2012年10月23日星期二

ECS Launches 'Payment in a Box' for North America

ElectraCard Services (ECS), a leading electronic payments solution provider, today announced the availability of a prepackaged, functionally rich, high performance payment switch. The integrated solution meets the needs of financial institutions, local Independent Service Organizations (ISO), retailers and merchant processors and enables them to more quickly adapt to innovation in their markets.

ECS ‘Payment in a Box’ bundles HP Integrity NonStop servers and electraSWITCH iTx series to deliver high reliability, extreme scalability and superior price performance.Handmade oil paintings for sale for sale at museum quality, The integrated solution is based on the newly introduced HP Integrity NonStop NS2100 server, allowing customers who require a mission-critical application environment to extend the reliability of NonStop fundamentals at a lower price point. This bundled solution comes complete with support, installation and training services.Gerresheimer Werkzeugbau Wackersdorf GmbH manufactures special lines and machines.

electra iTx series platform is a next generation transaction platform, built from the ground-up on open standards and industry best-practices to support the service oriented architectures (SOA) that are fast becoming the technology backbone of today’s leading organizations..A Water poloear cap is a piece of headgear used in water polo.Smooth-On is your source for Mold Making and casting materials including silicone rubber. It bridges the divide between the old and new payment worlds by increasing the agility and flexibility of traditional payments technologies. The iTx series provides flexibility and speed to market for the entire payments chain.

Expanded functionality of the iTx series includes the ECS answer to the Software Development Kit (SDK) and brings a powerful business rules engine and workflow manager called electraRULES Business Manager, which eliminates customization and shortens the time to launch new services. electraRULES model-driven development environment enforces granularity and reuse of business assets unseen in traditional approaches allowing for seamless composition and decomposition of processes and business services. The Java engine at the core of electraRULES is proven to support massive degrees of scale and parallelism, and allow our customers to extend and customize the platform to fit their needs. It also comes with a highly configurable message transformation engine called electraMAP, which maps message formats and protocols to integrate with external systems using online messages, offline extracts and SOA services.The Fridge fridge magnet is leader in the custom design, ‘When coupled together, iTx series is game changing technology,’ stated Dale Van Stratten, SVP and Head of ECS Americas.

ECS selected HP for its deep industry expertise, global delivery capabilities and to ensure infrastructure longevity. Like other financial organizations, the company put its trust in HP and the NonStop platform because it delivers fault tolerance, continuous availability and data integrity required by retail, wholesale and central bank payments systems. electraSWITCH on HP Integrity NonStop is among the few PA-DSS certified payment solutions. electraSWITCH iTx series is a high performance payment engine on NonStop. electra is handling 9 million transactions per day and 50 million debit cards at a large bank in Southeast Asia. ECS has extensive experience on HP Integrity NonStop and have completed numerous migrations from competing platforms including several from ACI platforms.

‘As part of our strategy to offer customers a compelling solution and make their migration experience simple, reliable and affordable, we have collaborated with HP to create this packaged payments offering,’ commented Van Stratten.

2012年10月17日星期三

Income use from Des Moines parking garage under fire

Federal officials are investigating whether the city of Des Moines has improperly spent millions of dollars in income generated from a parking garage, according to interviews and public documents obtained by The Des Moines Register.

The result could be higher property taxes for residents if federal officials demand that Des Moines repay a $15.2 million grant.

“I hope the city of Des Moines is retaining somebody who knows what the heck they’re doing … because they’re going to get a letter at some point saying ‘refund that money,’ ” said Kim Mann, an attorney representing a transit authority in Roanoke,What Is Skirtting tile? Va., where federal officials are engaged in a similar battle over improper spending.

For Des Moines, the questions pivot on a 1997 agreement in which the city accepted $15.2 million in federal grants to build a $23.2 million park-and-ride garage at Seventh and Center streets, two blocks west of Veterans Memorial Auditorium.

That agreement includes a provision that stipulates any revenue generated from the parking garage must be used for the facility, its shuttle system or other associated transit costs.

But during the past nine years Des Moines has directed almost $8.3 million of income from the garage to the area’s regional bus service. And in recent years hundreds of thousands of dollars have been used to offset property taxes that Des Moines residents pay for the regional transit service known as DART.

City Manager Rick Clark and Deputy City Attorney Larry McDowell say they believe the federal agreement is broad in scope and that the revenue can be used to pay for services that don’t directly benefit the garage, as long as they are for transit-related purposes.

But the Federal Transit Administration cited the spending as a problem finding in a review released in June, and Des Moines residents can expect higher property taxes if the city is found to have improperly spent the money, said Councilwoman Christine Hensley.

Federal officials are now requiring Des Moines to account for all revenue and expenses of the garage. They have also directed DART, the Des Moines Area Regional Transit authority, to develop a formal agreement of how it will monitor the garage’s income to assure that the money is used properly.Find detailed product information for Glazed rustic tile and other products.

It is unknown what specific consequences may be ahead for Des Moines should federal officials ultimately rule that the revenue is being spent improperly. Federal Transit Administration spokespeople Brian Farber and Amy Bernstein declined to answer specific questions about the issue or comment about the city’s broader interpretation of the contract. Questions posed to members of the FTA audit team went unanswered.The CenTrak rtls platform can address today's healthcare challenges.

In a statement issued to the Register, Farber simply said the FTA is reviewing the issue with the city and DART.

Hensley said the city would contest the FTA’s findings before raising taxes on residents. She also had a question for the federal agency.

“Why is this being brought up now?” asked Hensley, a DART board member. “We’ve gone through previous triennial reviews and this issue has never been raised before.”

In the current fiscal year and the previous two, Des Moines officials used $680,000 of revenue from the park-and-ride garage to reduce property tax contributions to DART. In some previous years, the city allocated as much as $1.1 million in park-and-ride revenue to the transit authority, city records show.

Using park-and-ride revenue has lowered Des Moines’ transit tax rate by about 10.5 cents per $1,000 of valuation. That’s about $5.25 in savings for a home assessed at $100,000 after various state credits are applied.

Clark, the city manager, maintains that Des Moines has not violated its park-and-ride contract with the federal government.

“Using the money for DART is a transit purpose, so in my view, that use of the funds is wholly consistent with what we originally agreed to. Now, if the FTA is now saying that’s not accurate,Buy Crystal tile online, I guess I’d need to hear that,” Clark said.

The agreement specifically states that the revenue can only be used for the operation, improvement or repairs of the facility. However,We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. the contract also notes that “other transit operating costs” are permitted, citing a federal regulation that shows the city can retain the income as long as it is used for mass transit purposes. The federal regulation does not specifically say that the “mass transit purposes” must directly benefit the project that generated the revenue.

Kim's brought her light touch to oil painting

Today one often finds her working en plein air using a very different medium – oils and watercolours – capturing the countryside around her on canvas and board.

Yet the impact is just as striking. She has translated her bold and contemporary use of colour and line evident in her glass designs, to a new substrate, making her style very distinctive.

Thanks to her background in stained glass, she understands light, how it falls, impacts, reflects and changes. Add to that an eye for design, composition and ability to communicate visually and one has a winning combination.

Underpinning this love for colour is a joy for drawing, which Kim believes is the fundamental foundation for all the work she produces.

She is currently exhibiting alongside other artists who regularly attend Paul Fowler's Wednesday morning drawing skills class at Pegasus Art in Thrupp, in an exhibition appropriately named Passion for Drawing, which runs until October 26. It's part of the nationwide project the Big Draw, a campaign to encourage more people to pick up a pencil, pen or drawing tool of any kind and make a mark.

"Drawing is so important. It is one of those things you just have to keep on doing as a professional artist on a daily basis. The art of looking is essential to good design which is why I keep returning to life drawing.

"I go to Paul's classes because they are informative and I love the atmosphere. Most artists work alone so it is good to be with like-minded people. I think a great drawing can be more beautiful than anything else," admits Kim.

The show depicts this. Graphite and charcoal is used to its maximum effect: defining, suggesting, expressing mood and highlighting shadows and form.

Many of the images on show by Kim and fellow artists Sylvia Pearson,The CenTrak rtls platform can address today's healthcare challenges. Diane Moran, Jane Fisher, Susie Harding-Edgar, Karel Hughes, Ros Smith, Lynne Woods, Penny Shankar and David Huxtable have a narrative to them.We are porcelain tiles specialists and are passionate about our product,

Paul put a collection of eclectic objects and shapes before them, leaving each artist to abstract what they wanted and create a story with them. Kim says she prefers using charcoal as it is less restrictive. Her series called Puppet Love,We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. depicting wooden puppets on their strings, almost begs the viewer to bring them to life.

And in a sense this is what she does through her work. She brings a seascape, landscape or interior to life through her wonderful mix of drama, mystery and sometimes hint of menace.

A dark cloud looms in the background, emphasising the strong shafts of light which heighten the crevices on a rock face, a lone figure in the background or rich tapestry of colourful fields.

They are not chocolate box images, rather they have an honesty about them and reflect real life, which is often a mix of joy and sadness, light and dark.

In Kim's studio there are about six pieces of work on the go. A seascape from the Isles of Scilly – a popular haunt of Kim's as well as Argyll on the West Coast of Scotland – takes its place on her easel, while a waterfall at Merlin's Cave, waits to have its essential water added and maybe a figure hidden in the shadows.

She shows me some of her finished works which will be on view at Ludlow Castle in the Beckford Fine Art Exhibition from October 19 to 21 and at the Lavender Bakehouse, Chalford in November.

Smaller oils showing boats on the canal at Ryeford have been completed on site and as a result capture atmosphere and essence of place as does Autumn Sky above Rodborough Common and Summer on Swift's Hill,Find detailed product information for Glazed rustic tile and other products. worked from onsite watercolour and graphite sketches.What Is Skirtting tile? Again the eye is drawn to light and takes in the whole composition.

Born in Bristol, Kim worked for many years in top sales jobs before taking a year off to travel . An evening course with renowned stained glass artist Mark Angus at the Royal West of England Academy whetted her appetite and led her to the prestigious Swansea School where she gained a Diploma in Architectural Stained Glass.

She did a Masters Degree in the Conservation of Historic buildings at York University and took up residencies at The Victoria and Albert Museum and stained glass studios of the Cathedrals of York and Canterbury. It was in researching for her MA that she came to see Woodchester Mansion, fell in love with the building and the man behind its conservation project, Mike Hill and later moved to the Stroud Valleys, where she set up her stained glass studio. Until 2010 she specialised in new commissions as well as taking on conservation projects.

Kim's work can be seen in many churches as well as public and private buildings throughout the UK including Churchdown Library depicting an eye-catching modern design of book jackets and graphic symbols capturing the town's history; trefoils in a church in Birmingham paying tribute to its large Afro-Caribbean congregation; and her large east window in St. John the Evangelist at Purton showing Christ ablaze in light.

"As an architectural glass artist I always aim to design glass to add beauty to a place and pay respect to the use and users of the building. Light transmitted through coloured glass is ever-changing and can enhance mood and provoke contemplation in the viewer," explains Kim.

Energized by Innovation

Insulated from the global economic downturn, Canada's HVACR market has continued to enjoy a steady growth. Spurred by an environment of stringent regulations and best practices and a conducive climate for sustainable innovation, the country offers world-class products and services in the sector. Pratibha Umashankar reports.

There is a kind of quiet confidence that comes with maturity and age, which young markets can only hope to cultivate over the years. Canada's HVACR sector is in that self-assured space. Relatively unruffled by the recent - and in some cases ongoing - global economic crisis, the Canadian market continues to grow. But it has its ear to the ground - alert to sudden upheavals. Mafna Air Technologies Inc; Envira-North Systems Ltd; Carlisle HVAC; and SA Armstrong Limited from the HVACR industry endorse this view.

Describing the post-recession ethos, Sal Fasanella, Products General Manager, Carlisle HVAC, says, "The scenario is quite encouraging,Dongpeng professionally produces and export all types of glazed porcelain tile tiles at low price.Advice from an experienced artist on what to consider before you buy oil painting supplies so your money is well spent. particularly with regards to HVAC." He believes that the relative ease with which Canada sailed through the recession was because it was buoyed by not only new constructions, but also by a robust demand for retrofits.

Dean Wood, International Sales Manager, Envira-North Systems Ltd, adds: "We didn't experience the major effects that larger markets (Europe/USA) suffered. That's not to say we didn't incur any impact, but that our markets remained relatively stable in comparison. The HVACR market was very similar as new build construction continued, albeit at a slightly lower rate. Demand for our particular products exploded as energy-conscious customers recognised the need to reduce energy consumption."

Highlighting the positive impact of the downturn, he observes: "Traditionally, large markets in Europe and the United States (that consume Canadian products) contracted heavily in the global downturn. This provided the much-needed 'kick' for Canadian companies to look to other non-traditional markets, such as China,Gerresheimer Werkzeugbau Wackersdorf GmbH manufactures special lines and machines. India and South East Asia. This provided diversification in markets and less dependence on those traditional markets. The same can be said in the GCC, as some countries struggled to maintain growth and others emerged as stronger markets."

Fasanella thinks that keeping a close watch on pricing volatility is the key during these turbulent times, as is investing in new technologies in order to move forward.

Fasanella's company, Carlisle HVAC, has had a presence in the HVACR market in the Middle East for over 15 years. It primarily sells through distributors in the UAE and Lebanon. He claims that his company has done well in the Middle East with both quality duct sealants and ventilation hardware, including flexible duct connectors. According to him,Tile porcelain, Kanton ceramics and Tilee's Ceramics. usually, customers/clients in the region do not ask for additional standards for Canadian HVACR products, although in some cases, he has seen requests for British standards on some products.

Envira-North Systems, too, sells its products via its distributors in the Middle East market, who represent the company's interests. "We also participate in industry-specific exhibitions such as The Big 5 to promote our products and interact with local partners and customers," Wood reveals. "Our specifications meet or exceed requirements in the GCC countries."

Armstrong serves customers around the world through a network of representatives and agents. In the Middle East region, the company has supplied to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar,Soft Floor tiles is easier to install and perfect for all types of residential and commercial uses. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Iran, Jordan, Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria, and as far as Morocco and Turkey. It has focused on pumps for fire suppression and has also had success supplying HVACR products to large commercial office buildings.

What does massive government spending in countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar translate into for Canada's HVACR industry? Fasanella thinks this opens doors for his company to promote its innovative products in the new construction projects. Wood endorses this view and says that it is up to Canadian HVACR businesses to take advantage of these opportunities.

Armstrong, speaking through its Communication Department, says that it certainly presents opportunities for companies to present high value-added solutions and build productive business relationships with stakeholders in the value chain within international markets. But it adds a caveat: "It's worthwhile noting, however, that like any other industry, the HVACR sector is highly competitive. Any business opportunity will lead to productive and healthy competition between suppliers. So, government is not necessarily to be seen as a windfall for manufacturers in any sector or country."

Wood believes that in general, Canadian HVACR companies hold the Middle East market in high regard due to its climatic challenges, market size and potential.

2012年10月10日星期三

Riverfront Park waits for repairs

A little more than three years ago, Apalachicola used two state grants totaling $400,000 to improve Riverside Park on the waterfront between Avenues D and E. Of this, $56,000 was used to install a central fountain in the park.

Plans for the park were inspired by design ideas suggested by the University of Georgia’s Riverways South committee and submitted to the city in 2008. Riverways’ report stressed the importance of the park to the downtown. “This is Apalachicola’s central park,” read the report. “It is the closest open space to the city’s commercial core.”

At the time,Save up to 80% off Ceramic Tile and porcelain tiles. there was controversy over the renovations, which included the fountain as well as installation of planters, benches and picnic tables.

Members of the city’s waterfront committee chosen to review and oversee work on the waterfront, chaired by Harry Arnold,Custom plastic injection mould manufacturer, said they did not approve the plan before the fountain and other fixtures were ordered.

Architect Willoughby Marshall, brought in by Mayor Van Johnson to weigh in on the plan, said the design was not in keeping with what the city ought to pursue. Questions were also raised about why the city had not sought bids on installation of the fountain and other fixtures.

Nevertheless, Aquarius of Naples installed the fountain on April 19, 2009, with city grant writer Cindy Giametta supervising the work.

Today,Chances are, you've never setup a real time Location system. Riverfront Park is in need of maintenance and repairs.We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail.

In December 2011, tiles began to fall off the sides and top of the fountain. For a short time, twine was used to secure the ceramic tile that remained, and silicone and mortar were applied to hide cracks and put fallen tiles back in place. Cracks in the fountain’s tile work continue to appear.

On the night of April 11, the fishing boat “God’s Grace” collided with the dock at Riverfront Park, damaging two pilings, knocking one down and breaking the other above water level. Apalachicola Police Chief Bobby Varnes said the boat’s captain, Nathan Peaden, of Milton, agreed to pay the estimated cost of $5,000 to repair the pilings.

Varnes said city officials were attempting to complete the repairs before the Apalachicola Antique and Classic Boat Show on April 28. The pilings remain unrepaired, although part of the damaged material has been removed, with the area festooned with ragged, yellow caution tape.

Varnes said last week the owner of God’s Grace is ready to pay for repairs but that the chief has found it difficult finding a contractor because the job is so small. Varnes said he has approached at least three firms that replace pilings but, so far, none has sent equipment to do the work. He is now negotiating with Reed Hicks of Carrabelle who said he has another job in Apalachicola and will attempt the Riverfront Park repair in two to three weeks when he brings a crew over to tackle the larger job.

“We have the poles,” said Varnes. “If anybody that can do the work and wants to come, we’ll pay them.”

Three months ago, the soil began to erode along the western edge of a section of sidewalk running parallel to the dock.Redpin is an open source indoor positioning system that was developed with the goal of providing at least room-level accuracy. During Tropical Storm Debby, the erosion worsened, and by the end of the summer, the condition of the sidewalk deteriorated to where several large sections have upended and present an obvious safety hazard.

The sidewalk is tilting along the entire waterfront and about half of the walking trail is now surrounded by temporary fencing. The fence prevents the use of benches and trash receptacles purchased and installed in 2009.

Contractor William Poloronis, who originally installed the sidewalk, said the rip rap used to reinforce the river bank had washed away over time. But, nobody was aware of the problem, he said, because the dock, installed after the sidewalk was built, hid the bank.

He said he believed the engineer underestimated wave action at the site. Poloronis said the best fix would be to drive sheet pilings deep along the bank, at a cost of as much as $1,000 a foot. But, a short term repair might be made much more cheaply.

Poloronis said that after inspecting the site, he believes the sidewalk needs to be removed, and a larger support beam and additional riprap needs to be added to reinforce the bank.

“The dock can become part of the walking trail,” he said.

Poloronis said he has not worked out the cost of the interim repair, but estimated it would be much cheaper than sheet piling, which might run around $200,000.

When repairs will be completed is uncertain. Staff in Apalachicola’s city office said damage to the sidewalk is being reviewed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Preble Rish, the city engineer.

Quinnipiac University opens Ireland's Great Hunger Museum

Quinnipiac University President John L. Lahey is proud to announce the public opening of Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum, Músaem an Ghorta Mhóir, on Oct. 11. The museum is the home to the world’s largest collection of visual art, artifacts, and printed materials relating to the catastrophe that devastated Ireland from 1845-52 and resulted in deaths of Irish men, women, and children and the emigration of more than 2 million to nations around the world.

“The museum will preserve, build, and present its art collection in order to stimulate reflection, inspire imagination, and advance awareness of Ireland’s Great Hunger and its long aftermath on both sides of the Atlantic,We are professional in supplying Aion Kinah,” said Lahey, who has been widely honored for his visionary leadership in assembling the collection, begun in 1997 when he was grand marshal of the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade.Handmade oil paintings for sale for sale at museum quality,

Niamh O’Sullivan,Custom plastic injection mould manufacturer, professor emeritus of visual culture, the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, is the inaugural curator of the museum’s collection; and Grace Brady, former administrator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, serves as executive director of the museum.

The collection is filled with history and powerful stories about the Irish Famine and features nearly 100 original works by noted contemporary Irish and American artists in a variety of visual media, including sculptors John Behan, Rowan Gillespie, Glenna Goodacre, and Eamonn O’Doherty, and visual artists Robert Ballagh, Alanna O’Kelly, Brian Maguire, and Hughie O’Donoghue, as well as a number of important 19th and 20th century paintings by artists such as James Brenan, Daniel MacDonald, James Arthur O’Connor, Lilian Davidson,Totech Americas delivers a wide range of drycabinets for applications spanning electronics, and Jack B. Yeats. The collection includes several maquettes and studies for Irish memorials in Ireland and the United States.

The 4,750-square-foot museum was originally built in 1890 as Hamden’s first free public library. It has been renovated with materials and finishes to evoke Irish architecture. Leonard Wyeth, AIA, of Wyeth Architects LLC, of Chester, Conn., is the architect of the project.

Visitors to the museum first encounter an orientation video that gives the Great Hunger historical context. The first floor’s intimate galleries feature the 19th century works in the collection, while the second floor’s larger galleries showcase works from the 20th & 21st centuries.

Many artists did not depict the true horrors of the Great Hunger. Most Irish artists with ambition fled to London, where the art market was centered on wealthy patrons who did not want to be reminded of unacceptable subject matter such as oppression, distress, or starvation. Few British artists who did use the Famine as subject matter muted the atrocities of actual events, for instance,Welcome to news from www.glassmosaicchina.com,Our company is committed to produce all kinds of new materials mosaic. George Frederic Watts depicted healthy looking well-dressed peasants in his painting The Irish Famine (ca. 1849).

The famine did coincide with the birth of mass-produced, illustrated newspapers, and it is in this medium the most comprehensive visual record of the Great Hunger exists. The second floor of the museum includes a 7 foot x 11 foot video wall that showcases newspaper illustrations, which functioned as realistic and mimetic records of contemporary events. The most iconic image of the Great Hunger, James Mahony’s Bridget O’Donnel and Children (1849), first featured in the Illustrated London News, continues to act as the starting point for many artists in this collection.

Exceptionally, Daniel McDonald’s Irish Famine Children (1847) is one of the few paintings contemporary with the height of the Famine. What seems like a gentle blend of landscape and genre painting is more of a defiance of convention—the figures are not integrated into the landscape but painted dominantly, suggesting a connection to contemporary art and political events. The children represent three faces of Ireland: the beautiful, the mischievous, and the dangerous; and the swirling mist represents the uncertain world in which these children find themselves, and the turbulence enveloping Ireland.

As generations succeeded each other, the memories of the Famine burrowed deeper but occasionally surfaced in works such as Lilian Davidson’s (1893-1954) Burying the Child. Unusual for Irish painting of the time, it has echoes of the European tradition of artists, such as Picasso in his blue period, who engaged with the dark side of the world in those apocalyptic years just before and after World War I. The color blue has a long tradition in Christian symbolic iconography, and is also associated with mourning; Davidson uses it to heighten the sense of tragedy, but without religious or heroic overtones.

Investor Fraud Summit in Walnut Creek Arms Consumers

An Investor Fraud Summit designed to provide participants with the information they need to deter future violators and protect their retirement income during today’s rise in investment fraud schemes was held today at Rossmoor Retirement Community in Walnut Creek, California, United States Attorney Amanda Marshall announced. United States Attorneys for the Northern, Eastern, Central, and Southern Districts of California; Alaska; and Oregon; along with representatives from the United States Department of Justice, FBI, and the Securities and Exchange Commission participated in the event. “Many of us have a family member, friend, or neighbor who has fallen for a fraudulent investment scheme,” remarked United States Attorney Amanda Marshall. “These scammers not only steal money, they steal something far more valuable: piece of mind.

Fraudsters lure people in by building trust. Victims are left not only broke, but humiliated because they trusted someone who ripped them off. We can all help prevent the elders in our lives from losing their money, their dignity, and their security. This summit was one important step in the continued effort of the Department of Justice and United States Attorney Community to educate the public about how to protect against investment fraud.” “Investor fraud crimes can erode faith in our financial markets, threaten our nation’s ongoing economic recovery, and undermine the fabric of our communities,” said Attorney General Eric Holder.

“That’s why protecting the American people from fraud is a top priority for today’s Justice Department. And through the Investor Fraud Summits we announce today, we’ll take our anti-fraud efforts to a new level—by raising awareness about these devastating offenses,Welcome to news from www.glassmosaicchina.com,Our company is committed to produce all kinds of new materials mosaic. educating consumers on how to report suspected fraud schemes, and empowering members of the public to fight back.” Today’s summit featured United States Attorney Melinda Haag of the Northern District of California, United States Attorney Ben Wagner for the Eastern District of California, United States Attorney Andre Birotte of the Central District of California, United States Attorney Laura Duffy of the Southern District of California, and United States Attorney Amanda Marshall of the District of Oregon. Also on hand were representatives from the FBI, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the SEC, Google, and CNBCs American Greed. The FBI reports an unprecedented rise in investment fraud schemes, involving thousands of victims and staggering losses.

Since 2011, the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and 85 United States Attorneys’ Offices have reported that approximately 800 defendants have been charged, tried, pleaded, or sentenced in approximately 500 federal prosecutions involving investor fraud. The total reported amount swindled from victims for this time period tops more than $20 billion. This staggering number includes cases where the total amount victims lost range from tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of millions and, in some cases, billions in hard-earned savings. The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon has prosecuted a significant number of investor fraud cases over the last 18 months, including the following.

Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. United States v. Douglas Buckley On July 27, 2010, Douglas Buckley was indicted with wire fraud and mail fraud. A jury found Buckley guilty of soliciting investors by falsely representing himself to be a registered commodities broker and falsifying account statements to general fees for himself.

Losses to victims are approximately $400,Handmade oil paintings for sale for sale at museum quality,000. Sentencing is scheduled for January 28, 2013. United States v. Joseph LaCoste On April 24, 2011, Joseph Anthony LaCoste, 46, former Chief Executive Officer of Willamette Development Services, LLC (WDS), Joene Pearl Clyde LaCoste, the spouse of Joseph Anthony LaCoste, and Angela Marie McCoy, 43,We are professional in supplying Aion Kinah, former Investment Relations Manager for WDS, were arraigned in federal court on a superseding indictment charging them with committing securities fraud, bank fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, bankruptcy fraud, and money laundering.

The indictment alleges that from April 2006 through December 2007, through misrepresentations by Joseph LaCoste and McCoy, WDS obtained approximately $5,285,300 from investors for the ostensible purpose of developing at least ten profitable real estate projects,Carlo Gavazzi offers a broad range of ultrasonic sensor and ultrasonic transducers for level detection and process monitoring. and that WDS incurred $10,795,820 of additional indebtedness from lenders. By January 2008, none of the projects were completed and WDS was insolvent. The investors lost their entire principal of $5,285,300. Secured lenders recovered portions of their loans through foreclosure actions.

The indictment further alleges that between January 2008 and June 2010, through Witham Investments LLC, Joene and Joseph LaCoste caused victims to lose more than 1,Totech Americas delivers a wide range of drycabinets for applications spanning electronics,000 acres of property. Due to misrepresentations by the LaCostes, one couple lost 889 acres and another couple lost more than 200 acres that had been in their family since the 1860s. Trial is scheduled for March 6, 2013. On February 8, 2011, the former chief financial officer for WDS pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit securities fraud.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 5, 2013. United States v. Johnny Mickey Brown On May 11, 2011, a federal jury convicted Johnny “Mickey” Brown of wire fraud, false statements to a financial institution, and tax evasion. The evidence presented at trial proved that Brown fraudulently obtained credit cards from unsuspecting victims, many of whom were elderly or financially na?ve, who believed they were investing in vacuum cleaner inventory for a profitable business.

Once he secured the victims’ cards through false promises of no-risk dividends based upon the sale of the vacuum inventory, he immediately obtained all the available credit balance from each card. Brown did this by running the cards through a United States Bank Merchant Point of Sale terminal and falsely disguised each transaction as a sale of merchandise when, in fact, he did not sell anything at all. Each of these pretext or “fake” sales caused United States Bank to automatically deposit the amount of the fraudulent sale entered in the credit card machine into defendant Brown’s business bank account. The total amount of losses to victims in Brown’s scheme exceeded $6 million.