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% !!!!!

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.

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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.

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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