goods / services that have been confirmed by government officials ?

Good luck.

Rod Hi,

It is easier than that, just wait for the cash from Brazil to be swapped for assets in Europe ....

The next punter will always get something, if they are prepared to wait for it, as I am now.

Cheers,
PM

paul
i am becoming increasingly uneasy about this share, to the extent that im not sure i could bring myself to hit the buy button if the news arrives.

good luck to all punters.

If something looks to good to be true, it generally is. I try to avoid betting on shares. There are, after all, two things that come from Brazil - blocked assets and nuts!

sd

Stockdog,, you forgot coffee ,,and great racing drivers!!

As I said - assets and nuts! lol

sd

Euroclear was set up on Friday 26th August.

check out www.euroclear.com

click on Information then Securities then type Langbar...

expires 31/10/05 so expect the funds well before then...

we're in business guys, add on any weakness in shareprice...

andyeds - being a thickie, what does that show?

Does anyone know when we can expect some news on this stock?
The sp is going from bad to worse!

or good to better if you still haven't bought in yet, comme le chien des actions

stockdog

is that French for 'this is a dog to be avoided at all costs' !!!

;o)

no, it's chienese for I just might buy and the lower it goes the mightier I might at a better price!

Next week is going to be a big week, all that are in will be rewarded nicely

How do you know this Peterstilgoe? Have you got inside info?

Phil 3

Read iii or ADVFN this board is dead.

http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:LGB.L&display=discussion&it=le

http://www.advfn.com/cmn/fbb/thread.php3?id=9697749

Thanks R33skyline

Loads of MM buys, it's about to take off again :)

Cheers,
PM

mmmmm......thought about topping up but will keep what I have. Its looking good.

News may be imminent - Back to a pound soon...

Talk of the euroclear funds due this week. 100p would be nice for starters!!

MM's are piling in, it has to be some very good news coming :)

Count the M trades .... afew 50,000 and 100,000, I saw a 200,000 too !!!!

Cheers,
PM

Check out the great volume today, buys well ahead, plus a load of MM buys, I think we will see more MM buying tomorrow, they know this stock is undervalued, and they will be pushing the price up.

Cheers,
PM

Hi All,

MM trades today, and the 10,000 sell was to get the price to drop, before buying 200,000 four minutes later at 1p cheaper than the ask was at the time of the sell .... LOL !!!!

200,000
10,000
100,000
50,000
100,000
100,000
50,000
100,000
100,000

800,000 bought value approx 432,000
10,000 sold value approx 5,400

I reckon the MM's are going to push the price back up to 1+, so they get double money :)

Cheers,
PM

SCAP sat on the OFFER all day, must have large seller in wings...

on the plus side WINS have been very keen on the BID, sometimes 4p higher than KBC so must have BUY order to fill...

we also hear rumours that another institution has been buying on Friday and today so could see SCAP off the OFFER sooner rather than later...

then its liftoff...

Andy Hi,

Thanks for the L2 view :)

All adds to the positivity I think !

Cheers,
PM

What - no comment? Assuming you've seen the RNS.

SD Hi,

Just reading the RNS now :)

Funds released, but I am reading the small print :)

Price already hit 98% up, if all is OK, I will go for 1.50 close, could be more.

Cheers,
PM

RNS Number:8634Q
Langbar International Limited
06 September 2005


Langbar International Limited

Market Update
Release of South American assets


Langbar International Limited (formally known as Crown Corporation Limited), the
AIM listed investment company, is now trading under the symbol LGB.L on the
London Stock Exchange. Share price and dealing details can also be viewed under
the same symbol in various national newspapers.

South American Assets

After protracted and detailed negotiations, the Board and its legal advisers in
Brazil, have successfully negotiated an agreed and managed exit of our cash
deposits in South America. This is in order to provide the Company with ready
access to these funds to invest in the developing Langbar operations.

Confirmation has been received that the cash deposits acquired from Crown
Pharmaceuticals Limited (US$294m) have been successfully transferred to a
Langbar International head office account of ABN Amro BV in Holland, and has
been admitted to the Euroclear and DTCC platforms (with the corresponding ISIN
and CUSIP numbers). The interest rate on these deposits has been agreed at 3.5%
p.a..

The transfer of these deposits into Europe was conditional on certain
undertakings in respect of potential Brazilian tax liabilities, in the event
that any may arise. Accordingly, in the interim statement, to be issued later
this month, the Company shall prudently be providing the sum of US$25m in
respect of undetermined tax liabilities. Having taken specialist taxation
advice, your Board is confident that this amount will be more than sufficient to
cover any potential liabilities in this respect.

As to the balance of the Langbar funds on deposit in Brazil (c$370m), agreement
has been reached with our bankers in Brazil to invest the remaining funds in
significant real estate assets in Europe.

The result of our recent negotiations will result in Langbar International
having no remaining assets or deposits in South America.

Investment Activities - Real Estate Strategy

Whilst the property market in the UK remains buoyant, and Langbar may well
invest in the future in the UK, the Board believe increasing shareholder value
can be better achieved at the present time by investing in European projects,
mainly in Portugal and Spain, which we intend to pursue with experienced joint
venture partners. These will be held in a new Langbar subsidiary, the European
Property Investment Company ('EPIC') which has been formed to acquire these
identified assets. The Company is in the process of conducting due diligence and
shall provide further details for shareholders in due course.

Investment Activities - UK Small and Mid-Cap Companies

Langbar Capital Limited, the investment and advisory business, will concentrate
almost wholly in the UK small and mid-cap market and has a number of interesting
investment situations under consideration. They mainly relate to early stage
investment, pre-IPO and IPO funding and the acquisition of undervalued assets
and businesses. In line with the stated strategy, the Company will generally
have a close working relationship with target investments and be in a position
to influence their individual business strategies through corporate finance
advisory contracts or board representation.

Investment in Zander Group Limited

The Company has acquired 100,000 ordinary shares in Zander Group Limited at 135p
per share. Langbar Capital already holds options on 500,000 shares in Zander,
exercisable at 75p. Stuart Pearson, the Chief Executive of Langbar
International, is a non-executive director of Zander which is intending to seek
admission to AIM within twelve months, subject to market conditions.

Zander is involved in the regeneration of desert and arid land and the clean up
of contaminated land. Further details are available on www.zandercorporation.com
The Board regards the prospects for Zander to be exciting and this investment
represents good value.


Because of the number and quality of opportunities being presented to the
Company at the present time, it is unlikely that capital will be returned to
shareholders.


Stuart Pearson, Chief Executive, Langbar International commented:

"Moving our cash assets to Europe is a major step in the turnaround of the
Company. Whilst we have investigated a number of interesting opportunities in
South America, after discussions with our shareholders, we appreciate that they
would prefer to see the business develop primarily in Europe.

"I reiterate the Board's commitment to growing the value of your Company, and in
the reduction of the wide discrepancy between our share price and our net asset
value. Our task in rebuilding Langbar has not always been helped by the spread
of rumour and false information, often taken out of context, which has been
disseminated through the 'internet chat rooms'. We fully appreciate our
obligations to keep the Stock Market aware of significant events affecting
Langbar through a regulated information service. I would urge all our investors
to rely on these official releases from Langbar, rather than chat room gossip.

"Identifying and securing attractive investment opportunities, whether smallcap
businesses or property assets, will take time and your new management team are
fully committed to developing the investment strategy for the long term benefit
of shareholders.

"In only three months the Board has made significant progress, we have achieved
our first objective of releasing the funds and we have identified a number of
exciting opportunities, both large and small. I expect to be in a position to
make further announcements regarding potential investments shortly."

OK, I have read the RNS, and it seems my posts of the last moth and a bit, were correct, and that LGB would get the cash out of Brazil, and that the price would then reflect that .... watch the S.P later for that bit .... LOL !!!!

Cheers,
PM

Im sticking with them for longer term.

Wow.... 1.50 easily achievable today.

Hi All,

So we've hit 95p but with a NAV of 2.40 these will only go higher after the MM's have got the traders and short termers out, and the funds and institutions have piled in :))))

A realistic price, bearing in mind the large percentage of assets are now cash, these should trade at better than 20% discount to NAV, around 1.90+, and selling a lot lower than that, is like throwing money down the drain !

Holding out for the real money :)

Cheers,
PM

I totally agree with you Paul, they have far to go. I always said these should be three times the price. What do you think the price will be tomorrow lunch time? I think they'll almost certainly rise by 30-60% from here tomorow. I like the bit about internet chatrooms.. well it wasn't me or you Paul, still plenty of time to jump in on this if anyones held out til now. 1.80 - 2.00 by the end of the week.

Rob Hi,

Don't forget the cash is still earning 3.5% interest :)

$10m+ P.A income(on Euroclear cash only !), $76m still in Brazil, 51m of that to buy European assets with.

173m shares in issue, the $10m+ giving an EPS of 5.8p, making the stock worth more than 1.16 at an EPS of 20, without anthing else taken into consideration.

The MM's, the fund managers, and the institutions all know the value here, and they will be accumulating stock right now, and the price will reflect the value soon enough.

Cheers,
PM

MMs are indeed accumulating - look at the trades today, then see the price hike tomorrow.

This from the Company statement in July remember :
"I present to the meeting a Pro forma Balance Sheet and from this you will see
that our net assets are in excess of 350m. We have approximately 155 million
shares in issue, which equates to 225p per share.
Yes, 225p per share Cash!!
90p a true bargain that will not be around for long. see the statements at CCO (previous name of co.)

Rob Hi,

AYE !!!!

I try not to throw money down the drain :))))

Cheers,
PM

This drain will throw double back :))))

It's now on teletext, wait t'il it's in the Daily Mail tomorrow..

I must congratulate all the bulls on this share. You stuck by your arguments and were proven correct.
Well done.

K******

other site down so over here

Rob - where on teletext ?

meme

I can`t get onto ADVFN or iii now !

BBC 1 under L should be about page 228

BBC 1 under L should be about page 228

R33
ADVFN is currently off-line due to a power failure on-site.

or channel 4 page 513

BBC 1 page 227 4/6

me me

And i thought it was the 300 posts on ADVFN LGB today that caused it :-)

Good to see the same names on here as ADVFN. Cheers R33Skyline, I owe you a drink for all your work on the ADVFN thread, you kept the faith.

Looking at the trades today I think a platform is being built at around 90p now. what do you think?

Subject: Re-organisations
Date: Tue 6th Sep 2005 9:08:30
Country: United Kingdom
Industry: Property
Company:


Langbar exits South America, turns investment to Europe

LONDON (AFX) - Langbar International Ltd, the old Crown Corporation, said it has successfully negotiated an agreed and managed exit of its cash deposits in South America.
This is in order to provide the company with ready access to these funds to invest in the developing Langbar operations.
Cash deposits acquired from Crown Pharmaceuticals Ltd of 294 mln usd have been successfully transferred to a Langbar International head office account of ABN Amro BV in Holland. The interest rate on these deposits has been agreed at 3.5 pct per year.
The transfer of these deposits into Europe was conditional on certain undertakings in respect of potential Brazilian tax liabilities, in the event that any may arise. Langbar said it will therefore, in the interim statement to be issued later this month, prudently be providing the sum of 25 mln usd in respect of undetermined tax liabilities.
As to the balance of the Langbar funds on deposit in Brazil of some 370 mln usd, agreement has been reached with bankers in Brazil to invest the remaining funds in significant real estate assets in Europe.
Whilst the property market in the UK remains buoyant, and Langbar may well invest in the future in the UK, the board said it believes increasing shareholder value can be better achieved at the present time by investing in European projects, mainly in Portugal and Spain, which it intends to pursue with experienced joint venture partners.
These will be held in a new Langbar subsidiary, the European Property Investment Company ('EPIC'). The company is in the process of conducting due diligence and said it shall provide further details for shareholders in due course.
Langbar Capital Ltd, the investment and advisory business, will concentrate almost wholly in the UK small and mid-cap market and has a number of interesting
investment situations under consideration, the company added.
Langbar also said today it has acquired 100,000 ordinary shares in Zander Group Ltd at 135 pence per share. Langbar Capital already holds options on 500,000 shares in Zander, exercisable at 75 pence.
Stuart Pearson, the chief executive of Langbar International, is a non executive director of Zander which is intending to seek admission to AIM within twelve months, subject to market conditions.
Zander is involved in the regeneration of desert and arid land and the clean up of contaminated land.
Langbar also said that because of the number and quality of opportunities being presented to the company at the present time, it is unlikely that capital will be returned to shareholders.
The group said it expects to make further announcements regarding potential investments shortly.
newsdesk@afxnews.com
slm/

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Katsy

Touching wood ,

90p should be be a base with significant new shareholdings taking place.

Hope to see a steady rise tomorrow and Thurs through 1.00 + then wait to be updated.

Break my own rules now but i`m watching BFC to see if their plant is ready or expecting commissioning delays (not a ramp honest guv )

robstuff and paul;

in some of your earlier posts today; are you guys mixing your US dollars with british pounds ?? if so - would make a sizeable difference......

Thinking of buying back those shares now I sold this morning at 90.25p, since there is now support.

how long does it take to put the plug back in the socket

voss
Don't leave it too late this will move up towards close

..and on through 100p tomorrow, toward 150p by Friday. There is no reason why this should not be trading at NAV or a small discount to NAV. Clearly a very strong hold indeed. My opinion, I hold (of course!)

I`m in and holding 95% of everything 5% = beer money.

R33Skyline - I think everything that needed saying about LGB has been said, now it's the case of what they do with the money, no gaurantees...but. Anyway now it's time to focus on other opputunities. You really should have a look at IEC, company should be worth at least double what it is now. Check the advfn thread on this, I've been in since 3.85 now 5.20p people holding till 15. I'm aware BFC.

other site back up

cannot get LGB on though

these 500k are buy orders being filled

a.d.v.f.n has lost the ticker for LGB

P.S ADVFN has gone again !

You would expect this to generate tips from multiple publications over the coming days / weeks

Katsy

Will have a look at IEC ,DOO is another favourite

peter

This looks like a hold now ,Pearsons delivered so far and he`s only just started

With a forward looking market the SP could be on a projected NAV soon ...

Smalller companies report: Tuesday close
This is Money
6 September 2005

On the upside, Langbar International, the old Crown Corporation, climbed 35p to 88p in response to news that the Aim-listed investment company has successfully negotiated an agreed and managed exit of its cash deposits in South America.

This is in order to provide the company with ready access to these funds to invest in the developing Langbar operations

Hi All,

Another 40% tomorrow ?

That would take us to 1.23

Or could it do another 50% to 60% ?

That would still make LGB undervalued, and thursday/friday would see smaller rises, as nobody in their right mind would sell before 'value' was reached.

Cheers,
PM

2 MILLION TRADE AT 17.11 NICE!!!
EXPECT MORE T/MORROW

Paul, in the Highest gains on pg 513 Channel 4. It should be written about in the papers and did you notice the very large Buys at the end 1m and 2m - someones very confident, no longer just a punt.

looks like the institutions that took part in the recent placing at 48p took a nice profit and that's what's been holding the price around 88p.

by the looks of the volume today we've nearly exhausted these sells so, with a few tabloid tips tomorrow we could take the next step up to closer NAV...

Great find robstuff and commentary Paul.

Well done.

SWW Hi,

Thanks :)

Lots more to come yet :)

Cheers,
PM

Paul, what do you make of the price falling in opening trades?, it couldn't have been reported in papers so the retail investors don't know about it. IC may run an article. Disappointing.

Rob

Wouldn't be surprised if it was a bit of a shake, quite small volumes for the size of the mark down. There will be many investors who have bought at around 50p and the first sign of a pull back will convince them to lock in profits.

I'm gobsmacked. The sp should be over double the current price.

Patience... all will come good, let things settle down first!
Am sure by next RNS things will be a different matter!

the Evil one has gone long on this - by 50k.....(wish i could do the same.....)

Now I call that an endorsement.

He can count.

belisce

How do you know that please .

on another BB it states that it is on www.t1ps.com
- will check myself in a moment.

(am relatively knew to it....but i can see where a lot of people on this bulletin board might get their initial info from - in regards to the stocks that they select, that no-one else seems to know about)

Thanks belisce6

if its on t1ps.com thats official ... ;-)

belisce/R33skyline Hi,

Does EK have a target price ?

Cheers,
PM

R33, is your thread down on advfn ?

paul; no.....just said that it was worth a flutter, given that they are expecting to get their cash from Brazil etcetc....

as you guys have mentioned before; the discounted NAV of the total cash amount is somewhere about the 2 mark......
and effectively the current sp - which has just recently doubled mind you - is only reflectant of the cash that they have their hands on (Eurofund)......

so i would expect that many are holding out until the Brazilian cash is actually spent on the thing that they have indicated.....

(but as with everything ; SEO....HHO....CHP....BLR....you name it !!! - the earlier one is in in regards to sp, the higher the gain once the company comes thru....if it does)

Belisce6 Hi,

Thanks :)

I don't have any worries with this one, as I have stated from 'the beginning', and proof that there is nothing to be concerned about, is that LGB have received half the cash in Euroclear, and reached agreement on spending the rest(apart from 25m for possible tax liability), buying European assets from Brazillian holders(banks, trusts, etc), thus satisfying the Brazillian government that the cash is staying in Brazil(Clients holding assets in Europe, don't count as much as clients keeping cash within Brazil)

Cheers,
PM

Not the most informative press I've ever seen ....

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing-and-markets/tips-and-tactics/article.html?in_article_id=403500&in_page_id=23

Langbar International, the old Crown Corporation, jumped 35p to 88p. The Aim-listed investment company has successfully negotiated an agreed and managed exit of its cash deposits in South America.



http://www.money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/09/07/cxmktrep07.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/09/07/ixfrontmarkets.html

Aim-listed investment company Langbar International soared 35 to 88p after transferring $294m (159m) into its European account from South America.

Maybe they should return some of the cash to shareholders.

Paul, not sure that they have to be owned by Brazilians.

Xetra closed -1.60%

Dont not much about the same stock trading on different exchanges, how can a company be valued at 8% less on one exchange to another, 8% of market cap is a huge difference ?

Anyone have any idea why the sp is not pushing 1 + ?

Will we have to wait for another RNS for it to move upwards?

Phil Hi,

I think we will have to wait for the rest of the cash to be swapped for assets, as they managed to get $295m in cash, that means the SP is somewhat reflecting the NAV of that cash, but for it to reflect the entire value including cash still in Brazil, that money must be held in Europe. The market has decided that, not me :)

Cheers,
PM

Paul,

Basically you mean until these funds are safe and sitting in Europe, the market is being careful due to not being 100% sure it'll happen?

I cant really decide whether to dump LGB and push the lot into a longterm punt on Aminex.... Desions desions.... :)

From advfn

i agree with you that SP has probably done the transaction regarding the property deal, im guessing they swopped assets that the bank held in Europe for cash just like gingermagician said!!!!!!!and at a discount favourable to LGB. If this is the news we get this will fly without doubt because more that half the money will be in profitable investments,e.g. casinos,resorts etc. and the other monies will be in the bank earning interest which can be used to pay operating expenses of the firm!!!!that last RNS was incredible work by SP, he must have done all the hard work now!!!!!he can now go and buy little companies for fun e.g.MOI, and Zander!!say these companies go up by say 200% is that actually going to be a real benefit to LGB!!!!lol no!!!what is a few million to a company with more than 650million dollars!!!!!
i love LGB, so does everyone!!!!!!
stay away t-traders!!!!!500p here we come!!!not exactly impossible in say 2-3 years time provided good discounted investments are made now!!!
keep it up SP, let the investments begin and RNS's release

Bugz Hi,

In a nutshell .... yes :)

You could still double your money here over the next 2 to 3 months, before moving to AEX, and AEX will still be around the same price in 2 to 3 months, as they are not drilling DPRK or Tanzania until next year :)

Cheers,
PM

Ok point taken..

Nah mate. Just I know Paul is in on Aminex (AEX). No reason to get all twitchy....

R33skyline Hi,

Bugz is correct, and I hardly think saying "AEX will still be around the same price in 2 to 3 months" could be described as a ramp, unless you think it's reverse psychology of course :)

Cheers,
PM

Looks like this is on the move, possible news this week? when are the results due?

results due towards the end of the month - i think the reason for the activity today is we are going to see an rns this week concerning some sort of purchase that LGB are going to make.

Er, we are falling along with EVERY bloody stock I have!!! Sell at 67, buy at 70. Comments anyone?

Crazy! after getting 1 per share Cash out of the Brazilian Bank, so no risk now on that part and agreement to get the rest out - again more than a pound per share, we are back at 70p. Its like paying 70p for a 2 coin this investment.

That's what the MMs like to see, robstuff, got it in one! lol!

Paul - can't you get this share written about by sending them the story - i know you're good at that sort of thing. This share needs to get noticed!

From iii

20:45 e mail from s/p and results date! papaduke
Ihave the likely results date, i e mailed him 2 days ago, he has replied late evening today with a circa results date!!,just wanted to say bye bye to all the shorters on the board, and as per pre last rise i shall be taking out several more substantial options on lgb after tuesday as i will then get june 2006 options with ig,i mat disclose date or may not, seems to be too mant doubters on here, we shall see, blue horseshoe loves langbar, how many times must i say this,tip,carchase,fx, give me your e mail and i will forward the magic date.

R33 Hi,

Where do you find them, I have seen bad grammar before, and mine isn't the best, but that is rubbish, how can you believe someone who cannot spell, or check what they have written before they post it ?

What is IHave, e mailed, mat, mant ??

I think they are talking crap !

E-Mail the company yourself, and see if they give you an answer, they won't, and they didn't give him an answer either IMHO.

Cheers,
PM

R33.. sure I have seen you somewhere before ;)

I think the e-mail is also a fraud. People who bought at higher levels getting very twitchy now by the contents of the various BB's. Now is a time to sit back and wait, or even add if the SP drops anymore.

Good luck all holders

PM

The guys quite well respected on iii and has had replies from Pearson before .I have no reason to doubt his posts and he has been a long term holder of CCO/LGB.
Maybe he typed it in hurry i can`t help him with his grammer.

Many posters have received replies from Pearson or Padley at Bankside ,why should i doubt this one ..


Cheers ,

R33.


Edit - CRT131 Yes you doo seem familiar..

R33 Hi,

It just sounds like poo !

Has that poster ever forwarded an e-mail from HQ to anyone else ?

If not, it still only has a 50% chance of being true, same as a guess, and not even as good as an educated guess ....

Cheers,
PM

PM

Ive read his posts and trust him ..

Yet another reply from Pearson to a shareholder from iii

21:49 BUYE-mail from Stuart Pearson JRz
I e-mailed Stuart Pearson confirming the date for the interim results. I also asked him about the share price situation of why it is not near the NAV price.

As far as the interim date is concerned, the interims will be published at the end of next week.

As far as the price is concerned, he stated that Langbar International is bewildered about the discount of its share price and it is much larger than one would normally see in an investment company.

He also stated that long-term the Company's trading results will determine the share price. I am not really sure whether he was referring to the coming results or the ones in the future.

Hope this help.

Another email sent and replied to

from ADVFN

msjones - 23 Sep'05 - 10:51 - 7213 of 7213 (premium)


Hey boys, remember the e-mail i sent to LGB yesterday asking for a consideration of at least a modest share buy back programme (for ref see below)

Well i'm pleased to say that i gotta a response (If the major shareholders are happy who am i to qquibble i suppose):


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Sir,

This has been considered but the major shareholders are, at this time, happy with the progress and the strategy.

Regards
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jones M S (SoTech - M&S) [mailto:msjones@glam.ac.uk]
Sent: 22 September 2005 11:17
To: info@langbar.com
Subject: An exciting investment opportunity


Dear Mr Padley,

I am a shareholder of LGb and am delighted wit the recent performance of the board. They don't seem to have put a foot wrong at present. I keep up to date with their news releases and realise that they are not intending to return value to share holders at the moment in terms of cash but prefer to invest in some exciting opportunites.

While I applaud their actions and intentions, may I point out that while it is a laudable thing to do, there is another opportunity to invest that also presents an equally exciting opportunity especially where investors are concerned, namely instituting a share buy back programme. In this way, maximum value can be returned to shareholders for a minimum of outlay.

Please could you be so kind as to pass on my suggestions to the board. I am sure I'm not the first to do so.

Yours fatihfully,

Dr M.S. Jones

This is a reply by Pearson on behalf of Real Affinity,he does reply to PI`s

Thats 3 of Pearsons companys LGB,RAF and MOI all publishing interims or results before Sept 30th hmmm .

hmmmmm indeed. Lets hope it a good week as I hold 2 of those.. ;)

Well a good week for LGB so far. MOI should also do well.

Posted this elsewhere today - any comments?

Current share price of 81p gives a market cap of 140m.

In their last announcement they stated they had cash totalling US $664m in Brazil (which equates to 370m). Of this they have now removed $294m (167m) into a cash deposit account in Europe (at 3.5%) and have clearance to invest the remaining $370m (209m) in European assets (co's/property) which are as yet undisclosed

Hence you have a company with a mkt cap of 140m with assets of 350m (once provided tax liabilities are deducted), a discount of 63%.

The obvious concerns is the origins of the cash in Brazil seem dubious to say the least, though they now have their hands on the money. The discount to asset value is surely based on the anxiety of where the money came from and what could happen if the "dubiousness" was proved - could it be seized or repatriated by the Brazilian authorities. The other concern i have is this seems to have been ramped to the hilt recently and has a lot of "hot money" in it. Surely even if they invest the money poorly, a discount to NAV of over 60% is wrong.

They are expected to announce interims tomorrow am and I am contemplating taking a position in advance - anyone else looked into this or got any views?

Hi Fund
I`ve been in this for awhile now and I`m surprised the market has held this one back so heavily especially after the release of the funds you mentioned. I don`t think with the time scale of the money held in Brazil that the bank would have released any money unless Langbar (previously Crown Corporation) had proved their ownership of the funds. It`s one of those "this is too good to be true stories" in my opinion which I believe IS true. Even with the larger proportion of funds still in Brazil it is earning real interest on those funds. The money in Holland (me thinks) is earning I believe 4 or 4.5% interest on agreement so it`s hard to see this one failing to deliver some positive news. There are good people in charge and should make wise decisions on investments. Maybe everyone is too nervous about so much cash to play with and thinks the boards going to disappear with heavy suitcases !! This BB has been very quiet recently but I think that might change soon. I`m staying in and expecting to fill my empty suitcase soon on this one. All the best if you join the money train, I think I can just see it coming down the line. Obe

Well this afternoons RNS, that Pearson is going to bail out one of his other companies has persuaded me to stay out of this for now:


Langbar International Limited
29 September 2005


For immediate release

29 September 2005

Langbar International Limited
('the Company')

Statement re Possible Offer

Further to the announcement made earlier today by Real Affinity plc, the Company
confirms that it is in discussions with Real Affinity plc which may or may not
lead to the Company making an offer to acquire the entire issued share capital
of Real Affinity plc.

Dealing Disclosure Requirements

Under the provisions of Rule 8.3 of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (the
'City Code'), any person who, alone or acting together with any other person(s)
pursuant to an agreement or understanding (whether formal or informal) to
acquire or control relevant securities of Langbar International Limited or Real
Affinity plc, owns or controls, or becomes the owner or controller, directly or
indirectly, of one per cent. or more of any class of securities of Langbar
International Limited or Real Affinity plc is required to disclose, by not later
than 12.00 noon (London time) on the London business day following the date of
the relevant transaction, dealings in such securities of that company (or in any
option in respect of, or derivative referenced to, any such securities) during
the period to the date on which the offer becomes or is declared unconditional
as to acceptances or lapses or is otherwise withdrawn.

Under the provisions of Rule 8.1 of the City Code, all dealings in relevant
securities of Langbar International Limited or Real Affinity plc by Langbar
International Limited or Real Affinity plc, or by any of their respective
'associates' (within the meaning of the City Code) must also be disclosed.

If you are in any doubt as to the application of Rule 8 to you, please contact
an independent financial adviser authorised under the Financial Services and
Markets Act 2000, consult the Panel's website at
www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk
or
contact the Panel on telephone number +44 20 7638 0129; fax +44 20 7236 7013.


Enquiries:

Langbar International Limited Tel:0113 284 3838
Stuart Pearson (Chief Executive)

Fund, whats the history with RAF then? Why such bad news?

Booboo

Dont know a great deal about them but find it strange to see a company with a supposed 350m to invest spending 4m or so on a struggling company in which the LGB chief exec is involved. RAFs share price had gone from 1.5p to 0.2p prior to this and is currently loss making. The shares have gone uo to 0.95p on todays news.

Would rather see the company finding decent investment opportunities for 10-15% of their cash rather than bailing out "one of their own" - will MOI be next?

Yes, quite so. Not going to make much of a dent though is it. BUT you are right....hardly reflects the kind of leadership one would hope for with 350m in the bank.... perhaps I should buy MOI.....

Booboo

in the 10 mins after this was announced today MOIs price went up 20% then fell back at the close - i think the MMs were one step ahead of anyone thinking this today!!!

Hi All,

'tis a strange deal, but I guess they want the cash shell to float off another imminent aquisition, that would mean 'value' for shareholders, whether 'bailing out' or not.

Cheers,
PM

Since MAM has failed to post this:

Interim Results

RNS Number:0002S
Langbar International Limited
30 September 2005


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 30 September 2005

Langbar International Limited
(formerly Crown Corporation Limited)

Interim Results for the period ended 30th June 2005

Langbar International ("Langbar" or "the Company"), the UK listed investment
company, announces its interim results for the period ended 30th June 2005.

Highlights for the period:

*Pre-tax profit #14.77 million (Period to 30th Dec 2004 #166.81 million)

*Asset value, at period end, #356.85 million equivalent to 205p per share

*New Chief Executive appointed, new non-executive Director appointed

*Langbar Capital, a corporate finance advisory and investment company,
acquired, the consideration wholly satisfied by the issue of 2 million
common shares

*Capital reorganisation

*Arden Partners appointed Nominated Adviser and Broker

Post Balance Sheet events:

*Total of #4.1 million raised via Placings

*$294 million transferred to ABN Amro, Holland from Banco do Brazil,
Brazil

*Acquisition of Real Affinity plc, an integrated marketing services
company for a consideration of #2.6 million, wholly satisfied by the issue
of common shares

*Balance of cash held in Brazil to be transferred to EPIC, the property
subsidiary

Stuart Pearson, Chief Executive and Acting Chairman, commented:

"The performance of the share price has improved dramatically since we last
reported in June. However it is still substantially below the net asset value of
the business.

"Since my appointment we have been focused on realising the asset value by
releasing the funds from Brazil and on keeping shareholders up to date with
events. We recently announced that $294 million had been transferred to ABN
Amro, Holland.

"The strategy for the future has not been changed and it remains to produce
consistent and growing earnings for our shareholders by actively managing the
investments. These will include early stage, pre-IPO and small company
investments, of which Real Affinity represents an excellent example, as well as
larger ones where appropriate.

"The Company is carrying out due diligence on a major property investment and is
also looking at a number of smaller interesting opportunities where profit and
shareholder value can be significantly enhanced. Investments made are likely to
have a UK and European focus in the short term."

Folks, I know I'm not the most intelligent pebble on the beach BUT why are people still buying RAF at more than the offer price, when LGB can be bought directly so cheap at the moment???

Hi iturama.
Thanks for posting the results. MAM should slap themselves hard around the head for not posting the results. I`m a novice at this game but find it hard to believe there are so many sheep out their selling because a company has made a profit. I see so many other reports come out and it`s "wow...lets buy these because there loss this year is not as bad as last year !!!" Here we have an undervalued stock that people are running from because of a healthy profit and assets that are becomming much more attainable and useable. Most of the real progress that has happened has been since June so why the bus out of Langbar city ?! Please enlighten me.
Obe2

....er just realised!....told you I wasn't the brightest....does that mean that the MM's will manipulate the share price around 78 until the deal is done?

I think some were expecting news of the investment of the funds, but this is not going to happen overnight. We know the money is there and is now "safe" so the risk has been taken out of this investment. I still predict a sp of over 1.50 within the next few mths, if not sooner. Some holders are sitting on good profits especially those from the placing and its never wrong to take a profit especially if its so quick and this has kept the price down but As I have said in the past, true value will be seen soon Its a non-brainer!!

Yesterday I was close to being carried along by the story and taking a modest position for long enough for the value to out.

What stopped me was the number and size of the trades going through around the bid price. As any experienced trader will observe, you can't tell what is going on from Buys and Sells because there is a party on either side of the transactions, BUT

my reading of it was that there is a serious overhang being unloaded and until that has cleared there is little chance of the price rising.

The cash may be real but if there are some distressed shareholders unloading into strength they'll have to be cleared before there is any point in committing to this one.

Must be clearing then, price has recovered 6p already from this am

and another penny, thats 10% you would have gained. This co's sp is very volatile and I don't think it's worth trying to read anything into the movements, whats clear is that they have net assets worth 3x the sp = very undervalued. Someone will notice before long and pounce.

Calm down rob. My screen says 5% down on the day. Please don't post here without trying to forward the debate. There's a well known BB across the road for making noise.

edit: Now 7% and with a spread widened to 7% this is not the time to get in.

IMHO there was absolutely nothing new in the results and there is still uncertainty as to the extraction and use of the funds from Brazil.

1 thing thats nagging me, if they have all this cash and access to at least some of it, why did they raise 4m recently for working capital and then why in buying RAF are they buying it with shares not cash - its only 2.6m (less than 1% of what they claim to have). At least they are only paying 0.39p per share (some RAF buyers yesterday got shafted)

Can anyone shed any light

Fundy, I've got some of these as a punt. Like you I am totally baffled why they need to raise funds when they've got all this cash. Only answer I can come up with is that the money hadn't been released from Brazil in time. Bit lame I know, but no idea what is going on. Must be the strangest company on the LSE!

pth

Bribes ;)

Presumably they cannot get their hands on the cash in Holland at ABM Amro yet.

Fundamentalist.
The placing was made in August when the company was still Crown Corporation, and before the money had been released from Banco do Brasil.
I don't think there is anything fishy about the Brazil deal. The fact is that a lot of companies have invested there because of the very high interest rates on cash deposits while the local currrency, the Real, has appreciated over 50% against the US$ over the last 2 years.
As for the shares v cash acquisition for RAF, I doubt that the RAF external directors would have recommended the cash offer. It is at the lower end of the average trading price of the stock for this year and cash would have been final. An all share deal offers the RAF shareholders the opportunity to share in the LGB upside since the nominal value of the shares is only a third of the NAV value.
Think about it, which would you have preferred, as a RAF shareholder?

Langbar set for huge property deal
But Real Affinity has to be dealt with first
Eric Barkas
City Editor
LANGBAR INTERNATIONAL, the investment company, expects to seal a $200m property acquisition by the end of November.
The deal should have been the showpiece when Langbar reported interim results yesterday. In the event, the show was stolen by the company's first corporate acquisition the more modest 2.6m in shares agreed for Real Affinity, the Bradford-based marketing company.
The Real Affinity deal was flagged up in Friday's Business Post. Stuart Pearson, who runs Langbar out of Leeds, has bigger fish to fry.
The property deal is likely to be in Portugal or Spain and will involve a 150-acre site including commercial and residential property, hotels and a golf course. There's a limit to what Mr Pearson can say, given that regulators have told him to get Real Affinity sorted before he can move on to the next announcement.
If you look at Langbar you need a degree in corporate finance, such is the complexity of the history.
It all began with Crown, an investment company incorporated in Bermuda for tax reasons. Crown had a lot of big plans but never did a big deal. Instead, it spent money chasing deals that never came off.
But it did have some cash. Mr Pearson, a former Baker Tilley accountant in Leeds, says he was invited on board, injected some of his own corporate boutique interests, and ended up as chief executive. He changed the name to Langbar.
The company's strategy is to invest in small businesses, help them to grow then spin them off. There are several current investments, of which Real Affinity is potentially the biggest.
Langbar is paying for the Bradford company in shares in a deal worth some 2.6m. Mr Pearson says Real Affinity management had lined up several potential acquisitions but was previously prevented from following through by the small size and even smaller share price of the company.
He says with Langbar's financial muscle he expects to make an acquisition within the next month which will double Real Affinity's size. A second purchase is pending before Christmas. Real Affinity floated on the Aim market in 2001, specialising in direct and web-based marketing.
Failure to integrate acquisitions and lack of financial controls sent it into the red. Full year results out yesterday showed the deficit to be 2m before tax but after exceptional costs of around 1m.
The headcount has been halved to 60. The head office is now a more modest building. Yet the company has a raft of impressive clients almost all of them FTSE 100 or big international players like Tesco and VW/Audi.
Under Langbar, Real Affinity will de-list. Mr Pearson says he expects management to grow the business quickly. Then Langbar will spin it off back to the public domain.
"What we've really given it is the currency to go out and build this business."
So what of Langbar? It keeps its Bermuda registration as a legacy of Crown but the operations end is in Yorkshire. It has some 360m of cash, mainly inherited from Crown. Included in that is around 160m recently repatriated from Brazil. Crown raised share money there and had PFI contracts. There's another 190m still to be repatriated.
Hence the property deals. Brazil has long-standing relations with Portugal and, because of its proximity and influence, Spain. If Mr Pearson can't get the physical cash out, he'll get it by asset transfer to property. His plan is that Langbar will end up with a marketing company and a property company to spin off. Add to that a third company he won't talk about but on which he is is prepared to spend $250m of Brazil money.
In the end, the ambition is modest. Langbar shareholders will have shares in three companies and Langbar itself will revert to being Mr Pearson's little boutique.
Langbar's half year figures yesterday showed taxable profits of 18.2m. The comparative period showed 146.5m but was influenced by one-off contracts in South America bought and sold by Crown.
eric.barkas@ypn.co.uk
01 October 2005

http://www.atlanticogolfehotel.com/

Is this the daftest share? Worth 4 times the sp in cash!!!! when are people going to wake up to this fact.

Rob Hi,

One day real soon :)

Cheers,
PM

Langbar International - SPECULATIVE BUY
Companies: LGB RAF
03/10/2005

A company with a market value of 114 million that has just reported net assets more than three times that level at 357 million should not see its shares drop 15 per cent.

Nevertheless, this fate affected Langbar International when chairman Stuart Pearson delivered a 14.77 million interim pre-tax profit for this investment company, previously called Crown Corporation. He reckons last weeks 12p fall in the share price to 66p reflects profit-taking by those who bought the shares when the corporate financier joined the venture in early June. At that point the shares, after initially doubling from their 370p starting price, stood at 11.5p.

Previous chief executive Marius Rybak had sold the groups interests in Argentinian construction contracts for 280 million in term deposits with Brazils central bank. Clearly the market believed Crown would be unable to realise them. Last week though Pearson confirmed that he has arranged to use $200 million of the funds to develop a property venture in Portugal and transferred the remaining $300 million from Brazil to Holland.

He wants to appoint a renowned property professional to develop the Portugal site and eventually spin it off. With the remaining assets he plans to acquire an established cash generative business.

Meanwhile, he is undertaking smaller transactions, such as last weeks 2.6 million bid for marketing services outfit Real Affinity. Pearson is starting to attract long-term investors to back him and at a 68% discount to net asset value of 205p a share, others should follow this lead.

Christopher Spink
Market cap: 114.3m
PE Forecast: n/a
Share price: 66p

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hundreds piled in before results hoping for a quick killing. it didnt happen so they sold which has spooked a few other. hence the price drop. each to their own but imo they are VERY shortsighted.

Agree. Greed & fear. Sit back and watch it happen. Great buying opportunity in the making for newcomers prepared to hold more than a week.

Some very sustained buying yesterday without any great effect. If the big T trade at the end of the day was a sell, just could be that Phillip Wood was selling some stock to invest in MOI. Just a theory but, if so, LGB should start to recover.

rumour has it that todays massive volume was one or more institution/s buying in and clearing out the big forced seller...

guess we'll see tomorrow...

also may be more institutions coming on board as Pearson is currently doing the rounds in the city...

Anyone seen the RNS on the other side. Merrill Lynch bought 250,000 @ .59p own 4.6million shares = 2.65% of Co.

More news tommorrow, looks like Stuart Pearson doing the business.

Looking good for tommorrow.

..............looks like the 'business' isn't helping .........it really gives me the creeps this share........can't bear to look sometimes....

Hi BOOBOO
Looks like being BOOHOO for awhile now. Don`t understand why this cash rich company is so oversold. Has the money been carried away in suitcases to the Bahamas or something ?! Why doesn`t anyone like companies making money anymore ? Anybody would think the interim results showed a massive loss not millions of pounds gain !!!!....if I had any spare cash I`d be buying more to average down ....quite heavily I would hope...but I haven`t got any...I wonder if I contact Stuart Pearson....he`s got alot of cash on his hands !!!....looks like my time scale for profit has to be extended a tad !! Good luck all.

Some further fund buying~

RNS Number:4942S
Universities Superannuation Scheme
11 October 2005


Date of Disclosure 11/10/05

DISCLOSURE UNDER RULES 8.1(a), 8.1(b)(i) and 8.3
OF THE CITY CODE ON TAKEOVERS AND MERGERS

Date of dealing 5/10/05

Dealing in LANGBAR INTERNATIONAL LTD (name of company)

1) Class of securities (eg ordinary shares) COMMON EUR 0.001 SHARES


2) Amount bought Amount sold Price per unit

200,000 - #0.60

3) Resultant total of the same class owned or controlled
(and percentage of class) 3,420,000 (1.96%)


4) Party making disclosure UNIVERSITIES SUPERANNUATION SCHEME LIMITED

RNS Number:4944S
Universities Superannuation Scheme
11 October 2005


Date of Disclosure 11/10/2005

DISCLOSURE UNDER RULES 8.1(a), 8.1(b)(i) and 8.3
OF THE CITY CODE ON TAKEOVERS AND MERGERS

Date of dealing 6/10/2005

Dealing in LANGBAR INTERNATIONAL LTD (name of company)

1) Class of securities (eg ordinary shares) COMMON EUR 0.001 SHARES


2) Amount bought Amount sold Price per unit

400,000 - #0.59

3) Resultant total of the same class owned or controlled
(and percentage of class) 3,820,000 (2.19%)


4) Party making disclosure UNIVERSITIES SUPERANNUATION SCHEME LTD

andyeds,

just checked the LSE website, and then realised that none of the Oct RNSs for LGB show up on MAM (for me).......

and sure enough, there is a big long being closed, and a major share-holder selling at low price a couple of percent of the company (but still remaining with about 19%)......

i assume the sp has been held back so that they can all get on board........
would tie in nicely with the insto's getting in......

Alternatively, belisce6, the sp was held back so the major share-holder could offload 2% at a nice low price - I don't think so, do you?

Since the price is being held way low on sentiment, sentiment must be taken to be the dominant factor over fundamentals that is governing the SP. The sentiment is evidently speaking its mind currently. So I guess, we all have to wait for a change in sentiment for a decisive change in the SP - who knows in which direction. I'd need it to be dma-breakingly northward before entering the debate with hard currency. The safest entry point would be as it breaks the July 100p high. You may miss out on the first 50p, but you capture the next 50p much more safely. However, I do not expect many PI's who also read BB's will be taking this advice - atque mea culpa.

sd

Hi All,

Those who remember my posts on FYB, the one's I was suspended for, and decided not to go back .... well here you have the proof that I was posting a perfectly valid statement, by suggesting that LGB would suspend the stock, pending a revaluation, this has happened today, so LOL at FYB !!!!

Statement re. Suspension

RNS Number:5412S
Langbar International Limited
12 October 2005


Langbar International Limited ("the Company")


The Company announces today that it has requested the suspension of trading in
its common shares of Euro 0.001 each in the capital of the Company with
immediate effect pending independent verification of certain of the assets of
the Company.

Excellent, independent verification and true value to come..what price will it start trading at, any guesses?

So paul , what else do you know?

Must say, I am mightily relieved. Couldn't sleep last night. Carrying a bigger loss than ever and have broken all my own rules on when its time to jump off (the investment that is, not the cliff). Come on Pauly give us a clue about a possible re entry level?

there are so many rumours good and bad flying around about this on other sites
its hard, what to believe, but raf shares have gone up today,

Rybak has been selling over recent days. It would be informative to know why. I suspect that interested institutions might have requested he reduce his stake, but it would be helpful to see that in print.


RNS Number:5284S
Dr Mariusz Rybak
11 October 2005


FORM 8.3


DEALINGS BY PERSONS WHO OWN OR CONTROL 1% OR MORE OF ANY CLASS OF RELEVANT
SECURITY
(Rule 8.3 of The City Code on Takeovers and Mergers)

Name of purchaser/vendor * Dr Mariusz Rybak
Company dealt in Langbar
International
Relevant security dealt in Ordinary shs

If a connected EFM, name of offeree/offeror with which N/a
connected

If a connected EFM, nature of connection # N/a

Date of dealing Most recent date
11th

DEALINGS +

Amount bought Price per unit (currency must be stated)

Amount sold Price per unit (currency must be stated)
500,000 56p

Resultant total amount and percentage of the same
relevant security owned or controlled 34,100,892 19.69%


Previously undisclosed trades detailed below

Date of dealing No. Shares Buy/Sell Price Resultant Total Percentage
4 Oct 2005 750,000 Sell 64.38p 37,550,892 21.68%
6 Oct 2005 2,100,000 Sell 55.19p 35,450,892 20.47%
7 Oct 2005 600,000 Sell 61.5p 34,850,892 20.12%
10 Oct 2005 250,000 Sell 59.8p 34,600,892 19.98%


IS A SUPPLEMENTAL FORM 8 (DERIVATIVE)/FORM 8 (OPTION) ATTACHED? NO

Date of disclosure 11th October 2005

Help please. What do LOL & FYB stand for ?

Hi Granny
LOL is short for laughing out loud....FYB is another BB bulletin Board...on another site.

Hi All,

We know these have a NAV of over 2, an independent valuation might raise that.

They should IMVHO be trading at no more than a 20% discount to NAV, so 1.60+ is the target.

Cheers,
PM

Yes but do we know the NAV is good?
Are there really no claims on this money?

I suspect Pearson is sick of the unbelievers as are the companies brokers and has had enough of it all.

iturama,
that is what i was trying to get at.......he has reduced by about 2% i think, at a time that they have been doing the rounds and getting some institutions on board etcetc..........so he's either been asked to pass over part of his parcel, or simply had to reduce in order to get them the price they wanted (or something to that effect)........On the other hand he may have simply been reducing his stake (but at such a low price ???)

and perhaps out of it all (the City rounds) came the notion that they should get their assets independantly valued.......

although it is always possible that the negative perception of these events can also be true........

i imagine that the "pending independent verification of certain of the assets of
the Company." part has to do with verifying that they can in fact get their hands on their Brazilian money........

The Rybek sales are a concern and may have triggered the suspension. Why would he sell at a third of the claimed NAV value? If it was due to institutional pressure, he could have done a private sale to those institutions.
I suspect SP is a bit concerned about the second tranche of cash (the $370M). I can't see any justification for the BOB holding that back, unless the original US$ had been converted into local currency, then applied in the money markets. This could well be the case and it is entirely feasible to have doubled the money, in US$ terms, in the period. The Brazilian Real has appreciated around 50% in the last two years against the US$ and internal interest rates have been very high.
The BOB would have no problem repatriating the original $ amount, plus interest. This amounts to $294M or 168M. This gives a bottom line NAV of over 1 per share.
The second tranche could have restrictions but SP appears to have resolved that, at least with the BOB. Lets hope so.

after being on the sidelines here my view is that this does NOT bode well. i think the valuation will come in far far lower than expected or even close to zero.

i am not scaring people here but in a mispricing situation that everyone has banged on about there is always a bit of smoke and fire and in this case if all was legit then these would trade at a small discount as opposed to the huge disc currently.

i wish holders luck but i think this valuation is at the request of regulators, the LSE or some other body. what the hell does it mean otherwise: "independent verification of certain of the assets of
the Company." - when is that good news?????????????????

nm

nm

nm

paulmasterson1

With respect I do not know Proptrade but have benefitted from information given by him, and believe him to be honest. If you don`t agree with him,which I don`t on this occasion fine.

But it is important for all views to be heard and not be slatted. You never know what information you might learn from.

regards

nm

Paul,

As long as negative comment is posted in a non personal way this is a free speech forum - people are entitled to be negative about any share they see fit, just as you are more than entitled to be positive about it.

I have had to step in on the SEO thread today, I am now stepping in here as well - stick to the subject not your fellow posters.

I will not step in again as far as any poster on these 2 threads is concerned - I will simply take action.

I sincerely hope I have made myself clear enough to everyone and is a last warning before we remove access to a few posters including yourself.

Ian

Hi, I do not understand why the suspension is got to bad news. They are just suspending trading because I think they want an Indipendent Panel to give a fair value to the Company and stopping all the speculations that have been going for so long where the money comes from etc,etc.....They have deposited a lot of money in a European Bank you know which one and surely with all these EEC regulations the Bank was not going to accept all this money knowing that could be of dubios origins as someone keeps speculating, and even the money left in Brasil must have value and this is simply not showing in the share price so the Directors of the Company none of them fleeing abroad.....being fade up of this ludicrous undervaluation have stopped trading for now. As simple as that. Well at least We all hope so...... I am optmistic, regards Al

From the 30 sept 05 RNS;

" Stuart Pearson, Chief Executive and Acting Chairman, commented:

'The performance of the share price has improved dramatically since we last
reported in June. However it is still substantially below the net asset value of
the business. "

I am still optimistic that a positive situation will arise.........

Ian, cheers for those comments.

My post above may have been a little on the strong side but my reasons for remaining on the sidelines were that often when presented with a gift horse (company at a huge disc to NAV) there is usually a reason why, and the suspension today may disclose that reason. I may be wrong and this stock opens alot higher and I then wish all holders well - and i truely mean that.

I do not in any way feel the need to defend myself but apart from some amusing non-market related comments on the SEY thread I have never lied or mislead an online community I enjoy being a member of.

Some posters feel the need to spin and spin and spin. At times it is amusing but at other times it is just annoying. All I ask as a member of this community is that posts are kept on the side of fact and stated rumour as opposed to lies and spinning yarns.

By the way, Dr Square I thank you for your comment and would like to let you know that I have recieved numerous private emails from fellow posters giving their views (politely!) in this name but also lots of support taking a stand against a certain other poster! cheers.

Rgds
PT

Prop

seems your views are very similar to mine on this one - something just didnt feel right and still doesnt. My personal opinion is that is more likely to be bad news rather than good, though ultimately without being much closer to the deals we will not know until it is fully out in the open. The small placing and the offer to buy RAF with shares both indicated to me that the company still had no access to any of the cash.

just because some people cannot accept any view that differs from their ramps should not detract from sensible posters like you prop

Prop/Fundy - Hear Hear (or is it here here?!)

Scuse me folks....the statement actually says that IT (the company) has requested the suspension of its shares pending an investigation. That was surely said for a very good reason. They were not MADE to do it. It is soooooo obvious from the negativity bouncing around on this BB why this share cannot possibly reach its rightful level at the moment. Nice one SP. This, is, in my view the best news so far for LGB. I'm with Paul on this one........never let me down yet.....

I spoke with Bankside (give them a call) who have confirmed that the company itslef called for the suspension, primarily floowing the sales from Ryback, to qualify the asset poistion to the market from an independant source and thus remove all uncertainty and bogus sp fluctuation.

Timescales are unknown, but probably in weeks.

Pearson is openly against shorters and scaremongers, so this can only help to add to lessening their impact.

At the end of the day. Those that are in this share will have to wait for the announcement, and can do nothing to change any fact. Those that are outside of the share can say whatever and will not have any effect on the outcome. I am in this share and freely admit it is a complete gamble we will see.

I did have a look at some of the share magazines last night. While they where reporting the moneys being released from Brazil and the companys recent investments. They did not seem to carry any real enthusiasm for the company. As pointed out above no one will take this company seriously until the fog is blowen away. This will take in my opion something major ie what is happening.

If nothing else I will be able to tell my children the story of the great Aim swindle or you can get money for nothing.

regards

Probably enough already said so lets wait and see. However on the Brazil issue, I have a lot of experience with that country and know that inflows of foreign capital of $100,000 or more must be registered with the Central Bank. That money if freely repatriable, plus reasonable interest. Dividends and capital gains are also repatriable subject to any applicable federal and state taxes, plus a (possible)withholding tax of 15%.
I therefore have no qualms about the money already released to AMRO. It has to have been registered capital returned to the registered owner of the money. I suspect the remainder is capital gains but that is pure guesswork.

The Guardian

Langbar International, a little-known investment company listed on the Alternative Investment Market (Aim) and formerly known as Crown Corporation, asked for trading in its shares to be suspended yesterday while it attempts to secure evidence that it does have more than 350m deposited in overseas bank accounts.
The shares were suspended at 50p, less than a quarter of the 205p net asset value per share of the company, after some investors voiced concerns about recent stock sales.
On Tuesday it emerged that Mariusz Rybak, the company's co-founder and former executive chairman, had been steadily reducing his stake in the business. His holding was in excess of 30% in the summer but Mr Rybak has been forced to disclose that his stake has fallen below 20% after a series of disposals.
A number of investors were concerned about his lack of support for the stock and contacted Langbar and its advisers on Tuesday.

The company subsequently decided to appoint independent accountants to scrutinise the company's assets. In so doing they are likely to check on cash deposits held in three principal bank accounts - one each in Brazil and Holland, and a third in Leeds.

Stuart Pearson, who took over as Langbar's chief executive in June, received written confirmation in July from the Banco do Brasil that the company had legal and beneficial ownership of deposits worth $660m (377m) held in Brazil at that time.

Subsequently Mr Pearson arranged for $294m to be transferred from Brazil to a bank account in Holland. He is now negotiating a deal to allow the balance of the Brazilian funds to be used to finance property deals on the Iberian peninsula.

The valuations relating to those deals are now being reviewed as a matter of course.

The overseas cash was generated in almost equal measures by the proceeds from a stock market listing and the profit from the sale of construction contracts awarded in Argentina under that country's equivalent of the private finance initiative.

The listing was supported largely by Brazilian, Argentinian and some German investors. Because of the company's South American investor involvement, the funds raised had to be retained, under local banking rules, in that part of the world.

The company was assisted in winning the Argentinian construction contracts in 2003 by Lambert Financial Investments, a Barcelona-based fund manager representing mainly wealthy pensioners living in South America. Lambert is said to enjoy good relations with the Argentinian government.

The contracts, with a value of about $700m, were not carried out by Langbar but sold to Lambert last year, generating a profit of $350m. Despite not having done any of the work outlined in the documents, Langbar has been given assurances that it has no continuing liabilities relating to the contracts.

Lambert is now rumoured to have sold on the contracts again, generating fresh profits on the deal.

Lambert paid the $350m it owed Langbar for the contracts, using a promissory note which was honoured and paid into the Brazilian bank account in June this year. Although the Brazilian bank accounts have been a feature at Langbar since its Aim listing in 2003, they came to prominence only in the summer.

In July Mr Pearson visited Brazil and he reported to the market on his return that not only did the funds exist but that he was also exploring methods to secure access to them.

Langbar's share price, which was 11p when Mr Pearson was appointed, rose close to the 100p mark during the summer. But the trading price has drifted back towards the 50p suspension level as sellers emerged.

A couple of thoughts as I watch this one from the side-lines:-

1. "Langbar International, a little-known investment company . . " all credit to the fearless ferreting out of this company and reporting on it by the Grauniad's trusty investigative financial journo! lol. Or did someone feed him the above press release - it is written in very crisp, terms (balanced to the nth degree, so as to sound reasonable and fair, whilst saying nothing negative at all - so not that balanced), unlike the G's normal style IMHO.

2. When a share is suspended for other than technical restructuring reasons, the outcome upon re-listing is a 50/50 gamble. I am not in the business of gambling, so any share that is, or is likely to become, suspended is not in the market in which I wish to trade.

Both above comments are highly sceptical of the current situation, I know. Notwithstanding, upon re-listing after a properly clarifying RNS as to the status of LGB's cash assets and, importantly, any liabilities attaching thereto, I will continue to watch this one to see if there is a trading opportunity to be had. (I do not see this as ever havong long-term attractions as a core-holding for me.) Until then I'm sitting on not only my hands, but my laptop too.

I wish all holders the greatest good fortune on the outcome upon re-listing. The wait will be horrendous - just breath very deeply and slowly.

sd

Are we able to get another statement which says WHO the independent valuer is (hopefully having taken the decision to do this, the valuer will be VERY PRESTIGIOUS, VERY CONVINCING and the VERY BEST choice to make a difference!) AND .............perhaps reaffirm that the company took the decision IN OUR VERY BEST INTERESTS! ha ha

It does not take a brain surgeon to make a few phone calls to find out what might be happening.

Perhaps you might all like to consider that as part of the process of acquiring Real Affinity there is a period of due diligence required by both parties in this transaction by the accountants and lawyers. As part of the enquiries normally cash is treated as cash available/disposable, but for some reason, which they would not say, some doubt has been cast as to the real cash balances and the true ownership (unencumbered ownership). You have to assume that the company was happy to get a third party to verify, or were they forced to for some reason? No doubt the result of the verification will be made public and we will then know the true reason for the sudden suspension, good or bad.


A few useful numbers:

Stuart Pearson 0113 284 3838

Michael Padley 020 7444 4140

l spoke to company relations man today,there is a meeting friday with broker and bank to appoint valuer.he didnt no why ceo sold so many shares at qtr of asset val.l am alarge holder and not hopefull of outcome i always feel the market tells u when somethings wrong and it has i just wish i had listened to it.i will post his mobile tel no if anybody req it

Pauly M strikes again !!!

This stinks and a just a quick reminder for Pauly :

Dil - 27 Aug 2005 00:50 - 14 of 201
Any of you lot tried getting money out of Brazil without providing proof of delivery of goods / services that have been confirmed by government officials ?

Good luck.

Dil, They have already got money out!!
And they ain trying to get any more out!!

Its not Wales yer know!!

I gave up long ago trying to get money out the Welsh!!

someone post the FT article today, I cant update my subscription, stupid payment system!!

Hiya mate how you keeping ?

We'll have to wait and see how much they really got out.

Langbar board meets
Eric Barkas
City Editor
Langbar International's board met in Barcelona last night to thrash out issues surrounding suspension of its shares.
The cash shell company, which is run out of Leeds, had requested suspension after former chief executive Mariusz Rybak sold shares equivalent to 10 per cent of the company.
This, plus an earlier sale by a hedge fund, depressed shares and caused concern among institutional investors. The suspension price of 50p compared with a high for the year of 120p.
A Langbar spokesman said that, given the uncertainty, it was best to suspend the shares so the board could thrash out finances and reassure investors there was no hidden reason for the sale of shares. Barcelona was chosen because it was convenient for board members and, as an offshore company registered in Bermuda, Langbar was limited in what it could do officially in the UK.
Langbar has around 360m in cash, most of it inherited from the investment company Crown Corporation in which it had its beginnings. Two weeks ago the company agreed on its first corporate acquisition 2.6m in shares for the Bradford marketing business Real Affinity.
14 October 2005

The jewel in Crown's cash shell is hard to find
By David Blackwell
Published: October 14 2005 03:00 | Last updated: October 14 2005 03:00

Psssssst! Wanna buy 224p for 50p? Take a look at Langbar International, the mother and father of Aim cash shells.

The interim report and accounts, published last week, shows that the company has a net asset value of just over 360m, equivalent to 224p a share. Most of that is cash sitting in banks in the Netherlands and Brazil.

The company supports a staff of just three people.

However, you may be thanking your lucky stars to have missed this particular boat. On Wednesday, the shares were suspended at 50p at the request of the company, "pending independent verification of certain assets of the company".

The news was the latest twist in the most astonishing tale of a cash shell I have ever come across. It goes a long way to explaining why the London Stock Exchange felt it necessary to tighten the rules for Aim's cash shells earlier this year.

The story begins late in 2003, when Crown Corporation listed on Aim at 360p a share with plans to invest in North American companies. Instead, it exchanged multiple contracts with several companies for construction projects in Argentina with a total value of $633m (361m) on completion.

In June last year, it sold the portfolio of utility and construction contracts for $350m to Lambert Financial Investment, its partner in the region, which owned almost 60 per cent of Crown at the time.

As Crown did not pay for the contracts originally, the sale generated a large profit.

It was to use the funds for yet another change of direction - a move into oil and gas in Russia. That decision led to talks early this year with MOS International, a tiny Aim-listed consultancy to the oil industry, where Stuart Pearson was a non-executive director.

Crown was founded by Mariusz Rybak, a Canadian businessman based in Monaco. He had watched the Crown share price fall to about 13p, or about one-tenth of the value of the cash in the company. He asked Mr Pearson to report on what he believed to be the reasons for the fall.

Mr Pearson had spent more than 20 years as a corporate financier with Baker Tilly in northern England but had recently set up Langbar Capital, his own advisory and investment company. He was blunt about Crown's lack of attraction to investors - the promissory notes and certificates of deposit instead of cash, the lack of corporate governance, the offshore base, the Latin American contract deal, and the founders shares, which gave Mr Rybak rights to a large dividend. So Mr Rybak asked him to run it.

He agreed on condition that he get a totally free hand and that Mr Rybak leave the board. Mr Pearson became chief executive in June only after exhaustive due diligence - including several visits to Brazil - which satisfied him that the cash from the promissory notes and the certificates of deposit existed.
The interim report and account shows that Langbar earned 30.9m in interest for the six months to June 30. Pre-tax profit was 18.2m after administrative expenses of 12.7m and earnings per share of 21p.

The comparable figures for Crown for the whole of 2004 was profit of 146.5m following the sale of the construction contracts in Argentina. Earnings per share were 322p.

In a few months, Mr Pearson has accomplished quite a lot. The company changed its named to Langbar International after acquiring Mr Pearson's advisory company for 2m shares. It changed nominated adviser from Nabarro Wells to Arden Partners. At the same time, it raised 4m through placings at 48p, bringing in UK institutional investors. Since then, both Merrill Lynch and Gartmore have bought stakes.

About $290m has been moved from Banco do Brazil to ABN Amro in the Netherlands, pending an acquisition, probably in the financial services sector. The remaining $370m in Brazil has been earmarked for an asset swap into property in Spain and Portugal.

Mr Pearson's plan is to spin off both the European acquisition and the property company, leaving his advisory company listed on Aim. A fortnight ago, Langbar agreed to acquire Real Affinity, an Aim-listed marketing services company, in an all-share deal valuing it at 2.6m.

He understood that Mr Rybak, who held about 30 per cent of the equity after waiving a dividend of more than 23m (15.8m) for his founders shares last year, was supporting the plans.

But the fact that the company was in an offer period for Real Affinity compelled Mr Rybak to report his dealings in the company shares.

This week he announced that, so far this month, he has sold 4.2m shares at prices between 55.19p and 64.38p, raising 2.45m. The announcement also revealed that his total stake has fallen to 19.69 per cent.

Mr Rybak could not be contacted for comment this week. At the last annual meeting - held in Monaco in July - only one shareholder other than Mr Rybak was present.

Presumably a few more will be asking questions at the emergency shareholder meeting that must be held soon to approve the increase in share capital for the Real Affinity deal.

Dil, im doing fine, still in cloggyland, still punting the markets tho no so much on the GGs , dont have the weekend time!! Nipper is 5 so fotoball training and all the other things that go with it!!

As for LGB, Ive made aload of calls and am very confident the money in Holland is safe, they take the cheque as tarrant would say, now you might as well answer this one as you money in ABN Amro is safe.

Where the Brazilian money?!!! A B C OR D!!!!

The independant RAF people have discounted the BOB money in agreeing the takeover, if its there then good if it aint then 78p is still a fair price for shares backed with 90p cash.
the RAF shareprice backs that up to.

The shares are only 50p due to selling, the price before the selling was 80p ish!!

Ryback probably thought unless they break up the co which they agreed not to (maybe against his wishes) he wouldnt be able to shift all his shares for more than 60p and rather than ait he started to sell, )rem he sold a load before the t/o probably at 80 and 90p!!!

i will repeat what i posted this morning in a slightly different format!

Also posted it on iii!


After my conversation with the CEO of RAF i firmly believe the Dutch money is safe and the asset under question in the Brazil one!!

The advisers to RAF have discounted the BoB money from the Langbar when agreeing to the 78p offer.

Ryback has been selling from a quid down to 50p maybe average around 75p.

If you were a cash shell with 90p cash you would expect your share price to be around 75-80p

The only reason we got to 50p was heavy selling, however reputable institutions we starting to pick up stock, which makes me believe they also know the dutch money is safe and the brazil money would be a nice extra!!

In my posts earlier - AFN I said Elliots called the bluff and then dumped what you fail to see lets explain in simple terms you get a cheque you put it in your account for some days the money shows but you cannot touch it simplistic terms to highlight Holland the cheque is deposited from BOB but not cleared yet will it bounce ? LGB raised through placing money to use suggested buying RAF via shares not cash do they have any cash Brazil and Holland both dodgy countries for financial movements IMO the balance shown in Brazil is it real is it not is it just an Ryback knows 100% SP does not know anything as the new boy in Ryback sells his stake and sells in hiding so who knows best ?-

Go back go back to Lambert south America funny money illicit money and you may find the problem -

Hate to say it feel sad for all holders but LGB might never return from suspension hope it does for all your sakes

All IMO DYOR !


http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8209-1827462,00.html


Riddle of Langbars Brazil cash

Alternative Investment Market has its share of spivvy companies but Langbar, which had its stock suspended last week, takes some beating.
Behind this firm is Mariusz Rybak, a Canadian who floated a cash shell called Crown Corporation in 2003. The biggest investor, putting in $270m, was the Lambert Foundation, the investment vehicle of 2,000 South American Jews.
Somehow the investment nearly doubled in value after Rybak sold a failed PFI contract. The money was then used to spin out a pharmaceuticals company that did nothing.
Last year, some bright spark decided Crown wasnt working. Stuart Pearson, a financier at Baker Tilly, came on board, injected some of his corporate boutique interests and became chief executive, renaming the group Langbar. Apart from the smart new name, its only asset was $600m of cash in Brazil. It was enough to attract Gartmore, Merrill Lynch and Henderson, which invested in a rights issue last year.

Except last week there was a hitch nobody can find the cash in fact it may never have existed in the first place.

And Rybak? Oh, he is in Monaco and could not be contacted.

like i posted earlier, the mystery deepens,

i just hope for us all its just a misunderstaning

Ryzbak looks like a rum character all right - he must know that his action has caused a major problem for the company but has so far failed to comment. Not that I believe the Times has made any serious attempt to contact him.
Major fly in the Times "story" is that Pearson & Wood would not have had "long and protracted" negotiations with the BoB over non existent money. I ceased buying the (Sunday) Times years ago after seeing how some of their people operate to create stories. They cause the damage and then move on, rather like some people on these BB's.
The Times might also explain how LGB declared almost $31M in interest in its last interims - if it had no cash.
There are also many other errors of fact -its hard to imagine how any editor would allow such a shoddy piece to pass.

well said iturama, it's either that or the biggest swindle in history and Pearson will be facing a long stretch behind bars. I doubt the latter and think that he has suspended the shares to get the sp up to a realistic level once and for all. The accountants having certified that the money exists will mean the sp re-commence at around 1.50 ish. I must say though that Rybak selling is a worry! why on earth would he do that? Maybe he just thinks it too good to be true aswell and is tired in waiting, wants that new yaht, after all he still holds 19%.

a bit of reality here guys...you know i am the last to ramp/deramp but this stock just stinks. FT, Times and Sunday Times have all lambasted this with accusations in AIM's direction and the old cash shell rules. These guys should be jailed but unfortunately the journos are right (for once) he is in Monaco, unavailable for comment....doubt we will see the stock return and remember the adage, follow the director dealings, 19 out of 20 are correct!

Or in the case of Rybak, 19% out of 100% remaining are correct - lol!

I do think this is a case of no smoke without fire. No one wants a share suspended, unless for specific and declared technical capital re-structuring, so any other suspension is 50% bad already, leaving the outcome 50/50 on the remaining 50% - that's a 75 to 25 against proposition. As proptrade says, smelly, indeed.

If I am wrong, I will happily wish all winners the same congratulations I would a lucky lottery ticket holder (in the hope they would want to share some of their success with ME!!)

sd

Prop
We must be reading different articles. Neither the FT, nor the Times, "lambasted" the company. The Times Online has many errors of fact and can hardly be called good investigative journalism.
Its worth repeating the last three paras from the FT article:
Crown was founded by Mariusz Rybak, a Canadian businessman based in Monaco. He had watched the Crown share price fall to about 13p, or about one-tenth of the value of the cash in the company. He asked Mr Pearson to report on what he believed to be the reasons for the fall.

Mr Pearson had spent more than 20 years as a corporate financier with Baker Tilly in northern England but had recently set up Langbar Capital, his own advisory and investment company. He was blunt about Crown's lack of attraction to investors - the promissory notes and certificates of deposit instead of cash, the lack of corporate governance, the offshore base, the Latin American contract deal, and the founders shares, which gave Mr Rybak rights to a large dividend. So Mr Rybak asked him to run it.

He agreed on condition that he get a totally free hand and that Mr Rybak leave the board. Mr Pearson became chief executive in June only after exhaustive due diligence - including several visits to Brazil - which satisfied him that the cash from the promissory notes and the certificates of deposit existed.

RAF was the first target for Pearson, modest but a good buy which releases LGB from the cash shell category and gives him an administrative base to look for more substantial acquisitions at leisure.

iturama - any news of the mooted provision of capital to a jv with MOI on the horizon, folllowing the resounding success of the RAF investment?

sd

can ANYONE point me towards a stock where insiderinside is a bull? he posts a lot of negative stuff thinly disguised as research on several threads. maybe the seo guys are right and hes a paid lackey for the mms?

superod, ii gave tpa the thumbs up. sp was about 19p when he did.

SD

I think Pearson might surprise a few people. If the FT is right and he did carry out "exhaustive due diligence" then this should all turn out to the good.
Anyhow I am off to S Paulo tomorrow - who knows I might hear something!

iturama

you are clearly well informed and i belive you have a very valid argument. my point is that i have seen situations like this a few times before and feel that something is not right. Pearson should have spoken out as to the intent of the RNS (ie valuation for new investors/institutions). it is all a bit too cloudy right now.

i really do hope it comes right and do agree that the reporting can be erroneous at the best of times.

rgds
PT

I have seen shares suspended at the request of the company before. Normally, this means they think the sp is undervalued as it clearly is here if the money exists. There is nothing to doubt that it exists as this would mean the whole business in Brazil, the selling off of the contracts, the due dilligence, the confirmation from the Brazilian Bank, and the Dutch one, is all a tissue of lies. Is that likely? As i said before, that would mean the biggest scandal of all time and certain people facing imprisonment. As Pearson has stated, the rumours on these internet boards are ridiculous and damaging to the sp. No, I believe that Pearson wants to get this matter clear for investors and wants the sp up. Anyone in before suspension should make a tidy sum. Anyone thats not, wants it to start trading low to jump in, but it's too late, theres no way these are going to trade sub 1 again in my opinion. Previous Directors subsequently detached from the co often liquidate part of their holding, they're no more in the know than the rest of us and is often badly timed, look at AEX recently.

You are definetily right because if the money was not there I think someone from ABN bank would have called LSE and telling them the real story about the money deposited with them and LSE was certainly going to find out and requesting themselfs to suspend the shares for investigation. After all how someone from a listed company on LSE can come out saying they have such amount of money deposited in ABN bank, don' t worry about just trust us and you will make lots of money with us. Is someone assuming that for istance I can open an account let' s say with Barclay of 200 pound and pubblicly I say that I have 200millions iinstead and inviting investors to invest in my company and get away with it withouth Barclay saying anything? Come on let' s be serious There is no reason to believe that these are all lies because if that should be the case then We should all get the money back from ABN and from LSE because they have let this story going on for too long and doing nothing so cheating all investsors. Do you believe that? No Sir that is impossible could never happen. I wonder if I am too naive and these things can happen. I am just starting to invest in the Stock Market and definetely I do not know how it does work yet maybe some Experts out there can say something about. I am sure that in the end the good news will come out, regard AL

WHY WHY WHY suspend the stock while performing the valuation?????

there is no reason apart from a negative one. on the bank disclosure stuff do you think the Brazilian bank gives a damn what someone in another country is saying. they cannot say anything about accounts! it is up to the LSE or in this case the FSO to investigate.

Ok, but how do you explain that instead to pay the takeover of Real Affinity cash and doing that The Directors of RAF would have pocked the money and forget about. Instead they have preferred having a stake in LGB shares because I think they reckon that it is a good business and the returns on the shares on the long run would yield a much better return than for istance putting the money in a Bank or another investment. So for me it means having faith in LGB and do not forget that Mr Pearson if I am not wrong is one of the DIrectors of RAF. Well someone can say they couldn' t pay cash because they do not have the money as one Newspaper was saying "Where is the money". Maybe can also be that the 289millions dollars they have in Holland that are earning 3.5% are tight up for year or more until the Directors would decide the best way to invest them. So could be that the former Director of CCO didn' t like this operation and he started to sell some shares not all of them, do not forget that it is important. Now if this ex Director new something was not right why not sell all of them? I know all speculations. Well no matter what I do have faith and I would be really surprised if something nasty would come out. Regards AL

AL, has it occured to you that by offered stock at a huge disc the Affinity guys were blinded by greed?? cash was never an option becasue there isn't any!

I am not some bugger trying to goad you here but in this world there are bubbles and there are scoundrels and there are thieves. This investigation was probably instigated by and auditor, lawyer of the LSE. faith is a wonderful thing to have but i feel that a miracle is required

Al, i can't send you a reply back (set it up!) but i appreciate the response and see your view. i really do hope things work out and will be the first to congratulate you if they do.

rgds
PT

llaannddii,

doesn't the RAF mob have a heavy link to Mr S.P. ......how does that fit in ??.....

Well if you go and read about RAF you will notice that HE is the Chairman of the company, so my point is why HE hasn' t sold the company for cash, maybe LGB as no money as someone makes us think or maybe He must have thought that investing in shares in LGB instead of receveing cash was a better investment on the long run that is why I think things most probably are not as bad as someone tend to suggest. I hope We optmistics are right. In other words if Mr Pearson didn't believe in LGB I am sure that He was going for cash on selling RAF and put the money in the Bank or anywherelse. Most probably I am completely wrong or completely naive. I am new in investing so I have a lot to learn

i have a question, probably sounds silly however, shouldnt Langbar international be a public limited company rather than private limited company?

He didn't sell it for cash as its worth bugger all imo.

Get real , it wasn't suspended pending good news !!!

if you read CCO RNSs - you can see Capital Merchant Bank - played a big part - in Lambert and Rybacks - BOB dealings - and funny - not - how it is not a bank - and featured on the Money Laundering News site - ;) - did nobody tell you about them before ?


https://www.nkt.net/CPA/news.html

MONEY LAUNDERING NEWS

01/04/04 BEWARE A NEW BANK SCAM
Capital Merchant Bank is a Brazilian corporation. It sounds and looks like a proper established and respectable bank. It is an established company and not something that has recently been incorporated. The services that it provides appear to include custodianship and wealth management services.

The problem is that it is not a bank!

Be careful dont just be attracted by offers dont be mislead by appearances.

lol!

watch out for insiderinside, he's short on this and a little bit worried, bless him...

Any intelligent thoughts as to why RAF has decided to tank 16.95% this afternoon. Floor has dropped out of the BID price indicating the market makers dont want to be holding, but quite happy to sell all afternoon without putting any upward pressure on the ASK ???

interesting point insiderinside, but the co has said the note has been honoured and the fundsdeposited in Banco Do Brazil which is a Bank. Pearson has claimed the he has verified that personally.

Presuably RAF has tanked because the all share offer fromm LGB no longer holds any charms for the sellers.

Langbar waiting for its $294m
Eric Barkas
City Editor
IF, when you put the cat out tonight, you stumble across $294m, please send it on to Stuart Pearson.
He'd like the money, as would Langbar International, the cash shell company he runs from Leeds which has suspended its shares on the Aim market.
The money is said to have left Brazil and ought to be deposited with the merchant bank ABN Amro's Netherlands office.
But nobody can be sure.
The cash could be in a holding account or a nominee account. It could be in the middle of the Atlantic between South America and Europe.
Maybe ABN has it already but, such is the mega-billion scope of its operations, it wouldn't notice.
It's a paper trail for the missing millions. Langbar has appointed independent auditors to track down the money. The result could be known in days or weeks, depending on how the trail unfolds.
In the meantime, Langbar is off the list and, in more than 10 years of writing about the City, this scribe has never had such an enthusiastic following for his outpourings.
A lot of private punters have put a lot of money into Langbar. So have institutions, including Merrill Lynch, Gartmore and Henderson, who you would think would have nailed down the cash before they invested.
If the small guys get it wrong it's sad, but part of the game. If the big guys get stuffed there will be hell to pay.
Once $294m was found to be wandering the world, Langbar had a problem. That problem was compounded by the decision of its previous chief Mariusz Rybak a Canadian living in Monaco to sell down his holding from 44 per cent to just under 20 per cent.
The shares bombed on fears that Mr Rybak knew something that nobody else knew. Mr Pearson took the decision to roll the problems up, seek suspension, and get in the independents to sort it out.
"I'm taking the moral high ground, I'm not believing anybody," he says. "I can't believe the money has disappeared."
Maybe part of the problem is transferring assets from the struggling economy of Brazil to Europe. Getting out straight cash can be difficult because it could undermine the economy hence the bank-to-bank deal between Brazil and ABN.
A bit of history is required here. Langbar grew from Crown Corporation, an investment company that raised money but found precious little in which to invest.
Thanks largely to dealing in public finance initiative contracts in Argentina and subscriptions from more than 2,000 Jewish settlers in that country it raised lots of cash.
The current cash pile is estimated at some 360m, putting the suspended share price of 50p at a big discount to net asset value.
Sums of this kind drew in investors. The big questions are: is the cash there and, if so, can we get at it?
There seems little doubt that the cash is real. Getting it is the problem.
It's hard enough to do border-to-border deals in the EU. Langbar is a smorgasbord of continents.
The company is registered for tax reasons in Bermuda, has most of its assets in Brazil via Argentina, its former chief is a Canadian resident in Monaco, it holds board meetings in Barcelona, is looking to do property deals in Spain and Portugal and it is run by Mr Pearson from rural Stainburn.
It could be, as Mr Pearson argues, that dealing with developing economies can be a lottery. If so, expect more of the same.
Langbar has another $360m in Brazil that is primed for its southern European property venture. Rather than a cash transfer of the $294m which the company would use to reward shareholders or make acquisitions, the $360m would go towards the Iberian property deal.
Asset swapping between Brazil and its colonisers in Portugal and by virtue of clout - Spain is easier than getting your hands on cash.
This story has a long way to run. And Langbar has agreed a shares deal for the Bradford marketing company Real Affinity. If the shares stay depressed then this deal could be revisited.

eric.barkas@ypn.co.uk
19 October 2005

RAF deal to go ahead but possibly a slight delay due to suspension.

Independant Verification is being done to allay doubts once and for all.

Pearson had had enough of market rumours.

Property Deal is progressing.

No RNS to state who Independant Auditors are.

Suspension may be lifted before RAF deal concludes but is up to Stock Exchange.

Yorkshire Post article and others quoted Pearson 'out of context'.


ALL THIS FROM PEARSON + PADLEY (Bankside) THIS MORNING.

THESE ARE TRUE STATEMENTS FROM THOSE THAT KNOW.

DON'T LISTEN TO BB CHAT AND RUMOUR, PHONE THEM UP YOURSELVES.

ps. RAF up 20% as i speak....

.

Thanks Andyeds. Trying to ignore the cr*p. Quite frankly I am surprised that some of these posts aren't libellous.... Got to be very damaging. The sooner the investigation is concluded better all round.....come what may

andyeds

Thanks for that. Shorters will love to read your post

regards

What kinda timeframe is expected?

First time for me that I've held shares and trading been suspended.

Weeks, a month?

What happens to those that were shorting the share, they're unable to close the position - must be costing them.

Could be any day, could be a month. What Pearson will be wanting is a full report from Qualified Auditors to first confirm the cash is in the account and that there is no claims on the money from the contract sales, i.e. that it is totally clean. This, he has already claimed but the market was still in doubt so this will clear the matter once and for all. If true, the shares will resume at a more realistic discount to assets which should be around the 1.50 - 2 level

robstuff. don't you think pearson should have done this before being involved? i still maintain that there is a screw up somewhere and these won't come back healthy (if at all)

I'm trying to keep optimistic, I don't think Pearson would have got involved in this unless it was bona fide, do you hold the shares?

Any body notice the date of this article........

April Fools Day


you read CCO RNSs - you can see Capital Merchant Bank - played a big part - in Lambert and Rybacks - BOB dealings - and funny - not - how it is not a bank - and featured on the Money Laundering News site - ;) - did nobody tell you about them before ?


https://www.nkt.net/CPA/news.html

MONEY LAUNDERING NEWS

01/04/04 BEWARE A NEW BANK SCAM
Capital Merchant Bank is a Brazilian corporation. It sounds and looks like a proper established and respectable bank. It is an established company and not something that has recently been incorporated. The services that it provides appear to include custodianship and wealth management services.

The problem is that it is not a bank!

Be careful dont just be attracted by offers dont be mislead by appearances.

The future looks bleak , live and learn .

dil,
i suggest you call Pearson or Padley like i said earlier. i wouldn't believe anything you read on a bulletin board. full of rubbish with people that have their own motives.
go on, give him a ring...

Hellooooooooo......Anybody in the house ?
It`s awful quiet in here. Still I`d rather that than the posters condeming all us holders to a watery grave. Anybody spoken to anybody in the know recently ? I have had more than enough time to decide how to spend all the money !!!!! :) Obe

This bb's not a main source of debate for LGB, suggest you look over on iii and ADVFN.

no thx. happt to keep on this BB....

drunk again......................

Buffin - 25 Oct'05 - 08:35 - 23097 of 23129

I asked Langbar, "Are you able to say why the Euroclear platform was used, rather than cash just being left with ABN Amro?"

Michael Padley has replied, "The Euroclear platform allows other authorised persons to see the deposit."

I don't fully understand this, but reproduce it fwiw.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

i understand this! if you look at the DTCC/NSCC platform website and search for 'langbar international' you will find an entry for Langbar from 24/8/5 (ring any bells) which is only accessible with a password that authorised people can use to verify the funds are there in ABN.

why would they do this? i'll tell you! we know they're using that cash for acquisitions, hence putting it on DTCC/Euroclear platform..

it's there alright in ABN, and it's on Eurclear so that target company advisors can check LGB have the funds in cash (earning 3.5%)

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Padley [mailtoichael.padley@bankside.com]
Sent: 25 October 2005 08:23
To:
Subject: RE: Good Morning Michael.

Dear Sir,

As stated at the time the monies were transfered and earn 3.5% interest and are subject to tax being paid.

Regards

-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: 24 October 2005 08:23
To: 'Michael Padley'
Cc: 'langbarcapital@o2email.co.uk'
Subject: Good Morning Michael.
Importance: High

Good Morning Michael.

At a guess I reckon you probably have a couple of hundred emails to get through.

When you get around to this one, can I ask just a simple question.

When the percentage of monies were transferred via Euroclear, I was of the understanding that that money was now in a LGB account.
However, reading the Euroclear website, there are terms used such as "Maturity" date etc.

The simple question..
Is that money in an LGB account? (ie: Is it cleared funds which belong to LGB)
Or, is it still subject to delays, clearance, time delay etc or any other delay before it actually becomes LGB's.?

Andyeds,

Ok-can you explain that to a lay person who is well confused?!!!!!

Show me the money.....louder....SHOW ME THE MONEY ....louder....SHOW ME THE ***k*** money !!!! I`m not getting worried, honest :) Obe

monopoly money?

Has anyone asked and got a response for how long it'll take to get verification?

bugz,

i means that Padley (bankside) has confirmed the $294m cash was transferred to ABN Amro as stated in the RNS and the only reason it was put on Euroclear/NSCC is so other authorised people can validate the cash (ie, during an acquisition).

the money was never the problem, it was Rybak selling that caused the suspension.

now it looks like the property deal is the 'assets' being verified because this will affect/increase the NAV of LGB which will, in turn, affect the RAF deal because it's a paper deal not cash...

ok?

ps. there was no way that RAF shareholders could vote for a paper deal if they didn't know the value of it...

Thanks Andyeds for sharing the above e-mails

regards

"As stated at the time the monies were transfered and earn 3.5% interest and are subject to tax being paid."

What a crap answer.

Go ask him to try and withdraw it . Companies don't ask to be suspended just because one of the directors sell a stash.

This whole story stinks.

Cheers Andy

dil,

it's there, ask himself yourself sunshine, the only reason it was admitted to Euroclear/NSCC is 'so other authorised persons' could validate it.

Pearson will 'withdraw' a good chunk of it when the acquisition goes through.

if you want to believe there's money missing then that's up to you, the FACTS say otherwise. PLEASE ASK PADLEY!!!!!!

a post from me - copied here -

Brindy - the RNS states - verification of certain assets of the company - if is to verify - assets - plural - and assets of the company - at the date of suspension - so stop ramping property deal everyone - that was not and is not a company asset - it is a proposed deal - not an asset - and is not being verified - only the questionable assets are being verified to be real or not - this is BOB deposits - Euroclear deposits - are the bits of paper that back these up - really worth anything - and have cash at the end of the rainbow - presently - nobody can find the cash at the end of the rainbow - what assets do you think they are looking at Brindy - SPs office - the computers - A4 paper and pen stocks - its BOB and Euroclear - where is the cash that the paper says its worth -

The proposed - supposed - property deal - is hot air - and not an asset of the company - so it is not being verified - some dumb people around - if they think suspension is to verify the property deal -



Brindy - 25 Oct'05 - 18:11 - 23310 of 23428
The Company announces today that it has requested the suspension of trading in
its common shares of Euro 0.001 each in the capital of the Company with
immediate effect pending independent verification of CERTAIN of the assets of
the Company.
12 October 2005
It doesn't say they are checking the money in the bank in Holland.

a good post - by Erismeur - why are the annual returns - not submitted ????


Esrimeur - 25 Oct'05 - 21:43 - 23401 of 23428

Ah, yes, Kalingalinga.

That will be because the item referred to as "cash" by LGB has been variously described as:

Cash assets
Deposits
Investments
Monies
Cash

It is cash Jim, but not as we know it. Or rather it could be.

It could be cash, at one extreme (well not even that exactly, as even a current account requires physical withdrawal) or, at the other extreme it could be a bearer certificate of deposit no longer in the ownership of LGB.

One thing is abundantly clear and VERIFIABLE by anyone curious enough right now:

G S Pearson is no respecter of the law or the rights of others.

The annual return of Langbar Capital (USA) Limited is well over three months overdue, as a search of Companies House's register today will reveal.

Not only is this an offence, but it deprives those with a right to know what the return should contain of that right. This from a Chartered Accountant, whom I have seen described as unbelievably squeaky clean. Not only will several reminders already have been issued, but he runs the risk of disciplinary proceedings from the Institute. Is he bothered?

So what is it that prevents him fulfilling this routine task of delivery of the return?

After all, it is merely a snapshot of ownership (principally) on the "made up to" date.

Now he cannot change that retrospectively, can he? So why the delay, the breach of the legislsation and the risk-taking?

I got tired of the crap of speculation on this board so i emailed Stuart Pearson to ask some questions and received a response within the hour, here is his response which should put some minds at rest:

From: "Stuart Pearson" Add to Address Book

Subject: RE: To Mr Padley
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 18:15:52 +0100


Dear Sir



Capital Merchant Bank is a private bank looking after South American high net worth individuals businesses and private interests.



Langbar does not have a relationship with Capital Merchant Bank since the Promissory Note guaranteed by the Capital Merchant Bank was satisfied in May 2005, before the change in management at Langbar.



Shares were offered to acquire Real Affinity because approx 50% of the shareholders are key managers in Real Affinity itself and in a peoples business where the client relationships are the essence of the business, the board felt it was better to tie in these key people with shares in their parent company (duly locked in) than give them cash. It is part of the recovery programme at Real Affinity that includes the provision of long term motivation to the key personnel. The shares to be issued represent less than 2% of the enlarged share capital



The Board together with its advisers are working as hard as possible to re-list the shares; the Board are very conscious of the inconvenience this causes and are working as quickly as possible to rectify the situation.



G Stuart Pearson

Chief Executive

Langbar International Limited

thanks robstuff, it just goes to show that Pearson and Padley are quite happy to communicate, it's just a shame people like 'insiderinside' and 'erismeur' choose not to contact them, maybe they're just in denial because of the well documented large short positions they took out and will have to close.

ALL,

insider-outside is a total W@NKER ! he gets a kick out of de-ramping and spreading lies to scare-monger investors. See for yourself by visiting the SEO BB's on AD_FN..his got his own de-ramping thread.

Total T@sser ! hope he really gets fried when the shares start trading again

I don't think it's going to be long now and the shares when trading begins will almost certainly go thro the roof if everything's as previously reported, it's stirrring a lot of interest.

not for another 4 weeks

katcenka

?????

Please elaborate

regards

no-one knows how long this extension is going to be because Padley/Pearson don't know themselves.

hopefully it'll be nearer 4weeks than 1 which would mean there is more chance of full property valuation from DTZ and other bolt-on acquisitions being announced at same time...

http://www.redmayne.co.uk/about_us/hitchin.htm

Redmayne Bentley Stockbrokers recent consultation with Pearson, sums it all up and i believe it is Pearsons way of keeping small investors at ease and a warning to ignore the vast majority of bulletin board comments.

Enjoy!!!!

Andyeds, yes indeed! Many thanks for that.

Ditto BOOBOO

Thanks Andyeds. Must admit to going through a larger than normal change of underwear on this one but that does help to ease concerns.....I hope Christmas comes early. Many thanks for the post. Obe

very strong rumours from 3 seperate sources that we will get an RNS late this week/early next week.

i trust these sources but cannot guarantee 100% obviously...

Lets just hope its good news..... :-)

i have just completed a speed read of this thread, being the first time i have taken the trouble to open it.
such a disappointment to find the last page (the outcome...if there is a final outcome) of the thriller is not there.
i am full of excitement/tension .....and i do not own a single share.
would i buy at 50p outside the market , as could be done. my answer is "no". i feel there is a liability about somewhere which reduces the value of the shares to no more than 50p
could the company have given a financial quarantee of some form ....could there be a form of lien on the assets in one or more of the bank accounts.
the cash may well be there .......but is it free , clean cash
one other point is whether there are any generous options floating around ?

mpw

They have stated the monies are free of all charges and liens ,all the shares are now common shares ,give Pearson time to do the job in hand !

R33skyline thankyou for your remarkable response guidance via posting 283 - i did not absorb everything during my speed read !
appears we are both early birds........or late ones. i just cannot get my clock into line .....but here i was at my city desk at 9 a.m. to-day.

The only thread worth reading on LGB is at ADVFN :
http://www.advfn.com/cmn/fbb/thread.php3?id=9981514
It's just factual info which will put shareholders minds at rest. Forget all the other crap, I have had personal confirmation from Pearson myself on several of the points.

Robstuff
This personal communication you had with Mr Pearson didn`t include a likely date for the return to the market did it ? I could do with some dosh for Christmas :) Obe

No, just said that they were progressing the matter as quickly as they could.

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/analysis_and_features/article326879.ece

Hi akel44
A recent write-up it might be, but it doesn`t say anymore than anybody already knows from the start of the suspension. I hope this isn`t the first time the Independent have caught up with this or someone in the business section should be linched ! Lets just wait and see. Obe

i hope it all turns out for the good.

It better turn out for the good akel44
As a small time private investor who was hoping to make this a profitable hobby / living, this will set me back a long way. I`ve got 10k tied up in these, that money is borrowed money, thankfully on a really low interest rate.
I know the saying is "don`t gamble what you can`t afford", but I have and I really would like a ******* update on this. After all, Christmas is coming !
Hope you`re in a better situation than me on these. Obe

Hi robstuff

Have you had any more contact with Mr Pearson or heard anything new on the grape vine ? Would be grateful for an update if you have one. Obe

Copied from iii

From iii

12:31 Why did Rybak sell? fileyep

The current suspension is basically due to the questions and doubts raised as a result of Rybak selling shares at the begining of October. The suggestion by many (shorters) is that he knew something that the rest of us didn't and was therefore dumping his shares while he could. People have suggested that 'the money isn't there' amongst other things, all of it speculation. The fact remains though that Rybak was selling shares and he hasn't told us why. Prior to selling he had c. 38,000,000 shares (c. 22% of the total shares in issue), and he now has just under 20%. Now, if he knew something really bad that we didn't, then he might want to sell as many of his shares as possible for as much as he could get. But if this is what he wanted to do then the best way to do this would be very quietly and discretely without anyone noticing, not by selling dribs and drabs of shares while the company is in an offer pepriod and he will have to make his sales public via RNS.

According to previous RNSs, the NAV of the shares is 2.05 so his 38million shares should be worth up to 76m in his mind. Yet following the RNS announcing the transfer of cash to Amsterdam, the shares spiked at less than 1, doubts were raised about the funds still remaining in Brazil and shorters scented an opportunity. When the RAF takeover was announced with the interims at the end of September, the company entered an offer period and was thus less able to defend itself against shorters by issuing positive RNSs. This was the green light for the shorters and they went into overdrive. The share price went into freefall as a result. In the meantime Pearson had been going round the City making presentations and had successfuly begun to get institiutions to buy into the shares. Rybak must have been dismayed by the falling share price considering his huge stake, but what could he do? He was no longer an officer of the company and there was nothing the comany could do as it was in an offer period. The only thing he could do was exactly what he did do. By selling shares during an offer period, he would have to disclose this and he would know what the result would be - suspension. The share price was already in freefall before he started to sell. So who would a suspension benefit? Assuming all is well with the company, it would benefit shareholders and screw the shorters, exactly the result he wanted. If there was something terribly wrong and the cash was missing or there were liabilities arising from the PFI contract (specifically denied in RNS) or something else that meant the shares were worthless, then he could have got rid of his shareholding for a lot more in total by selling before or after the offer period, rather than right in the middle of it. The fact that he didn't suggests therefore that he knows that everything is OK, that he sold to protect the value of his remaining large shareholding and to stop the shorters in their tracks. It's the logical thing to do, his only option, and in his position, having thought about it, I would have done exactly the same. He will feel confident now that his remaining shares will be worth say 1.50 each when the suspension is lifted and all assets etc confirmed rather than drifting along sub 1 each and at the continual mercy of the shorters. If rumours are to be believed, he and Pearson had already rebuffed an offer from Elliots which they knew to be totally inadequate (because they KNEW what the shares were really worth).

Rybak's selling of his shares has been nagging away at me for a while, but now I've thought about it logically, it all starts to make sense. Tied in with all the RNSs stating that the CASH is there, confirmed by the BdB, and that there are no outstanding liabilities arising from the PFI contracts, I'm feeling a lot more relaxed and optimistic. Let's hope there is an RNS asap!

R33

an interesting post but not 1 personally i give much credence to - ultimately bar 1 or 2 individuals no one knows what is going on and ultimately wont until the suspension is lifted (if it even is).

I have read some of your posts across the way and respect a lot of what you say but ultimately feel that if this was ultimately worth what a lot of people seem to think then why were so few institutions interested at 1/4 of supposed NAV.

Surely the more feasible answer is that Rybak was simply getting out what he could before it went belly up.

Hopefully i am wrong on this because ultimately nearly all the exposure is with small private investors ( i have no probs with seeing the institutions shafted!!!) - i have no position mainly because it just felt too good to be true

PS good luck with the champ investor comp - slightly frustrating seeing you and polaris ahead of me knowing that most of your gains are also coming from SKP (as are mine)

forensic accountants named in below Kroll

Small Talk: Revealed... colourful past of the Baltic Barracuda
By Michael Jivkov and Stephen Foley
Published: 21 November 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/analysis_and_features/article328257.ece

After last week's piece about Langbar International, AIM's biggest cash shell, Small Talk was inundated with calls asking for more information on the company's founder Mariusz Rybak. It was his 2.5m share sale that prompted Langbar stock to be suspended last month and a team of forensic accountants called in from Kroll to find out once and for all just how much cash the company really has.

The latest hoohah at Langbar started when Mr Rybak sold shares at prices between 55p and 65p. This unsettled many investors as the company claims to have more than 220p a share of cash in bank accounts in Brazil and the Netherlands. Although Small Talk could not get in contact with Mr Rybak, former colleagues revealed a colourful business past. The 52-year-old former executive chairman and founder of Langbar is a Canadian citizen who lives in Monaco.

It emerged that his one and a half years at the helm of the group, originally called Crown Corporation, were characterised by a series of disputes with the company's shareholders. The largest of these investors was Lambert Financial, an investment company for some 2,000 Jewish families from all over the world. Led by Dr Abraham Arad, a former adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, Lambert quickly became dissatisfied with Mr Rybak. An early dispute came over Crown's failure to issue it with the 41 million shares it had bought at the float. This entitled Lambert to a 59 per cent stake in the company.

Lambert, along with the majority of other investors, also became impatient with the lack of action at the company. Although Lambert helped Crown win a series of construction deals in Argentina and Brazil, Mr Rybak never visited the region on the company's behalf. Investors also became concerned at the expenses being run up by the businessman. The most substantial of these was the private jet Mr Rybak had hired on the company's account. Given Crown was still a mere cash shell, it is no surprise that its shareholders viewed such an arrangement as excessive.

In the words of one shareholder: "It was not long after the float that we and others became concerned about the way Mr Rybak ran the company." A further dispute followed when, after one year at Crown's helm, the businessman tried to award himself a significant management fee in addition to the 180,000 per annum salary he received as executive chairman. This request came at a time when Crown still had no operating assets. It was over this issue that the company's broker, Insinger Townsley, resigned in 2004.

Small Talk has been told that Lambert Financial became so concerned about Mr Rybak's activities that it compiled a dossier detailing his actions in the company's name with the help of international authorities.

Mr Rybak settled in Canada during the early 1980s but is originally from the seaport of Gdynia on Poland's Baltic coast. He trained as a scientist, securing a doctorate in environmental engineering from a technology institute near Gdansk. After a number of teaching posts in Canada, he built up a technology firm in Ottawa during the 1990s where he became known as the Baltic Barracuda for his aggressive business style.

After a slew of acquisitions, he floated IDS Intelligent Detection Systems, which specialised in chemical detection technologies, on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1997. However, he was forced to resign as chief executive of IDS in May 2000 amid mounting losses at the company, which a year later went into receivership. Strangely enough, Crown's 2003 IPO prospectus failed to mention Mr Rybak's stewardship of IDS.


Regards

How hard can it be to verify the money is there ???

May I suggest it aint !

dil,

you can suggest what you like...

find out soon enough :-)

I suppose if it wasnt there, then they are taking a long time not finding it??????

How long could it possibly take to confirm it or at least issue a message to shareholders. They must have an idea of where it is and how much exists. It does not take six weeks to work it out. I could have rowed to Brazil and rowed back with it in my holdall in six weeks.

"I suppose if it wasnt there, then they are taking a long time not finding it?????? "

That's odd logic, if it was there, they should issue an RNS saying don't worry everthing is in hand. They haven't. Look at Enron such a complicated set of affairs to shield the fact that nothing existed.

Andyeds , next you'll be telling me its all in coins and its taking a while to count it !

If it were there they would have said so straight away .... if it aint then they need time to cook up a story.

Place your bets.

Read the RNS!

Good call Dil. What is that saying about if something looks too good to be true......

Another case of the small investor being shafted.
I think holders may have to write this one off.
I'm gathering a posse to look for Rybak

Mono

Langbar International Limited
25 November 2005


Langbar International Limited (the 'Company')

On 12 October 2005 trading in the common shares of the Company was suspended on
AIM pending independent verification of certain of the assets of the Company at
a market capitalisation of approximately 87 million. Following the suspension
the Company appointed Kroll Associates UK Limited ('Kroll'), the international
risk consulting firm, to undertake verification of the Company's cash deposits
('the relevant assets') with Banco do Brasil and ABN Amro BV aggregating some
365 million.

365 million of term cash deposits with Banco do Brasil were included in the
unaudited interim financial statements as at 30 June 2005 as investments. On 6
September 2005, it was announced that USD 294 million of the cash deposits had
been transferred to ABN Amro BV.

Kroll has reported to the Board that, following its initial investigations, it
appears likely that the Company has been subject to a serious fraud affecting
the relevant assets. Kroll has not been able to establish the existence of, nor
verify the Company's entitlement to, any of the relevant assets at any time in
the Company's history.

The Board has informed the police and other relevant authorities of the
circumstances and intends to co-operate to the fullest extent practicable in the
pursuit of those responsible for the events which appear to have occurred.
The Board has instructed the Company's lawyers to explore every avenue available
for the recovery of its assets and to pursue vigorously any parties who may have
been involved in unlawful or improper activity in relation to the Company or its
assets. The Directors believe that the Company has sufficient cash reserves to
commence this action. The Board is not, however, able at this stage to give any
meaningful indication of the prospects for success or the likely timing of these
endeavours.

Due to the continuing uncertainties and investigations the Board consider that
for the time being the Company's shares should remain suspended from trading on
AIM.

Subject to any applicable legal restrictions, the Board will, as appropriate,
make further announcements as to the progress of the investigations and the
actions being taken to recover the Company's assets.

25 November 2005

A few people posting on ADVFN have indicated that they have lost 6 figure sums on this. One has lost 250k.

This is another example of a highly ramped stock where any negative views were shouted down. This always looked too good. In theory punters were buying huge assets in a cash shell for hardly anything.

Even Institutions were taken in. It is always a mistake to think that an investment is safe just because there are institutional holdings.

I`d personally like to see Pearson in prison if this doesn`t get sorted out favourably as he is supposed to have done "due dilegence" before taking on his role. What a plonker....like me for believing it ! Obe

I tried to warn people again but again people didn't listen. I don't post for fun about these things!

Sorry for anybody that has been done over on this one, it's disgusting.

Its the fcuking board of this bloody company that need investigating and no one else.

They put out the news that they had the dosh etc which people then acted on , surely they can be sued by the shareholders ???

Those that got stung , take it , learn from it then move on ..... it happens to us all but in this case there are people who should be held accountable.

Do we have an extradition treaty with Monaco ?

And ramping tw*ts like R33Skyline etc don't help things either.

andyeds ... re post 267 : don't call me sunshine you bullsh*tting tw*t !

and for iPubic .... I have not and have never have had any holding in these and warned others to be careful.

Comprendo ???

I see Paul Masterson has covered himself in glory again. How much money can you lose in one year and still get away with ramping?

Its as I said on the YOO thread ... these rampers seldom have any real holdings in the companies and do it for the hell of it.

Its the innocent that get fleeced.

It's very sad.

Folks you are probably right, and probably very experienced. The problem with being very experienced is that you become too cautious. I made a lot more money when I first started this than I do now and its for one reason....I learned by my mistakes....BUT now I don't take such big risks....AND therefore my profits are smaller.... Have only lost 5K on this BUT still realise I was an absolute ********. I have made a pact with myself. I will still take these risks........its all in the game and very exciting. The lesson to learn as we say so often is, only risk what you can afford to lose. Sincere sympathy to fellow losers........ its gonner be a rotten weekend.....

So sorry for those who have lost money on this...have watched this thread, but not invested....(I've been caned on EVS..enough pain for one year)..anyhow, just to mention that there's an active discussion on the iii thread about getting together to pursue the guilty parties which some of you may be interested in.

I wish you all well.

This scam is a variant of "The Spansh Prisoner" con.

The Spanish Prisoner is a confidence game dating back to 1588 [1]. In its original form, the confidence artist tells his victim (the mark) that he is in correspondence with a wealthy person of high estate who has been imprisoned in Spain (originally by King Philip II) under a false identity. The alleged prisoner cannot reveal his identity without serious repercussions, and is relying on the confidence artist to raise money to secure his release. The confidence artist offers to let the mark supply some of the money, with a promise that he will be rewarded generously when the prisoner returns both financially and by being married to the prisoner's beautiful daughter. However, once the mark has turned over his money, he learns that further difficulties have arisen, requiring more money, until the mark is cleaned out and the game ends.

Key features of the Spanish Prisoner are the emphasis on secrecy and the trust the confidence artist is placing in the mark not to reveal the prisoner's identity or situation. The confidence artist will often claim to have chosen the mark carefully based on his reputation for honesty and straight dealing, and may appear to structure the deal so that the confidence artist's ultimate share of the reward will be distributed voluntarily by the mark.

Modern variants of the Spanish Prisoner include the advance fee fraud, in which a valuable item must be ransomed from a warehouse, crooked customs agent, or lost baggage facility before the authorities or thieves recognize its value, and the Nigerian money transfer fraud another type of advance fee fraud in which a self-proclaimed relative of a deposed African dictator offers to transfer millions of ill-gotten dollars into the bank account of the mark in return for small initial payments to cover bribes and other expenses.

Can the coordinator of the Action Group please get in contact with me. You need to get moving if you want to trace the money and get it back.

Anomalous@rsvshareholders.co.uk
Simon Cawkwell is correct, the Police will investigate any crime and an offender may get sent to prison, but unless you chase the funds through a civil action you can wave goodbye to it. You need lawyers and it won't cost you a lot.

You can get a free consultation to discuss the matter and see if they can help you, but the best thing you can so right now is:

1. Organise

Get the names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, shareholdings of the members.

Set up an email group to contact all the members at once and tell them your progress. Inform them of meetings etc.

Ask if they will agree to pay a fee to join the Action Group and start recovery. Say 50 - cheques made payable to the lawyers only.

2. Establish Your Facts

Document everything concerning the case, so you know the sequence of the events and who said what. Who verified that the money was there for audit etc.

Arrange a meeting (with legal support) with the directors and find out what happened. It needn't be all the shareholders, but some representatives would be able to ask questions and report back to the others.

3. Contact the Press

The press can help you a lot. They show that you have a voice and have to be involved in the discussion of what happens to Langbar. If you are disatisfied with the answers you are getting from those in power, then you can make your voice known. They want to report your story and the financial press are far more reliable and reputable journalists than their tabloid brothers. You can trust some to help your cause.

4. Contact the Authorities

Speak to the people investigating this case. We know that the SFO and FSA are involved, but if you find anything out in the course of your investigations, you ought to pass it to them. It may help them to find the money and get it back for you.

ADVFN and Money@m will help you, but they will not do the work for you. You have to do the action yourselves - that's why they call it an Action Group

Other people, like myself will offer advice and support, but it really is up to YOU, the shareholders to take this matter forward.

Remember, this is not some small amount of money, this is
$657 million or more than half a billion dollars
You have to fight for your right to it.

as a matter of interest, what is the stock market levy of 50p per 10k trade used for?

Don`t know if anyone has posted this link to the fraud office. but a lot of people are registering to try and gee up matters.Don`t think it will do any good but hey if it makes you feel better.

http://www.sfo.gov.uk/cases/guidance.asp

If anyone knows fusebox from the ADVf-n site tell him hes a complete shi-t for sending out e-mails ramping shares to those people leaving thier e-mail address to register for the action group.

regards

Dr Square,

I agree completely, what an inconsiderate person on a day many were really hurting from serious losses.

My sympathies to you all. Not exactly a nice time to find this out, being christmas is just a few weeks away. Hope you sue the B******s, certainly puts me off trading

Well a very sad end to this share,but could some one please give their experienced view as to if every thing is found out about the whole saga,should we small and big investors who invested in this company should be entitled for any compensation,or could they still be listed for trading once the bottom has been found.maicy be we should still be optimistic or is it the end altogather.

by the way - after that despicable email -

fusebox is posting on AFN under -

Haystack IV - Lord Butterstock - salted crab - fusebox - Loverat - and many other aliases -

Rum and Coke - the real Haystack - Haystack on Mam - can let you know all the present aliases for fusebox -

to have these BB idiots is annoying - but its part of the internet - ignore them is the best way

All IMO - DYOR !!

Best Fraud Lawyer I know is David Kirk at Simons Muirhead (pretty sure) in W/End London - he's the one always wheeled out to comment on Azil Nadir and similar on the radio. V. nice chap.

You want to contact him, happy to help.

sd

guys watch this video link

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,173728,00.html

watch the video... amazing

may relieve the stress

click on second life

the website is up and available called second life... use it to relax, its fun!!! may take your minds off a really shitty week

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/11/26/cnsfo26.xml

SFO inquiry on way into fall of Langbar
By Robert Miller (Filed: 26/11/2005)


The Serious Fraud Office will launch a formal investigation next week into the collapse of Langbar International, which is listed on the junior Aim stock market.

Peter Keirnan, the SFO's assistant director and chief vetting officer, is this weekend working with City of London Police and officials from the London Stock Exchange and the Financial Services Authority to determine how Langbar - which came to the market as a cash shell company incorporated in Bermuda called Crown in October 2003 - appeared to have lost its primary assets.

Yesterday Langbar, whose shareholders include fund managers Gartmore and Merrill Lynch, said that after its shares had been suspended last month it appointed risk consultants Kroll Associates to verify its cash deposits with Banco de Brasil and ABN Amro worth 365m.

Kroll reported "it appears likely that the company has been subject to a serious fraud" and the police were notified.

Shortly after flotation, Crown said it had won a contract with the Argentinian government to build public works. After the news, the shares, which on admission traded at 380p, soared to nearly 10.

In June 2004 Crown said it had sold these contracts to a private company incorporated in Bermuda for Eu350m. This sum was covered by a promissory note due to mature last June. Yesterday, however, it appeared that the primary assets of the company now known as Langbar which were thought to be certificates of deposit allegedly worth several hundred million pounds.

Last night the SFO said: "We have recently received a report from the City of London Police in relation to Langbar International which is currently being evaluated to determine whether an investigation should commence."

The City's watchdogs are working to limit any damage from the suspension of the Langbar shares and to protect the reputation of London and its financial markets.

Earlier this year rules were introduced to prevent cash shell companies with no assets at all from seeking a listing on Aim. Now they must have at least 3m worth of assets.

A Stock Exchange spokesman said: "Clearly we are taking this matter very seriously and are working closely with other authorities involved."

Meanwhile, Langbar, has instructed lawyers "to explore every avenue available for the recovery of its assets and to pursue any parties who may have been involved."

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article329411.ece

AIM becomes victim of 365m fraud
Kroll finds that Langbar's cash pile never existed * Police and FSA called in to investigate
By Michael Jivkov
Published: 26 November 2005
Langbar International, which claimed a few months ago to be the Alternative Investment Market's biggest cash shell, called in the Financial Services Authority and the police yesterday to help it investigate an apparent multimillion-pound fraud at the company.

The loss was discovered by Kroll Associates, the forensic accountant called in by Langbar's management last month to confirm whether the group had 365m in cash. Kroll found it did not, and the news looks set to leave UK institutional investors out of pocket to the tune of 16m.

Langbar said yesterday: "Kroll has not been able to establish the existence of, nor verify the company's entitlement to, any relevant assets at any time in the company's history."

The statement will shock City institutions such as Merrill Lynch, Gartmore and Ennismore Fund Management. They built up substantial shareholdings in Langbar in the autumn, paying 40p to 60p a share, believing the company had 220p a share in bank accounts in Brazil and the Netherlands.

But while these institutions and countless private investors were buying into Langbar, it emerged Mariusz Rybak, the company's founder and former chairman, had been selling down his shareholding aggressively. His share sales, at 55p to 65p, prompted calls by institutional investors for the Kroll investigation. If Langbar had 220p a share in cash, they wanted to know why the founder was selling at such low prices.

Lambert Financial, an investment company for 2000 Jewish families, is also caught up in the affair. It is led by Abraham Arad, a former adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, and has been a major investor in the company from the start.

Langbar started life as Crown Corporation, which raised 140m in an AIM listing at 140p in 2003. The float of the Bermuda-registered company was handled by Nabarro Wells, the nominated financial adviser, Insinger Townsley, the stockbroker, and Lawrence Graham, as solicitors. The company originally said it planned to invest in undervalued North American companies but instead secured construction contracts in Argentina worth 365m. In June last year it sold them to Lambert Financial, who acted as its partner in the region.

Another strategic U-turn followed. Langbar said it would use the profit made in Argentina to fund a move into the Russian oil and gas business. But investors lost confidence in the company's constant changes in direction and its shares were left languishing at 13p. In June this year, Stuart Pearson, a former corporate financier at the accountants Baker Tilly, was appointed chief executive of Langbar. Before taking the position he conducted extensive due diligence, including trips to Brazil where the company's cash was held on deposit in the form of interest bearing promissory notes.

To help the company get Langbar's money out of Brazil, Arden Partners, its new broker, arranged a 4.3m fundraising in August at 48p. By September, Mr Pearson said he had transferred 160m of the group's cash from Brazil to ABN Amro in the Netherlands, and Langbar shares soared to more than 95p. The remaining 210m was to be brought to Europe later.

Neither Mr Pearson nor Mr Rybak, who is based in Monaco, could be contacted yesterday. In a statement, Langbar said it has instructed its lawyers to "explore every avenue available for the recovery of its assets and to pursue vigorously any parties who may have been involved in unlawful or improper activity in relation to the company or its assets". Langbar shares will remain suspended and Kroll is expected to complete a report for the company.

Before setting up Langbar, Mr Rybak, 52, formed a series of technology companies in Canada, where he was known in the local press as the "Baltic Barracuda" because of his aggressive business style.

Langbar International, which claimed a few months ago to be the Alternative Investment Market's biggest cash shell, called in the Financial Services Authority and the police yesterday to help it investigate an apparent multimillion-pound fraud at the company.

The loss was discovered by Kroll Associates, the forensic accountant called in by Langbar's management last month to confirm whether the group had 365m in cash. Kroll found it did not, and the news looks set to leave UK institutional investors out of pocket to the tune of 16m.

Langbar said yesterday: "Kroll has not been able to establish the existence of, nor verify the company's entitlement to, any relevant assets at any time in the company's history."

The statement will shock City institutions such as Merrill Lynch, Gartmore and Ennismore Fund Management. They built up substantial shareholdings in Langbar in the autumn, paying 40p to 60p a share, believing the company had 220p a share in bank accounts in Brazil and the Netherlands.

But while these institutions and countless private investors were buying into Langbar, it emerged Mariusz Rybak, the company's founder and former chairman, had been selling down his shareholding aggressively. His share sales, at 55p to 65p, prompted calls by institutional investors for the Kroll investigation. If Langbar had 220p a share in cash, they wanted to know why the founder was selling at such low prices.

Lambert Financial, an investment company for 2000 Jewish families, is also caught up in the affair. It is led by Abraham Arad, a former adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, and has been a major investor in the company from the start.

Langbar started life as Crown Corporation, which raised 140m in an AIM listing at 140p in 2003. The float of the Bermuda-registered company was handled by Nabarro Wells, the nominated financial adviser, Insinger Townsley, the stockbroker, and Lawrence Graham, as solicitors. The company originally said it planned to invest in undervalued North American companies but instead secured construction contracts in Argentina worth 365m. In June last year it sold them to Lambert Financial, who acted as its partner in the region.
Another strategic U-turn followed. Langbar said it would use the profit made in Argentina to fund a move into the Russian oil and gas business. But investors lost confidence in the company's constant changes in direction and its shares were left languishing at 13p. In June this year, Stuart Pearson, a former corporate financier at the accountants Baker Tilly, was appointed chief executive of Langbar. Before taking the position he conducted extensive due diligence, including trips to Brazil where the company's cash was held on deposit in the form of interest bearing promissory notes.

To help the company get Langbar's money out of Brazil, Arden Partners, its new broker, arranged a 4.3m fundraising in August at 48p. By September, Mr Pearson said he had transferred 160m of the group's cash from Brazil to ABN Amro in the Netherlands, and Langbar shares soared to more than 95p. The remaining 210m was to be brought to Europe later.

Neither Mr Pearson nor Mr Rybak, who is based in Monaco, could be contacted yesterday. In a statement, Langbar said it has instructed its lawyers to "explore every avenue available for the recovery of its assets and to pursue vigorously any parties who may have been involved in unlawful or improper activity in relation to the company or its assets". Langbar shares will remain suspended and Kroll is expected to complete a report for the company.

Before setting up Langbar, Mr Rybak, 52, formed a series of technology companies in Canada, where he was known in the local press as the "Baltic Barracuda" because of his aggressive business style.

This Email is in incredibly bad taste: -

From : Fusebox - ADVFN
Subject : Sorry for your LGB Loss

Hello LGB shareholder

I am very sorry to hear about your loss in LGB.

I have experienced the same in the past and its not very nice. Well I have a good tip for you. Buy EKT (Elektron) - its massively undervalued and you will recoup a lot of your losses. The stock is being overlooked but the company is generating massive amounts of cash. If you want to get more details, visit this thread, where I post daily giving updates :

http://www.advfn.com/cmn/fbb/thread.php3?id=8548220

I promise you wont go wrong - buy the share and you will regain some or even all your losses. The company is a gem

All the best

Fusebox

Any post on a free bb from a poster who cannot be verfied is worthless IMO. It's so open to abuse it's not worth paying attention to. A systemic problem with using BB's for research. You get what you pay for and if you pay nothing you often end up with nothing.

first rule of bbs


dont believe anything you read EXCEPT THIS POST.

btw ii
do you HAVE to post that boring post on EVERY thread?

This is a message from Adrian - one of the Action Group coordinators:

Hello all,

Met with some lawyers this afternoon for a free consultation.

In summary the Action Group need to consolidate our position, obtain more names and holding details and form a committee to represent the group. So far we have no committee and need to set this up along with some rules for the Group, what we want and how to do it, there are 2 of us so far collecting names etc.

Then contact the smaller institutional investors such as Henderson, Ennismore, USF, we currently have names and holdings for almost 2 million shares - more that some of these institutions and should have a fair chance of getting them on side.

Once we have done this we need to arrange a meeting with SP and find out what he plans to do and how he intends to go about it, the lawyer has offered to host the meeting if SP does not mind lawyers being present and the lawyer will not charge for this, he suggested approx 6-10 committee members attend and if SP is OK some shareholders (he can accomodate approx 60 people).

The lawyer is trying to get some contacts at the institutions and will forward them onto me to contact.

Then we can go after the big institutional investors and see if they will come on side.

The lawyer is going to e-mail me with a summary of his views and our meeting which I can forward on to those people whose details I have.

In short there is little we can do at present as we do not yet know what has happened or who is to blame, but we should consolidate the group and get organised.

Basically auditors are not liable to shareholders only the company. Also shareholders have few rights however these rights are improved in cases of Fraud, as we have rights against the perpetrators of the fraud.

Shareholders who obtain shares via IPO and placings have more rights against anyone who puts there name to the documentation, Directors, Auditors, Nomads, Possibly solicitors.

Obvoiusly until we know more our options are limited, the lawyers are willing to act for us if required but would charge once we engage them, this would most likely be when fruad is confirmed (if it is).

Until then anyone can join us and there are no charges and you will have the option to drop out later prior to fund raising, if we have to go down that route.

Regards
Adrian
langbar@fundamentalbs.com

to labour a point...i am happy to get involved...BUT IS THE MONEY an illusion or CAN it be recovered should it exist? if it doesnt exist AT ALL what is the point of chasing ghosts? we are all shafted to a degree, and the guilty ( if they are ) will one day sitting in a bar next to one of the aforementioned " shafted". if i am sitting in that position the guilty ? person will know EXACTLY what its like to be SHAFTED. because he WILL BE, and it will be at least 6 inches in diameter.

The Langbar Action Group needs you....

.....to give us a list of questions to put to Pearson. Sensible questions mind and not accusations. Questions that you would like answered, to understand what has happened. Without divulging information that the Police and FSA need confidential for investigatory purposes.

After the meeting with Gartmore and Merrill Lynch (who are apparently want to cooperate with the private investors), Pearson has agreed to answer a long list of questions.

The Action Group will persuade him to have a meeting with a representative number of maybe 60 of you - held at Edwin Coe - FREE OF CHARGE. The lawyers are working for free until they are instructed to do legal work.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

We are going to create the website tomorrow, so that Pearson, Gartmore and Merrill know the Action Group represents over 180 investors and literally
millions of shares.

I will also need information to put on the website. I can 'pirate' the Langbar site for the style, but it's YOUR Action Group and you should suggest the content. It might be a good idea to build a dossier of the directors, a flow chart showing the sequence of events, a list of the RNS's, a list of questions that need answers, a list of the newspaper articles and links to them.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some of you are well clued up on this business and it would help if we could contact you by phone or MSN messenger.

marksp can you contact me tomorrow on Anomalous@rsvshareholders.co.uk.

Anyone else that has experience of banking, accountancy, fraud investigation, corporate governance, please make yourself known.

The Action Group may want to appoint a director to the board to represent your interests. Gartmore and Merrill may do the same. That way we can see that the 3 million left is spent wisely and in the pursuit of the 365m.

We may also want representatives to meet with the FSA, LSE, and even Government ministers. Those of you that understand the story, can also act as PR and I can put you in contact with the press/TV/radio, to get your side of the story out.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Police, FSA and others are working on it (at their expense) at the moment. We can help them by providing them with any information that you have in the way of emails and other material etc. But it is best for us to let the professionals do their job for the meanwhile.

Let them use the public purse, but then we will make sure that the Action Group's voice is heard, so that the story does not go away.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Action Group will need initial funds to get going. Clond will contact you about that. These cheques - made payable to the lawyers only (Edwin Coe Solicitors), will be held by clond, until such time as we ask the laywers to do some legal work. At which point the Action Group will have to instruct them and pay a deposit. Clond will hold the initial payments in reserve until they are needed.

The Action Group will require members to also provide a signed Legal Liability Agreement. This agreement will mean that you agree to pay legal costs proportionate to your holding for reasonable legal services performed on your behalf.

No action will be initiated by the coordinators without informing the members of it beforehand. If you object to the action, you can say so and/or withdraw from the Group and will have to settle your legal bill to the next fund raising.

The Group will try to make the fund raising on a regular basis, so that the requests are smaller and more frequent. If the Group has the cooperation and support of the major holders, then the legal expenses may be shared. Although Gartmore and Merrill may instruct separate lawyers, some of the smaller institutionals may agree to join forces with the Action Group. This may reduce your costs.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adrian is on iii

Clond is on ADVFN and Money@m

Magli is on ADVFN

I am on all three but only advising and helping out here and there.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's YOUR money that's been taken and YOU want it back. YOU have to establish your legal rights to the money.

Gartmore, Merrill Lynch and the other institutionals want their money back. If you cooperate and fight for it, then you might get something back. The others certainly wouldn't be trying if they didn't think it was worth it.

If you don't fight for YOUR money, you are letting them get away with it. If you are writing it off, then that is your choice. But if you want to try and get the money back, then work with:

The other major shareholders
The Authorities and
The Company

and you just might succeed.

Right now and most important of all, the coordinators need you to send them the information they asked for.

They need:

Your name
Your address
Your email address
Your telephone number
The total amount of shares you purchased - (very important, as it establishes your position with the majors)
The total cost of the shares you purchased

And most of all, sensible questions for Stuart Pearson to answer.

Send them to these email addresses

Anomalous@rsvshareholders.co.uk
langbar@fundamentalbs.com
crislond@hotmail.co.uk

Marked: Langbar Questions

Thank you

I too have lost money but I think we all knew it was like putting the stake on black or red and the ball landed on red. Am not surprised that companies like Merryl Lynch throw investors money around without due care, they help themselves to their bonusses regardless.
I would be surprised if there is any money in LGB so my advice assume its gone and get on with life

Good write up on LGB in the Independant today, whole page on AIM cash shells run by crooks.

Please ensure that your register with the Action Group on the Contacts page of the following website:

http://www.anomalousintuition.co.uk/Langbar/index.html

I've taken this post from ADVFN where the debate continues:

Whilst you are all discussing the existence of this existential promissary note and who was responsible for the first fib, second fib and so on, can I draw you away to point out two posts that were made on iii this evening and the responses I've posted.

They are relevant to the Action Group and I'm afriad that there are people on this BB and others who still don't grasp what it means for an Action Group to be effective and why you need to act now or fail, when it comes to preparing for legal action by the Group, to protect your rights.

These are the posts and I will repeat this on Money@m for their holders too.

stockme
Re: Don't Shoot me, but..
Friday 2 December 21:58

red old bean you are misleading your fellow share holders from your web-site "The Action Group will need initial funds to get going. Clond will contact you about that. These cheques - made payable to the lawyers only (Edwin Coe Solicitors), will be held by Clond, until such time as we ask the lawyers to do some legal work. At which point the Action Group will have to instruct them and pay a deposit. Clond will hold the initial payments in reserve until they are needed" try a keep up to date as you are the rep....................not good, and then if more when you need lawyers the cost will be sky-high and growing by the letter, whats needed is some costings per shareholder, these holders have been conned once lets not there be a second time.

Now of course if you did not know this how much else are you in the dark...........? as my voice was shouted down in the warning to this share please please think of the long term before you jump.

My reply

Anomalous
Re: Don't Shoot me, but..
Friday 2 December 23:00

>stockme
He is not misleading you. I advised the Action Group that they need to ask for a deposit cheque, so that if they do have to instruct the lawyers and get something done immediately, they can go ahead without having to wait for the shareholders to respond. redagen is merely saying that they have no need for funds at this moment. They might need them in the near future though.

Principally because the main danger at the moment, is that certain parties (with large holdings) decide to issue a writ, to secure and seize the last remaining assets for themselves. They can do this because they purchased shares in a placing. If they did and the company had no further finance, they would have to come to the other shareholders - i.e. YOU, to ask for funding to chase the 365 million. However, if the Action Group had the deposit cheques, they could instruct the lawyers if necessary to counter the seizure.

It is merely prudent to make sure, that the coordinators have the ability to act immediately, rather than having to wait 2 or 3 weeks for the shareholders to pull their fingers out.

Then there was this post:

Sir Buns-Up Knealing
Re: No Lawyers today thank you
Friday 2 December 22:43

Forgive me please, I have no involvement with LGB but only by luck. The episode is, of course, a disgrace. I am following the story for future reference and potentially to avoid a similar disaster.

To the point: I do not see what investors can gain by even considering employing lawyers at any time. This would be akin to having just being mauled by Lions and then offering oneself up to be nibbled at by ferrets.

Any civil legal process that could possibly recover monies will be pursued by Merrill and Gartmore. Criminal stuff will have to be left to Plod. Any crumbs left over from the original loaf will tumble down to the PIs, hopefully, but down the line, alas. I don't think there is a loaf, I am afraid.

However, the best course of action is to keep the profile of the problem as high as possible. Therefore use any "Fighting Fund" to aid publicity. Meet,
chose an articulate spokesperson, spam financial press, etc.

IMHO

SBK

To which I replied:

Anomalous
Re: No Lawyers today thank you
Friday 2 December 23:27

I'm sorry but you really don't understand the process of running an Action Group. I have considerable experience and can tell you that the biggest danger is an unforseen one.

It may surprise you, but you do not need funding to get publicity. All you need is a good story, a telephone and the numbers of the press. They want a story to write and if you contact the journalists they will do the rest.

The press are very active on the story because it contains all the ingredients to capture people's attention. Huge sums of money, greedy thieves, bumbling regulators screwing it up and innocent victims stripped of their life savings and their lives ruined. Over the past 7 days, I've used all my contacts to get as much press as I can for this story - and I don't even have any LGB shares either.

The reason I've been helping is three fold.

1: There but for the Grace of God go I.
2: I have friends that hold LGB and I want them to get their money back.
3. To expose the near comatose regulation of the LSE, who really are not fit to be running the London Exchange.

The Police will chase the criminals, that you can be sure. It would be terribly embarrassing to the Government if someone were to get away with such a sum. However, the Police may not be able to recover the assets.

For that matter, neither might Gartmore and Merrill. They are only interested in seeing that they receive their share of the assets. They do not owe a duty of care to the private investors and if the PIs can't be bothered to get themselves organised and able to claim their just rights to the assets, then Gartmore or Merrill will not do it for them. The institutionals are not charities. They are businesses. They have to ensure that they retrieve what is theirs. It is highly likely that they would cooperate with any active Action Group, but they are NOT likely to just hand over the rest of any assets they do recover.

The Action Group may have to take legal action to establish the rights of the PIs to any recovered funds, or even to fight off any legal claims made by the larger holders on the remaining assets.

It is entirely possible that the Action Group may have to instruct the lawyers to carry out legal tasks in the near future. However if they have no funds to do this, you can not expect the coordinators to lay out the money from their pockets. Lawyers have to be paid and someone has to be responsible for the bill. In other words, someone has to be liable to foot the bill. That's why I have advised the Action Group to ensure that they have signed legal liability agreements from each member, so that:

A) any legal costs are shared fairly and proportionally amongst the members and

B) any member not paying their fair share but benefiting from the legal action is liable to settle their bill before they will receive any return or even,

C) if someone refuses to settle their bill even though they were part of the group whilst action was undertaken on their behalf, that they must pay their share of the costs.

Nobody likes paying legal bills, but they are sometimes necessary. There are a few members of the RSV Action Group in the Langbar Action Group and they can tell you that they have paid their way.

There is however a certain individual - called 'backpacker' who did not pay his legal bill. He owes the other shareholders 627 for legal services. What is worse is that this person benefited from the Settlement Offer made by the LSE. So this 'worm' benefited out of other shareholders pockets - and this individual is also a Langbar shareholder.

What he doesn't know (because he hasn't paid his dues) is that he's been stiffed by the LSE on the Offer. But he won't find that out. Least not for a while. It will cost him more than 627 to learn how he can claim the balance due.

If you want the Langbar Action Group to be a success, you have to protect the people that are working for you. I don't mean me - I mean people like redagen and clond. They are doing all the hard work and they are taking the responsibility. The least you can do, is pay the deposits, just in case they need to get anything legal done on your behalf in a hurry.

Otherwise, why should they bother? The first time that the 'other side' issue a writ, you'll all be f*cked!


All I am trying to point out is that if you want people to help you get somewhere with recovering your assets, you can not simply ignore the things that you have to do, to establish the ability to exert your rights.

If you just idly sit by, then the other shareholders will act to get their money back and you'll have to cry yourself to sleep because you failed to get your act together. Seriously, there are people, very experienced people (not including myself) who are trying to give you the benefit of their experience and knowledge.

Please help yourself by taking advice and doing something to protect your rights.

One last thing, I'm not saying that you actually have to pay anything out just yet, but that if you send the cheques to clond, he can hold them - just in case you DO have to get legal work done.

In the meantime, you will be benefiting from the very generous offer made by Edwin Coe to act on your behalf and hold the shareholder / management / institutional meeting - at absolutely no cost to the shareholders - at Edwin Coe's expense.

If this matter is resolved without a fight, then we will all be grateful and Edwin Coe will have represented your interests in a successful action. But if it does go pear-shaped, then they are there to act - immediately - so long as someone is willing to take financial responsibility for any legal action they are asked to undertake. This is only fair.

Anomalous,

Some superb posts, and you are doing sterling work for nothing on behalf of others here, well done!

Like you, I have never held LGB, I never felt comfortable with the story, but naturally I sympathise with those that have suffered a potential loss as a result of this assumed fraud.

I have read the various LGB threads, and shudder at some of the individual posts of losses incurred, and the effect it will have on their lives.

If there is ANY chance of recovering anything for the PI's, it should be taken IMO.

The Action Group is clearly the only way this can possibly be achieved.



All,

If you held and lost on LGB, I would urge you to consider joining the Action group, it's the ONLY way for you to have any chance of recovering any money, and possibly punish those involved, with the appropriate pressure being put on the authorities to bring them to justice.

I wish all LGB holders the best of luck in whatever they decide, but remember, solidarity is strength!

Terrible state of affairs at LGB.

I was once told by a professional investor many years ago that if something looked far too good to be true it usually was.

>Ihatedil

LGB was pointed out to me as a corker of an investment. Tremendous value due to the fact that there was so much money in Brazil waiting to be transferred. I was told that the share price could treble or quadruple overnight. However, I've rarely seen that sort of value presented on a plate, except where there is a catch.

I asked a few questions and the answers disturbed me. When I asked what generated this fabulous wealth in Brazil, I was told it was some building contracts in Argentina, but that he wasn't sure. I then asked why the company had not simply transfered the funds long ago and was told that currency restrictions prevented them from moving it. I then asked why the money had not been re-invested into the South American countries, to provide sold assets that would grow in value and was told that the directors wanted to bring the money to the UK to invest in projects over here.

It all sounded quite plausible and some of the best stings are. The trouble with this one, is that the authorities have even played along with them. The directors made RNS's which others believed. Quite naturally, given the rules about RNS, who wouldn't believe a director that tells you he has positive proof of the existence of the assets. After the ruling in AIT, the director would be facing prison time if he knowingly made a false statement about the company, that induced others to invest.

The trouble here is that someone has been misled and we are not certain exactly who. So we will have to see over the coming weeks what develops.

People need to go to prison for long stretches following this scandal.

I expect LGB investors to get bugger all back which is scandalous.

Let's see the SFO/FSA use their muscle which I doubt they will somehow.

If I had money in LGB I would spend the rest of my life hunting down Pearson et al.

The thing about this share is that the story was implausible from the very beginning. We were told that a cash shell, in effect, had obtained major building contracts in Argentina. Surely someone wanting to tender major civil engineering contracts would assign them to firms that were already very experienced? Then we were told that the benefit of the contracts had been assigned to another party for a large payment. Again, I have never heard of contracts being able to be bought and sold like this. If you sign a contract to build a development, you have chosen who you are doing business with and you certainly don't expect to end up being contracted to someone else. Of course the parties were all related and indeed there were several instances of that in the history of the company.

I am really sorry for anyone who was taken in, but RNS or no RNS it really was a fairy tale.

Are there any figues estimating how much there is left?

Bugz, they are talking about a couple of million pounds I think unless something else turns up.

It is gonna be interesting to see how things pan out-to have such a large scale fraud at this level is outrageous. Luckily I had only dipped my toes in the water with this but some buggers are gonna be at the bottom of a bottle. Major embarresment for the instituations though.

Minus the administrator's fees etc.

Believe me shareholders will get absolutely nothing back.

The money is well gone by now if it ever exsisted in the first place that is.

oh yes when I said a couple of million pounds I don't think any of it will ever be paid to shareholders.

Great call Langdon .... after the event.

Like the horses you tell me I should have backed.

I keep asking you but you fail to answer who the effing hell is "langdon" ?

Judging by the time of your post did you get kicked out of the Cardiff gay bar early or something ?

An immigrant from England.

A Crown farce: how Langbar mislaid 365m
Who made the AIM firms worldwide schemes and huge deposits disappear into thin air? By Paul Durman and Louise Armitstead

ON a stormy night in December 2003, a colourful group of international businessmen gathered at Villa Castagnola, a grand hotel on the shore of Lake Lugano in Switzerland.

The former home of a Russian nobleman, it made a sumptuous setting for two days of talks. The main item on the agenda: how to spend the 150m that had made Crown Corporation the largest cash shell on Londons Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

Among those present were Crowns chairman Mariusz Rybak, a Canadian technology executive, and Jean-Pierre Regli, a Swiss-Italian banker and the companys co-founder.

A full line-up of advisers included Barry Townsley of stockbroker Insinger Townsley, a Labour donor who had supported Frank Dobsons bid to become mayor of London. The bad weather meant he and Simon Fox, also from Insinger, had to hire a private jet to make the journey from France.

The biggest presence, physically and financially, was Abraham Avi Arad, a hefty 6ft 3in mathematical genius, terrorism expert and former adviser to the Israeli government. Avi Arad was the man leading the discussions, said one of those present. He was the man who had found (Crowns) backing.

Vic Alboini of Northern Securities, a Canadian broker, outlined the Canadian firms that were available for Crown to buy: water, technology and security companies.

To some observers, there was no logic to the list. I got the impression Crown did not know what it wanted to do, said one.

Crown never did figure out what it wanted to do. Perhaps that is part of the reason why the firm, now known as Langbar International, is the subject of a 365m fraud investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

By the time of the Lugano meeting, Crown had already won $633m (366m) of contracts in Argentina to carry out waste-management and water-treatment work with businesses it had yet to buy. After its brief dalliance with Canada, it was soon distracted by opportunities in the oil and gas industry, setting up Crown Oil.

Then late last year there was the very exciting $294m demerger of Crown Pharmaceutical, which was going to buy a Russian drugs company, and Crown Development, an eastern European property company. More recently, it has been looking at buying properties in Spain and Portugal.

Most of these schemes seem to have evaporated into thin air just like the cash in the companys bank accounts. About the only deal Crown managed to pull off was the 700,000 purchase of Langbar Capital, a tiny year-old corporate-finance boutique run by Stuart Pearson, a northern accountant who took over as Crowns chief executive in June. Pearson promptly changed the companys name to Langbar International.

Confused? To appreciate the full extent of the companys incoherence, look at these facts. Crown/Langbar is a Bermuda-registered company, founded by a Polish-Canadian, backed by Israeli money, which traded in Argentina, banked its money in Brazil, had its accounts audited in Spain ... and, which thanks to British financial advisers, listed its shares on the London stock market.

Yet even this does not capture the most unusual aspect that came nine days ago when, after months spent trying to verify the existence of its cash deposits, Pearson issued the following statement.

Kroll (the corporate investigations firm) has reported to the board that it appears likely that the company has been subject to a serious fraud. Kroll has not been able to establish the existence, nor verify the companys entitlement to, any of the relevant assets at any time in the companys history.

Pearson has asked the police and the Financial Services Authority to investigate. The huge fraud is the biggest scandal to hit AIM.

Pearsons shocking announcement flatly contradicted three earlier assurances he had given his investors. When he became chief executive, he simultaneously issued audited results that said 280m (189m) had been paid into the companys account at the Banco do Brasil.

This money was from selling the Argentine waste and water contracts to Lambert a company controlled by Arad, and Langbars biggest shareholder.

Twice more before the end of September, and encouraged by a meeting with Banco do Brasil in S Paulo, Pearson told his shareholders that the company had hundreds of millions of pounds in cash deposits.

Investors piled into Langbars shares. At about 50p, their price was only a quarter of the 205p per share value of the companys cash deposits. It looked too good an opportunity to be true.

Sadly, it was. Within two weeks of the interim results, Langbar suspended trading in its shares, assailed by fresh doubts about the cash in its bank accounts.

The pivotal person in the Crown/Langbar story is Arad. Through Lambert, he put up the 150m contributed, he said, by 2,000 Jewish pensioners in Israel, Argentina and Germany that enabled Crown to float in London in October 2003. That initially gave Lambert a 59% stake in Crown.

According to Regli, Arads Argentine contacts set up the $633m waste-management and water-treatment deals to serve over 14,000 dwellings, 9 industrial parks, 2 commercial centres, 3 complexes of municipal buildings and 2 hospitals in Buenos Aires.

Barely six months after Crown won this deal, Lambert bought these and other Argentine contracts with a $350m promissory note.

Baker Tilly, the accountant, was initially engaged as Crowns auditor but grew concerned at the multiple roles that Arad was performing.

Regli said Baker Tilly refused to sign off the audit of Crowns accounts. They were concerned about the involvement of the major shareholder in the politics of the company because (Arad and Lambert) were advisers, they brought us the Argentinian contracts, they were bringing us to Russia. (Baker Tilly) did not feel comfortable with this relationship.

Given Baker Tillys concerns, Crowns response to the firms resignation was remarkable. It turned to a small Spanish auditor called Gironella Velasco a firm introduced by Arad, who has a home in Barcelona.

Pearson became involved after Philip Wood, a business partner, met Arad, who said Crown wanted help with a gold-mining venture in Argentina.

It was clear to me and Philip that Rybak didnt have a clue what he was doing, said Pearson. He had a management contract that pays him 9% of net assets a year. No wonder the share price was so low when the company was being run as Rybaks own little fiefdom.

At a meeting in Monaco, Pearson told Rybak his contract was a killer to investors.

Pearson agreed to join the board and sort out the corporate governance, but only after receiving assurances about the companys finances, in particular the $350m promissory note. The audited 2004 accounts published in June gave him the comfort he needed. Rybak left with a deal that gave him a 44% stake.

At the beginning of September, Pearson received news of a breakthrough: five or six certificates of deposit, worth a total of $294m, were to be placed in an account at ABN Amro in the Netherlands. Pearson rushed out this apparently good news to investors. In retrospect, he said, this was a fatal mistake.

Three weeks later, he learnt that the ABN Amro documents were fake. ABN couldnt find the cash. They said they never print certificates like the ones we had, they only have them in electronic form. Anyway, I panicked how could such a big deposit be lost? So we immediately suspended the shares and brought in Kroll.

Most of the investors realise they have lost their money. Institutional investors knew the risks thats why 200p a share in cash was until recently being sold for 50p.

Arad came to London last week to speak to Kroll. He told Pearson he had a solution an offer to put more assets into Langbar at no cost. But Pearson couldnt face it. I cant deal with him any more, he said.

I dont know whats happened. Maybe the company was floated on fresh air and then was the victim of an elaborate sting, part of which included looking for a British guy with Mug on his forehead to run it.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2095-1902797,00.html

I thought this plot had already ben used on Saphire and Steel?

Prufrock: Suckered at the Langbar bank

EDITED BY LOUISE ARMITSTEAD



THE police are trying to get to the bottom of the fraud at Langbar, the AIM-quoted cash shell that, as Prufrock predicted two months ago, seems never to have had any cash.
Heres a good place to start. Last July, newly appointed chief executive Stuart Pearson travelled to S Paulo, Brazil, to confirm the existence of the 150m cash deposits. He returned triumphant: he had met Banco do Brasil, seen the assets and got the statements.



Investors piled in: the cash was much more than the companys market value. If Pearson retrieved it, bingo, it would mean easy profits.

So what went wrong? I called Pearson to go through the basics. Was it definitely Banco do Brasil? We met in the banks main branch, he said.

Phew. A real banker, right? We were met in the main hall by a lawyer. He said the banker we expected couldnt make it, but brought his (business) card. And it was real.

Ah ha. Youre a customer worth millions, so you were taken to the smartest office? We had a meeting in an anteroom off the main hall. We went through security checks so we could sign for the account.

Then your banker appeared? The next day the banker was still ill or something. We met the lawyer again, this time in his office but it had Banco do Brasil logos on the windows.

The lawyer said we would deal with him mostly, anyway, since our aim was to try to get the assets out . . . I suppose alarm bells should have rung.

I should say.

lol!

unreal. due diligence indeed. deserves to be strung up for incompetence.

Some LGB fools on advfn think they will get their money back. Amazing.

Unless you have not invested in this company,there are or will be plenty of hopefuls who must be praying for some thing back,as even myself who has been a victim as well,and hoping for the best outcome,which i know is very difficult but you never know,still hoping.

Pearson is surely the culprit here. He never did meet anyone from the BANCO DE BRASIL in SAO PAULO ...and BANCO DE BRASIL never did give Pearson any evidence of the 150m cash deposit. How could Pearson be such a mug......and i mean that nicely as the best of businessmen could have stood in Pearson's shoes on that occasion.
PEARSON did visit BANCO DE BRASIL and he did so at the SAO PAULO premises of that bank.... so what went wrong?
The person Pearson met at those premises conned him. Pearson and the other person met in the banking hall (!!!!!) of the bank and went into a side room(!!!!). The person was not an official of the bank....he was a conman !!
It was agreed that there be a further meeting the next day and that be at an office elsewhere in the city. At the office there were logos of the BANCO DE BRASIL on the windows .....i wonder how much it cost to insert those logos??
The evidence at both meetings was sufficient to convince PEARSON that the 150m. was there in the bank in cash.
Two problems: the so called evidence was fraudulent and it was a conman who produced it ----and, of course there was no 150m. in the bank

the whole episode brings to the fore two aspects which i learnt over past years:
(a) tell someone what they want to hear and they are highly likely to believe you
(b)if you are investigating anything then believe nothing at all...and prove each and every step backwards to your own independent high standards of proof

i recall a property developer who was asked by a bank for a certain particular report which, in normal course, was impossible to achieve. This developer simply arranged for the formation of a limited company elsewhere with a suitable title....that company duly produced its report . and the very substantail loan money was advanced .

on occasions over the years i have been conned.....and really i have admiration for the culprit. it is breathtaking (or moneytaking) the way the conman operates. He needs to be good at his ploy as the penalty for failure is so great

you will find it easier to con a truly honest man......which is why i was caught.
i anticipate that PEARSON was easily caught because he was so very honest ..plus he was looking for evidence of the deposit and not evidence of fraud. If he was looking for evidence of fraud then he must be surely damned if the story i have put forward is indeed correct which i have reason to believe is so

where are Paulmasterson1 and Robstuff ??????

where is PaulMasterton1 and Robstuff

mpw777, PM1 has been banned from using this site, look on the Stanelco board if you can be bothered, you'll have to go back several thousand posts though.

FRAMPTON thank you for your posting no. 364

i realise that stirring can come with various recipies there can be one ( or two ) which spoil the pot

i was very critical of HIGHBURY ....AND LOOK WHAT HAS NOW HAPPENED

i am even more critical of MILLFIELD ......it will be a real shocker if life offices such as Friends Provident and Norwich Union plus , say, STANDARD LIFE drag MILLFIELD out of the mire. those offices will , no doubt, use the policyholders' with profits fund which is a disgrace. all to protect their new business flow.

if my contention is not correct then valid information from valid sources will be welcome

mpw777, I forgot to add, PM1 now appears to be posting on the Stanelco board as "Red Erik", I don't suppose he'll ever reappear on this board though!
I agree with you about Highbury.

This looks more ridiculous by the day.

Pearson may not be guilty of anything other than criminal neglect of ensuring shareholders investments.

Prufrock: Tripped up by Langbars samba (EDITED BY LOUISE ARMISTEAD)

Prufrock: Tripped up by Langbars samba
EDITED BY LOUISE ARMISTEAD



PRUFROCK was delighted to learn last week that it is gaining readers in Brazil distinguished ones at that. Augusto Brauna, international director at Banco do Brasil, enjoyed my story about a meeting in S Paulo between a lawyer supposedly acting for the bank and Stuart Pearson, the hapless accountant who has taken over as chief executive of Langbar International. Langbar, nCrown Corporation, claimed to be the biggest cash shell on AIM until Pearson belatedly discovered it had no cash. Langbar is now under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.
Brauna was particularly tickled by the suggestion that Latin Americas biggest bank would resort to meeting important clients in a law firm with the banks logo plastered all over its windows to lend credibility, you understand.



Its absolutely ridiculous, he said. Banco do Brasil has never dealt with Mr Pearson or anyone relating to Langbar. That includes Marius Rybak, Pearsons predecessor, finance boss Jean-Pierre Regli, and Avi Arad, the firms principal backer. Regli and Arad, with Keith Smith at adviser Nabarro Wells, also had a meeting with Banco do Brasil or thought they did.

There has never been any deposit in Banco do Brasil coming from Crown or Langbar or any of these gentlemen, said Brauna. Weve never had any contact with them.

Brauna took one look at Crowns accounts, which show a certificate of deposit (CD) for $275m, and decided it was fraudulent in not much more than 30 seconds. The bank doesnt issue CDs abroad. The huge amount and the stated interest rate illustrated its clearly a fraud. It doesnt make any sense at all.

If it was so obvious, why didnt Nabarro Wells, or the firms other advisers, spot the warning signs

see my posting no. 361 and the posting no. 367 .....is PEARSON a complete idiot. one aspect is certain PEARSON could not have acted on a more idiotic basis.

mpw777

The fat that Pearson is a complete idiot is the only certainty in this shambles. The lawyers, Nabarro Wells, are in for a legal pasting and they might as well hold their hands up now and pay up.

for those who are in agony over their financial loss i see LANGBAR HAVE ANNOUNCED TO-DAY SEVERAL DIRECTOR/EXECUTIVE CHANGES. THE BIG DEAL IS THAT PEARSON REMAINS
David Buchler will now be executive chairman
the joint drilling venture with GLOBAL will not now proceed

PEARSON REMAINS............................ to carry the can no doubt!

mpw777,

In the circumstances, I think his remaining is positive, as only he KNOWS what transpired, and if he goes, all that will be left is speculation.

he may be naive, but not a criminal , yet anyway!

Wouldn't bet on it.