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May
31, 2001 Headlines--- Equipment Leasing Association Membership Down Only 4% Judge Hands Down $109 M Default Judgment in PinnFund Scandal— Bounty Hunters Get the Nod: “Go Get ‘Em!” Bancorp Financial Services Reports ---- SDI Capital Lets Go All Employees/Closes Its Doors First American Corp. Completes Aquistion of Credit Management Solutions Carrier Corp Chooses eMarket On Line AmSouth Bank Signs Up 160,000 On Line Customer American Express Leasing Underwrites Videolocity --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Equipment Leasing Association Membership Down 4% We're at the end of "renewal season" (January 31 was the due date) so right now we've got 817 members. We will keep working though through the year to pick up those members that may have forgotten to renew :) We renewed 731 out of 874 members (83%) and have 86 new members so far this year. Katie Plona Director of Membership Equipment Leasing Association The last official count we received was 850 members in the year 2000, but that was before the end of the year. http://www.leasingnews.org/links_section.htm We are using it as the “benchmark” ELA official count would be 17% non-renewal. Past United Association of Equipment Leasing Newsline Magazines show a 15% to 20% average non-renewal, with one year 23% ( except for this year where it is 47% ). In this economy and with the size of the Leasing News List, companies no longer in business or merged, this is an excellent number. Congratulations to ELA and its staff. The best reward you give your association is membership renewal. The best thing you can do for yourself is join ELA or the leasing association that you feel will be of best help to your business. What you take from a community your should return twofold. It should be noted that the ELA conference attendance has always been “outstanding”, their legislative involvement is not paralleled in our industry, and their website, with its full and always current information, is the best leasing industry website, no competition. In an internet study we are conducting on finding leasing industry jobs on the internet, we have several who told us they found jobs using the ELA website. Several others had recruiters call them, but at ELA, they were successful on line. If you have not visited it, you should: www.elaonline.org . editor. \-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PinnFund founder defaults in SEC suit—Judges Ruling Brings Bounty Hunters to Work By Mike Freeman UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER May 31, 2001 A federal judge has handed down a $109 million default judgment against Michael J. Fanghella, founder of PinnFund USA and a key figure in one of the largest securities fraud cases ever in Southern California. Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego confirmed that a criminal investigation of Carlsbad-based PinnFund is under way. Officials would not provide details of the investigation. PinnFund, a high-risk mortgage lender, lies at the center of sweeping civil litigation filed March 22 by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Federal regulators allege that Fanghella, James Hillman of Oakland and the companies they control bilked investors out of more than $300 million. Fanghella remains a fugitive, and authorities believe he is living in Barbados. Because he did not appear in court or hire a lawyer, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff granted the SEC's request for a judgment. "This will enable us to start executing on the judgment and collecting Mr. Fanghella's personal assets, such as offshore bank accounts, with the cooperation of foreign officials," said Nicolas Morgan, an SEC attorney. Hillman, the chief money raiser in the scam, maintains that he was duped by Fanghella just as investors were. He is fighting the SEC's charges. Promised returns of 17 percent, investors were told their money was being used to fund high-interest mortgage loans for people with poor credit. But the SEC contends that Fanghella, 49, spent $109 million to support his lavish lifestyle, including expensive dinners and a $5 million house for a former girlfriend. Another $95 million covered operating losses at PinnFund, and the remainder went toward making interest payments to investors. Morgan said authorities will move to sell anything that is in Fanghella's name or traceable to him. Authorities already have sold his yacht, the Maverick, for about $1 million, according to court filings. Morgan added, however, that most investor money is probably gone. "The $109 million judgment against Fanghella, we're going to have problems collecting all that from him," Morgan said. "But there are other defendants here, and we're not done with the case. I think we'll be seeking the rest of that money from other defendants." A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said a criminal investigation of PinnFund is ongoing. In past interviews, the office has refused to confirm or deny the existence of a criminal probe. The court-appointed receiver for PinnFund, Charles La Bella, said his office received a subpoena in March to turn over documents, laptop computers, hard drives and other information to federal investigators working with the U.S. Attorney's Office. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SDI Capital Lets Go All Employess First e-mail starting coming back from all at SDI. An ex-employee called me on the telephone and said he had been let go Wednesday, at the close of day, but was told that TotalFunding.com would be buying the assets and would be interviewing employees. He said no one had called him at this time. Neither Stan or Scott Daniels would return telephone calls. It does appear they are now primarily a holding company, servicing their portfolio. Alan Collier, president of TotalFunding.com, would not confirm nor deny the story. He did say the story Corona America Financial was “correct” and they would be issuing a press release soon. This is the story we ran on Friday, May 25: Corona America Financial a small leasing company in Southern California, reportedly purchased by TotalFunding.com. Alan Collier is the president. Corona America Financial president, Jack Winsten did work at SDI Capital, before opening this company about a year ago. It was at this time that SDI Capital announced that it was no longer accepting broker business. Alan Collier was a lease broker before he founded Total Funding in 1999.
Winsten is bringing his group of nine to Total Funding's reported group of 13.
It is unconfirmed at this time, but Leasing News is told Bob Quigley will become the new president of the merged company and the name Total Funding is to be the "survivor."
Stanley Daniels and Scott Daniels have not returned multiple telephone calls to confirm or deny the sale of their company. It is reported by an "ex-employee" that Alan Collier has been actively looking at SDI Capital's "assets." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bancorp Financial Services, Sacramento, Calif. They have just shut down, fortunately we were able to place the **** transactions we had with them with Santa Barbara because I discount. A couple of brokers I know, who had transactions in funding equipment delivered or being delivered and Bancorp just said sorry we are out of money. They have been instructed to send to Colonial who is not accepting Bancorp's approval carte blanche. They are running it through their matrix etc and these brokers have to apply to Colonial. It is a mess. Whenever I am approached by a funding source I know require financials and credit app and references and I wish other brokers would do the same. Been doing this since ***** and if thins do not change I will do something else. Name Withheld + + + Just a note on the Bancorp Financial Issue we have a ***** portfolio in funding now that they are now stating they cannot honor this commitment because they are out of money. This was told to us by Doug Reese on Tuesday. We were notified that they would be closing on Friday of last week at 4:30pm (really nice) As of ***** they were going to purchase the portfolio through a deal they worked out with G.E. Capital / CPL but that has also fell through. This is turning out to be another United Capital issue. You may print this by please leave our name off since we still are working on selling this portfolio to them. Thank You Name Withheld United Capital We will have a new insider report on United Capital. We encourage you to send this to a colleague. We are trying to build our readership. You may quote any or all and no permission is needed from us. Readers Write To Us: You are my hero Kit....thank you so much.....gotta get caught up on all the juice....feel free to quote me...... about being a hero......it's been a long time ago since we met - I was at Colonial Pacific for many years before leaving - spent some "quality time" at Preferred Capital when they were new to the industry then came to my senses and left to work for First Sierra - now am in Scottsdale. Love to read your newsletter - keeps me in touch with a lot of friends. By the way - do you have any idea whatever happened with Tim Cetto previously of Cascade Leasing? Thanks Kit.. Carol Johnson cjohnson@manufacturersleasing.com Kit, I am a new broker and just wanted to say that I appreciate your "newsletter". It helps me to stay in touch. Your humor and ease with the industry makes the reading enjoyable. So, thank you - I consider you a life line as I start out in this new venture. Barb Grigoleit Redwood Leasing Company State College, PA ( Thank you. Most our stories are from our readers. We do print press releases, but here you get the “inside” about what is happening; in this economy it often is not good news. Our readers are the heroes, and our lifeline. We provide the opportunity and try to be fair and accurate. editor ). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- # # # # # # # ############## # ###### ###################### ##### The First American Corporation Completes Acquisition Of Credit Management Solutions, Inc.
SANTA ANA, Calif., -- The First American Corporation (NYSE: FAF), the nation's leading, diversified provider of business information and related products and services, and Credit Management Solutions, Inc. ("CMSI") (Nasdaq: CMSS), a premier technology provider of credit automation software and services, jointly announced today that First American has completed its acquisition of CMSI. The acquired entity will be known as First American CMSI. As a result of the acquisition, which was approved by CMSI shareholders on May 29, 2001, CMSI shareholders will receive 0.2841 newly issued shares of First American common stock for each CMSI common share. First American will account for the stock-for-stock transaction as a purchase and will issue approximately 2,273,000 new shares of common stock. "CMSI processes more than a quarter of a million credit transactions each month, and it has very strong business relationships with some of the world's largest auto dealers and lenders," said Anand K. Nallathambi, president of First American's Consumer Information Group. "We expect the acquisition of CMSI will allow us to expand our consumer segment and provide opportunities to cross market our other valuable auto-related products and services, including merged credit reports, subprime credit data and automobile insurance tracking." CMSI's president and chief executive officer, Scott L. Freiman said: "I am extremely proud of what CMSI has accomplished over its 15-year history. We look forward to continued success as a part of the First American family." The First American Corporation, based in Santa Ana, Calif., is the nation's leading, diversified provider of business information and related products and services. The corporation's three primary business segments include: title information and services; real estate information and services, which includes mortgage information services and database information and services; and consumer information and services, which provides automotive, sub-prime and direct-to-consumer credit reporting; direct-to-consumer public records reporting; resident screening; pre-employment screening; property and automotive insurance tracking services; property and casualty insurance; home warranties; investment advisory; and trust and banking services. Information about the company and an archive of its press releases can be found on the Internet at www.firstam.com. Since it was founded in 1987, CMSI has been a premier provider of credit automation software and services, including online lending and leasing technology. The company's e-commerce subsidiary, Credit Online, Inc., credit-enables business-to-business transactions through its Internet gateway and its patented CreditConnection(R) technology (www.creditconnection.com), which links credit originators such as automobile dealers and borrowers with an extensive network of leading prime and nonprime lenders. Through its CMSI Systems, Inc. subsidiary, CMSI licenses credit decisioning and other automation systems and services for consumer and business credit that have been the choice of the world's largest and most demanding lending institutions. Additional information on CMSI, is available at www.cmsinc.com. Certain statements made in this press release, including those relating to the expected benefits of the merger, are forward-looking. Risks and uncertainties exist which may cause results to differ materially from those set forth in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the anticipated results to differ from those described in the forward-looking statements include: the possibility that the anticipated benefits from the merger cannot be fully realized; the possibility that costs or difficulties related to the integration of CMSI's business with that of First American will be greater than expected; each company's ability to compete in highly competitive and rapidly changing marketplaces; interest rate fluctuations; changes in the performance of the real estate markets; general volatility in the capital markets; changes in applicable government regulations; consolidation among the companies' significant customers and competitors; legal proceedings commenced by the California attorney general and related litigation; the company's continued ability to identify businesses to be acquired; changes in the company's ability to integrate businesses which it acquires; and other factors described in the companies' periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, their respective Annual Reports on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2000. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. The companies do not undertake to update forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date the forward-looking statements are made. ### # ##################### ####################### Carrier Corporation Unit Chooses eMarket Capital as Its Principal Source of Customer Financing
KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa.----The Commercial Service unit of Carrier Corporation, the world leader in air conditioning, heating and refrigeration products, service and maintenance, has selected eMarket Capital, Inc. (www.emarketcapital.com) as its principal source of project financing. eMarket Capital is a Web-based service that uses a patent-pending bidding process to facilitate the leasing of capital equipment for manufacturers nationwide. "eMarket Capital will be the primary source of financing for our customers," said John Sumpter, finance program manager of Carrier Commercial Service (CCS). "Our expectation is to do $10 million to $20 million in sales financing during the first year. We also plan to pre-qualify customers through the site by talking to them about financing much earlier in the project purchasing cycle." Carrier Commercial Service is a unit of the Carrier Commercial Systems and Services division, Syracuse, N.Y. The company provides HVAC products and services to commercial and industrial facilities, including airports, healthcare establishments, apartment buildings, hotels, motels, government and office buildings, and schools and universities. (See end of release for more information.) "Although other Internet financing companies are available, Carrier selected eMarket Capital because of its manufacturing focus," Sumpter said. "The people who run eMarket come from the commercial financing business and understand manufacturing. The other sites available were either too broad in scope or based on consumer models that have been modified for business; the others don't focus on manufacturing, which we consider a niche with special requirements." "Carrier's decision to use eMarket Capital speaks highly of our ability to meet the lease financing needs of a world-class company," said Jonathan Moran, eMarket Capital, Inc. Founder and President. "I am confident that our Web service will meet all of Carrier's financing needs and provide their customers with a financing process that makes offers easy to understand and compare." By selecting eMarket Capital, the CCS unit broke with its past practice of using only a single lender for its customers. "It just didn't work," Sumpter said. "Carrier services 15 different market segments and no single lender is capable of providing financing for every customer in every segment. With eMarket Capital, we can direct lenders to the segments in which they prefer to do business - and provide the customers in that market segment with finance options. "We anticipate that transactions will range from $70,000 to $2.5 million with the average being around $300,000," Sumpter said. How eMarket Capital Works eMarket Capital establishes a customized private-label leasing Web site for each participating manufacturer. Each site is operated under the manufacturer's brand name and includes a limited number of lenders who are experienced in that particular industry and who collectively can cater to a broad range of credit risks and types. eMarket Capital's patent-pending Web-based process enables equipment manufacturers to help their customers secure fast, fair, competitively priced lease financing plans for their purchases. Customers fill out a single application to receive multiple offers within three business days. Offers are submitted to the customer in a format that simplifies the process of making an "apples-to-apples" comparison. Lenders pay a below-market origination fee only when they complete a deal through the site. About Carrier Corporation Headquartered in Farmington, Conn., Carrier Corp. has roots dating back to 1902, when Willis Haviland Carrier invented the basics of modern air conditioning. Carrier Corp. has 39,000 employees in over 173 countries. The company combines its global HVAC and refrigeration expertise with the responsiveness of its local operations to lead nearly every geographic market. Carrier Commercial Service offers nationwide service backed by more than 75 years of experience and a staff of over 1,000 factory-trained technicians. CCS has over 70 fully-equipped offices in the U.S. For more information, visit the Carrier Corp. Web site at www.carrier.com. For more information about eMarket Capital, go to the company's Web site at www.eMarketCapital.com, telephone 800/994-4369 or 610/354-8820, or fax 610/354-8835. CONTACT: eMarket Capital Richard Matosky, 610/354-8820 x230 rmatosky@emarketcapital.com or Pamela Rosser, 215/772-0118 pam@prosserpr.com # # # # # ################ ## # # ####### AmSouth Internet Banking Growing Five Times Faster Than Industry Average; Free Offer Extended for Second Time After 160,000 Customers Sign Up
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.----Driven by surprisingly strong demand, AmSouth Bank (NYSE: ASO) is extending its offer of free Internet Banking and bill payment for the life of the account for two more months. In the first three months of the offer, about 160,000 new and current customers have signed up and the bank is still averaging more than 11,500 new applications per week. That is an increase of 380 percent compared with May 2000 in an industry where the typical annual online customer growth is 76 percent, according to a Credit Suisse First Boston report. |