Monday, July 10, 2006

Stop press - extortionist hits e-learning company!

Strange events down in Brighton's e-learning community......read on.....

Futuremedia Announces Legal Actions Against Attempted Extortion

BRIGHTON, England/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Futuremedia plc(Nasdaq: FMDAY), a leading European learning communications provider, today announced that it has taken legal actions against Mr. Maas van Dusschoten. Mr. van Dusschoten, an individual residing in the Netherlands, has attempted since February 2005 to extort cash and shares from the Company and has distributed inaccurate and defamatory information about the Company and its past and present management and directors. Futuremedia is taking these actions on behalf of the Company and its shareholders. Mr. van Dusschoten's activities have been reported to the National Association of Securities Dealers ("NASD"), the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), and the appropriate authorities in the Netherlands. In addition, the Company has instituted civil actions against Mr. van Dusschoten in theNetherlands where he resides.

Leonard M. Fertig, CEO of Futuremedia stated, "Mr. van Dusschoten has deliberately misled shareholders in attempting to achieve his own criminal purposes, and the Company feels it is important to make shareholders aware of these activities and the resolute efforts of the Company to put an end to them. We have ignored this individual's extortion demands for payment but need to protect the reputation of Futuremedia from these malicious falsehoods." Mr. van Dusschoten posts on the Yahoo! Finance message board under several pseudonyms, including "dickie_dickk", "Dick_I_Dick" and "fmday victims", and has posted bogus press releases and impersonated the Company's CEO, Leonard M. Fertig. He has attempted such extortion by demanding cash and shares from the Company in faxes, letters and e-mails to Futuremedia management in return for ceasing his activities, which have included misleading, incorrect, defamatory and untrue statements about the Company through posts on the Yahoo! Finance message board. Mr. Van Dusschoten has stated in his correspondence and threats that he has deliberately and intentionally caused the share price of the Company todecline through his efforts. The Company has consistently refused to succumb to these attempts at extortion.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Then there was the profit warning -

Futuremedia Will Not Achieve Positive EBITDA In Q1 - Update

Futuremedia plc, said that it would not achieve positive EBITDA during the first quarter of 2007 due to integration costs as well as the seasonally weak summer months at all of its businesses.

Didn't need an extortionist to send the shareprice south.

Anonymous said...

Shareprice at an all time low and a NASDAQ delisting notice (again). Future does not look so bright for Futuremedia.

Anonymous said...

Futuremedia is a company controlled by crooks. They robbed investors since the IPO 13 years ago. Companies like this should be delisted asap.

Anonymous said...

I got rich off of futuremedia, gotta know when to hold and when to fold. Show me one company that's traded that is without corruption, by the time they get that big their values go out the window. My first rule of investing, Corruption owns. Just knowing that fmday was artificially knocked down makes me wanna sink a couple k into it. Then run around telling everyone about it.

Anonymous said...

Maas van Dusschoten appeared to be right. Futuremedia was a company controlled by gangsters, who stole nearly $100 million form investors.