Larry Bays, a co-owner of Albany’s Thrush Aircraft Inc., told The Albany Journal this week that the pending sale of the company includes intellectual property of what would be its biggest asset – the LM200 Loadmaster airplane.
But is Bays, who previously had not returned the Journal’s phone calls, proposing to sell something that’s not his to sell? It seems so. The Albany Journal this week reviewed a bill of sale and other documents that reveal that a Canadian firm owns the Loadmaster program, a project that once was to be a significant part of Federal Express’ future.
Bays and partner Payne Hughes have entered into an agreement to sell the company and its real estate near Southwest Georgia Regional Airport to Integrity Aircraft Holdings Limited Corp. of the West Indies.
The Journal’s reporting of IAHL’s claim to actually be an aircraft manufacturing company, versus simply being a penny stock acquisition firm that surfaced in the high-risk trading market with its purchase last year of a hangover-relief remedy, is making rounds worldwide as penny-stock investors attempt to determine whether putting their cash into the company would be worthwhile.
Bays was once Albany’s mayor.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Claims and Counterclaims: The Peter Van Dyke Saga
How a penny stock company in trouble with creditors and NASCAR reinvents itself and moves on
A NEWS ANALYSIS
By Sandy Farkas
Publisher
In late 2007, troubled hangover remedy purveyor and penny stock company Three Sixty Inc. and subsidiary Rockford-Montgomery Labs were consumed with eluding creditors and unhappy penny stock investors, and defending at least three breach-of-contract lawsuits.
So the companies simply relocated from Athens , found another name, changed officers, and pitched another game.
At that time, Three Sixty, Inc., with ties to self-described entrepreneur and marketing and sales professional Peter Van Dyke, was managed by Bishop, Ga. , residents Michele Shearer and Mark DeMattei.
FROM HANGOVER CURES TO AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION -- OVERNIGHT
Thanks to some creative maneuvers involving the resignation of Ms. Shearer, a share swap (described as a “reverse merger”), a magical change of the name of headache remedy producer Three Sixty to a new name, IAHL Corp., an aircraft company was born in fall 2007.
The company’s foray into the aircraft industry was made by merging with Van Dyke’s Integrity Aircraft Holdings of a Nevis, West Indies . With its new moniker, IAHL announced that the company’s focus had changed from hangover remedies to the “the design, production and sale of aircraft.” The company, under the direction of pump-and-dump penny stock impresario Peter Van Dyke, then announced that his new creation is a manufacturer of aircraft in Nevis .
PERFECT PARTNER
All Van Dyke needed to put an aircraft-related, credible-appearing penny stock promotion together was an existing U.S. airplane manufacturer. That’s how former Albany mayor and Thrush Aircraft Inc. CEO Larry Bays and his partner, Payne Hughes came to the party. In a mid-January 2008 company-wide employee meeting, Bays announced that his company would soon be sold to newly created IAHL, would own Thrush Aircraft and a West Indies aircraft manufacturer.
PRIMING THE PUMP
After Bays’ announcement, Investors’ Hub, a prime source of salted information posted by Van Dyke and players in the penny stock arena seeking increases in the (now) low price quoted for shares of IAHL, describe the merger of IAHL and Thrush Aircraft, Inc. as ”made in heaven”. The “soon-to-be-produced” single engine, twenty passenger aircraft to be built in Albany as “a real winner”, the anonymous Internet posters said.
FACT VS. FICTION (Van Dyke claims vs. the truth)
Claim: IAHL is a “manufacturer of aircraft” in Nevis, West Indies , and Van Dyke serves as the company’s chairman.
Counterclaim: Reporters and others have been unable to locate any aircraft manufacturing facility owned or managed by IAHL, Integrity Aircraft, or Peter Van Dyke anywhere in the world.
Claim: Van Dyke’s offices are located in Australia and in the U.S
Counterclaim: Various reliable sources highly active in the aviation industry contacted in Australia have no knowledge of any Peter Van Dyke or Integrity Aircraft Holdings. No office for IAHL can be found at the Fort Meyers, Fla., address, or anywhere else in the U.S. (Tenants in the Ft. Meyers building listed as the address of IAHL say they are unaware that such a business is located at that address.)
Claim: Statement from an announcement by IAHL on Investor’s Hub: “Peter Van Dyke, CEO of Integrity Aircraft Holdings Corporation, today stated that it has been in the process of developing, manufacturing and marketing a low-cost 20 seat, high performance, single engine turbo prop aircraft to be known as “Integrity”.
Counterclaim: Before proceeding with marketing a fully re-designed 30- to 40-year-old aircraft, its designer/manufacturer must undergo a costly and time-consuming process of intense engineering by a team of aerospace engineers. Then, a lengthy Federal Aviation Administration certification process begins. These steps take three or more years before production and marketing can take place, and require an investment of several million dollars
Claim: Van Dyke said in an Internet news release that the proposed 20-seat single-engine airplane would be certificated and in production by early 2008.
Counterclaim: The FAA and most of its worldwide counterparts will not certify a single-engine airplane for more than nine passengers, plus the pilot. Also, very little, if any of the design data for the original 1970-vintage Pilatus Britten Norman three-engine Trislander would be useful in the design and certification of the single engine Integrity airplane. IAHL has not made any application to the FAA to start a certification program of the Integrity. The three or more-year countdown to FAA certification starts when the FAA receives an official application opening the program, and the end results will assuredly not be a 20-seat single engine airplane
Claim: Van Dyke says he served as district sales manager of Meyer Hydraulics Corp.
Counterclaim: Meyer Hydraulics says Van Dyke was never an employee of the company; rather, he was a vendor.
Claim: Van Dyke says he was educated at Wheaton College , Elmhurst College , Milliken University, and Burdette School of Business.
Counterclaim: The registrar’s office at Wheaton College reported that Van Dyke “…attended courses in liberal arts from time-to-time in 1951-1953 … and he did not graduate.” Elmhurst College ’s registrar’s responded to an inquiry as follows: “Peter Van Dyke -- degree/title: none; attendance period: September 1955 to May 1956. Millikin University ’s registrar reported: “A Peter Van Dyke attended Milliken’s Undergraduate School of Business in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but did not graduate.” Neither Google’s nor Safari’s online search engines reveal the existence of a Burdette School of Business
Claim: Van Dyke was elected to the Kane County, Ill., Board of Supervisors
Counterclaim: Kane County records, which go back up to 20 years, do not list Van Dyke as a former supervisor. The result of a written inquiry at the Kane County Department of Human Resources is pending.
Claim: Van Dyke served the Triumph National Bank Illinois board of directors.
Counterclaim: No such bank is listed in Illinois Office of Banks and Real Estate records. The only U.S. bank using the name Triumph that could be located via search engines Google and Safari is located in Memphis , Tenn. , and the bank’s executive secretary is unaware of any other U.S. bank with Triumph incorporated in its name.
Claim: Van Dyke served as MBW Inc. president.
Counterclaim: Various efforts by reporters and others since November 2007 to obtain specific information on this company from Van Dyke or on the Internet have been fruitless.
Claim: Van Dyke served as Premier Aviation Group Inc. president and CEO.
Counterclaim: The phone number given for Premier is disconnected and Premier is not located at the address listed by Van Dyke in an Internet news release.
Claim: Van Dyke served as Chairman of Jamaica Airlink
Counterclaim: Inquiries to Howard Levy, longtime owner of Jamaica Airlink, a Caribbean short-haul (island–to-island) airline resulted in Van Dyke being described as “...one of the various wannabe air taxi/airline operators that came through the Caribbean some years ago and used every means possible to fleece investors to finance schemes that never work.” [sic] Van Dyke’s claim that he served as chairman of Jamaica Airlink (a legitimate, successful airline) is “an outright lie,” said Levy, who says that that Van Dyke was ousted from his board of director’s position.
Claim: Van Dyke said in late 2007 on Investor’s Hub, “I am interested in moving forward in a positive fashion and doing business … phone 239-277-3883.”
Counterclaim: Van Dykes does not respond to calls to that number, and other telephone numbers listed in IAHL news releases as Van Dykes’ are disconnected.
Claim: Van Dyke says his Integrity Aircraft Holdings Corporation “holds a patent in the United States that protects the Integrity engine installation and the new overall design concept.”
Counterclaim: Aircraft designs must meet FAA certification requirements, but patents are not recognized by the FAA as having any significance. The aircraft being certified must meet the FAA structural and flight criteria for the applied category, along with meeting all other FAA regulations
Claim: IAHL says “Thrush Aircraft, Inc., a major US aircraft manufacturer is the leader in its market sector.”
Counterclaim: The industry leader is Air Tractor Inc. in Olney , Texas . The reported 2007 production of Air Tractor exceeded 80 aircraft by a workforce in the hundreds.’
SUMMARY
As was the case of the failed Three Sixty’s headache remedy, many of Peter Van Dyke’s claims are questionable. He has no aircraft manufacturing company (yet) and he does not have an airplane design that is even remotely close to being certified by the FAA or any country’s civil aviation authority. When, and if, the Integrity is designed and certified by the FAA (as only a nine- and not a 20-passenger aircraft), IAHL will face the daunting task of funding the manufacturing start-up and then trying to compete on the world market with well-established airplane manufacturers.
A prevailing question locally is this: Is Larry Bays fully aware of these obstacles? Also, is Bays aware that there is very little probability of success in the Integrity project?
If the acquisition of Thrush Aircraft takes place – thus, allowing Van Dyke to claim ownership of an aircraft manufacturing facility – and, with or without Bays’ continued collaboration, the story can be successfully hyped (“pumped and dumped”) to penny stock investors. As was the case of the failed hangover remedy scheme, a lot of money can be made from penny stock sales, leaving hapless, short-sighted investors with nothing and, as was the case with Three Sixty, leave considerable creditors at bay.
In one of his many hyped Internet announcements, Van Dyke said that by merging with Thrush -- “a major aircraft manufacturer” -- the synergies would benefit both entities.
The probability of that happening appears highly unlikely
A NEWS ANALYSIS
By Sandy Farkas
Publisher
In late 2007, troubled hangover remedy purveyor and penny stock company Three Sixty Inc. and subsidiary Rockford-Montgomery Labs were consumed with eluding creditors and unhappy penny stock investors, and defending at least three breach-of-contract lawsuits.
So the companies simply relocated from Athens , found another name, changed officers, and pitched another game.
At that time, Three Sixty, Inc., with ties to self-described entrepreneur and marketing and sales professional Peter Van Dyke, was managed by Bishop, Ga. , residents Michele Shearer and Mark DeMattei.
FROM HANGOVER CURES TO AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION -- OVERNIGHT
Thanks to some creative maneuvers involving the resignation of Ms. Shearer, a share swap (described as a “reverse merger”), a magical change of the name of headache remedy producer Three Sixty to a new name, IAHL Corp., an aircraft company was born in fall 2007.
The company’s foray into the aircraft industry was made by merging with Van Dyke’s Integrity Aircraft Holdings of a Nevis, West Indies . With its new moniker, IAHL announced that the company’s focus had changed from hangover remedies to the “the design, production and sale of aircraft.” The company, under the direction of pump-and-dump penny stock impresario Peter Van Dyke, then announced that his new creation is a manufacturer of aircraft in Nevis .
PERFECT PARTNER
All Van Dyke needed to put an aircraft-related, credible-appearing penny stock promotion together was an existing U.S. airplane manufacturer. That’s how former Albany mayor and Thrush Aircraft Inc. CEO Larry Bays and his partner, Payne Hughes came to the party. In a mid-January 2008 company-wide employee meeting, Bays announced that his company would soon be sold to newly created IAHL, would own Thrush Aircraft and a West Indies aircraft manufacturer.
PRIMING THE PUMP
After Bays’ announcement, Investors’ Hub, a prime source of salted information posted by Van Dyke and players in the penny stock arena seeking increases in the (now) low price quoted for shares of IAHL, describe the merger of IAHL and Thrush Aircraft, Inc. as ”made in heaven”. The “soon-to-be-produced” single engine, twenty passenger aircraft to be built in Albany as “a real winner”, the anonymous Internet posters said.
FACT VS. FICTION (Van Dyke claims vs. the truth)
Claim: IAHL is a “manufacturer of aircraft” in Nevis, West Indies , and Van Dyke serves as the company’s chairman.
Counterclaim: Reporters and others have been unable to locate any aircraft manufacturing facility owned or managed by IAHL, Integrity Aircraft, or Peter Van Dyke anywhere in the world.
Claim: Van Dyke’s offices are located in Australia and in the U.S
Counterclaim: Various reliable sources highly active in the aviation industry contacted in Australia have no knowledge of any Peter Van Dyke or Integrity Aircraft Holdings. No office for IAHL can be found at the Fort Meyers, Fla., address, or anywhere else in the U.S. (Tenants in the Ft. Meyers building listed as the address of IAHL say they are unaware that such a business is located at that address.)
Claim: Statement from an announcement by IAHL on Investor’s Hub: “Peter Van Dyke, CEO of Integrity Aircraft Holdings Corporation, today stated that it has been in the process of developing, manufacturing and marketing a low-cost 20 seat, high performance, single engine turbo prop aircraft to be known as “Integrity”.
Counterclaim: Before proceeding with marketing a fully re-designed 30- to 40-year-old aircraft, its designer/manufacturer must undergo a costly and time-consuming process of intense engineering by a team of aerospace engineers. Then, a lengthy Federal Aviation Administration certification process begins. These steps take three or more years before production and marketing can take place, and require an investment of several million dollars
Claim: Van Dyke said in an Internet news release that the proposed 20-seat single-engine airplane would be certificated and in production by early 2008.
Counterclaim: The FAA and most of its worldwide counterparts will not certify a single-engine airplane for more than nine passengers, plus the pilot. Also, very little, if any of the design data for the original 1970-vintage Pilatus Britten Norman three-engine Trislander would be useful in the design and certification of the single engine Integrity airplane. IAHL has not made any application to the FAA to start a certification program of the Integrity. The three or more-year countdown to FAA certification starts when the FAA receives an official application opening the program, and the end results will assuredly not be a 20-seat single engine airplane
Claim: Van Dyke says he served as district sales manager of Meyer Hydraulics Corp.
Counterclaim: Meyer Hydraulics says Van Dyke was never an employee of the company; rather, he was a vendor.
Claim: Van Dyke says he was educated at Wheaton College , Elmhurst College , Milliken University, and Burdette School of Business.
Counterclaim: The registrar’s office at Wheaton College reported that Van Dyke “…attended courses in liberal arts from time-to-time in 1951-1953 … and he did not graduate.” Elmhurst College ’s registrar’s responded to an inquiry as follows: “Peter Van Dyke -- degree/title: none; attendance period: September 1955 to May 1956. Millikin University ’s registrar reported: “A Peter Van Dyke attended Milliken’s Undergraduate School of Business in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but did not graduate.” Neither Google’s nor Safari’s online search engines reveal the existence of a Burdette School of Business
Claim: Van Dyke was elected to the Kane County, Ill., Board of Supervisors
Counterclaim: Kane County records, which go back up to 20 years, do not list Van Dyke as a former supervisor. The result of a written inquiry at the Kane County Department of Human Resources is pending.
Claim: Van Dyke served the Triumph National Bank Illinois board of directors.
Counterclaim: No such bank is listed in Illinois Office of Banks and Real Estate records. The only U.S. bank using the name Triumph that could be located via search engines Google and Safari is located in Memphis , Tenn. , and the bank’s executive secretary is unaware of any other U.S. bank with Triumph incorporated in its name.
Claim: Van Dyke served as MBW Inc. president.
Counterclaim: Various efforts by reporters and others since November 2007 to obtain specific information on this company from Van Dyke or on the Internet have been fruitless.
Claim: Van Dyke served as Premier Aviation Group Inc. president and CEO.
Counterclaim: The phone number given for Premier is disconnected and Premier is not located at the address listed by Van Dyke in an Internet news release.
Claim: Van Dyke served as Chairman of Jamaica Airlink
Counterclaim: Inquiries to Howard Levy, longtime owner of Jamaica Airlink, a Caribbean short-haul (island–to-island) airline resulted in Van Dyke being described as “...one of the various wannabe air taxi/airline operators that came through the Caribbean some years ago and used every means possible to fleece investors to finance schemes that never work.” [sic] Van Dyke’s claim that he served as chairman of Jamaica Airlink (a legitimate, successful airline) is “an outright lie,” said Levy, who says that that Van Dyke was ousted from his board of director’s position.
Claim: Van Dyke said in late 2007 on Investor’s Hub, “I am interested in moving forward in a positive fashion and doing business … phone 239-277-3883.”
Counterclaim: Van Dykes does not respond to calls to that number, and other telephone numbers listed in IAHL news releases as Van Dykes’ are disconnected.
Claim: Van Dyke says his Integrity Aircraft Holdings Corporation “holds a patent in the United States that protects the Integrity engine installation and the new overall design concept.”
Counterclaim: Aircraft designs must meet FAA certification requirements, but patents are not recognized by the FAA as having any significance. The aircraft being certified must meet the FAA structural and flight criteria for the applied category, along with meeting all other FAA regulations
Claim: IAHL says “Thrush Aircraft, Inc., a major US aircraft manufacturer is the leader in its market sector.”
Counterclaim: The industry leader is Air Tractor Inc. in Olney , Texas . The reported 2007 production of Air Tractor exceeded 80 aircraft by a workforce in the hundreds.’
SUMMARY
As was the case of the failed Three Sixty’s headache remedy, many of Peter Van Dyke’s claims are questionable. He has no aircraft manufacturing company (yet) and he does not have an airplane design that is even remotely close to being certified by the FAA or any country’s civil aviation authority. When, and if, the Integrity is designed and certified by the FAA (as only a nine- and not a 20-passenger aircraft), IAHL will face the daunting task of funding the manufacturing start-up and then trying to compete on the world market with well-established airplane manufacturers.
A prevailing question locally is this: Is Larry Bays fully aware of these obstacles? Also, is Bays aware that there is very little probability of success in the Integrity project?
If the acquisition of Thrush Aircraft takes place – thus, allowing Van Dyke to claim ownership of an aircraft manufacturing facility – and, with or without Bays’ continued collaboration, the story can be successfully hyped (“pumped and dumped”) to penny stock investors. As was the case of the failed hangover remedy scheme, a lot of money can be made from penny stock sales, leaving hapless, short-sighted investors with nothing and, as was the case with Three Sixty, leave considerable creditors at bay.
In one of his many hyped Internet announcements, Van Dyke said that by merging with Thrush -- “a major aircraft manufacturer” -- the synergies would benefit both entities.
The probability of that happening appears highly unlikely
Thursday, January 3, 2008
$200 Payoff at City Hall?
When the Albany Journal reported in August that Albany’s city manager and City Commissioner Tommie Postell had brokered a deal to pay for a constituent’s work with taxpayer funds, we theorized that Postell’s motivation was political clout – “if nothing else.”
Well, as it turns out, there was something else.
A couple hundred dollars, to be precise.
Public records show that the beneficiary of the scheme – businessman Curtis Davis –contributed $200 to Commissioner Tommie Postell’s re-election campaign fund in October.
When Mr. Davis’ project on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive failed a life safety code inspection because of inadequate electrical work, Postell went to Lott, who decided that if Davis secured two bids – no matter the amount – taxpayers would pay half the cost.
Lott is only allowed to spend $40,000 of taxpayers’ money without first getting the City Commission’s approval; that’s the precise amount Lott agree to spend. But the deal dissolved after the Journal exposed it; instead, Lott overturned his inspectors’ ruling that the new personal care home must adhere the national electrical codes required for medical facilities.
So, what are the consequences in Albany of such graft?
Nothing, usually -- and it’s highly unlikely that the Albany Ethics Board will look into the matter.
Why?
First, the board is appointed by the City Commission.
Second, the ethics panel has never met – not even when City Commissioner was accused of taking a $300 kickback, for which he is spending 2½ years in federal prison.
Doesn’t someone have the Feds’ number?
Well, as it turns out, there was something else.
A couple hundred dollars, to be precise.
Public records show that the beneficiary of the scheme – businessman Curtis Davis –contributed $200 to Commissioner Tommie Postell’s re-election campaign fund in October.
When Mr. Davis’ project on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive failed a life safety code inspection because of inadequate electrical work, Postell went to Lott, who decided that if Davis secured two bids – no matter the amount – taxpayers would pay half the cost.
Lott is only allowed to spend $40,000 of taxpayers’ money without first getting the City Commission’s approval; that’s the precise amount Lott agree to spend. But the deal dissolved after the Journal exposed it; instead, Lott overturned his inspectors’ ruling that the new personal care home must adhere the national electrical codes required for medical facilities.
So, what are the consequences in Albany of such graft?
Nothing, usually -- and it’s highly unlikely that the Albany Ethics Board will look into the matter.
Why?
First, the board is appointed by the City Commission.
Second, the ethics panel has never met – not even when City Commissioner was accused of taking a $300 kickback, for which he is spending 2½ years in federal prison.
Doesn’t someone have the Feds’ number?
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