Treaty Energy Corp, the OIL COMPANY drilling in Belize stays optimistic.

Belize flag.
Belize map.
TREATY ENERGY THE OIL DRILLING COMPANY JUST BECOMING ACTIVE DOWN SOUTH, ARE ASSUMING THEY CAN PRODUCE 5000 BARRELS OF OIL A DAY EVENTUALLY.

At the moment, Treaty Energy, produce nothing but hot air, but activity on the ground and seismic activity are producing lots of investment propoganda and indeed, may eventually produce a working producing oil company in Belize. We still have to wait and see. All oil drilling is a gamble!
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Somebody sent me an email, with this New Orleans release. Thought it was interesting. Something from the timespicayne, whatever that is?

New Orleans has a new publicly traded company: Orpheum Property Inc., which owns the city's unrepaired beaux arts theater, the Orpheum, and trades on the unregulated over-the-counter stock market.
orpheum.jpgThe Times-Picayune

On Monday, theater owner Andrew Reid put the finishing touches on a deal with a defunct but publicly held Hawaiian coffee company, Pacific Land and Coffee Corp. Pacific Land and Coffee purchased the assets of Reid's company, 129 University Place LLC, in late June, and Reid took over management of Pacific Land and Coffee. Since the idle, flood-damaged 1921 building is the company's only asset, Reid said he changed the company's name to Orpheum Property Inc. on Monday and moved the headquarters of the company to New Orleans.

The company is intended to be a real estate investment company that will purchase income-producing properties in the hotel and entertainment arena, said Reid, the company's director. "The Orpheum itself was not intended to be the focus of this company. It's just a small portion of it," he said.

Reid said he was interested in taking the Orpheum public because it makes it easier to sell shares to raise money. "The ability to raise funds through a public company is much easier than with a private company," he said. "It gives me a lot of other options."

That's potentially good news for theater fans who would like Reid raise money to reopen the performance venue, but a red flag for prospective investors.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., the industry group that regulates securities brokers, has seven closed securities investigations on file for Reid alleging things like misrepresentation, fraud, negligence, breach of contract, unsuitable trading and investing, violating securities regulations and depositing a check meant for the firm into his personal account.

Reid said the check deposit was a mistake and resulted in sanction because he failed to respond after leaving the firm, and that prospective investors in Orpheum Property shouldn't worry about dealing with him as a result of his FINRA record.

"I was never found to be at fault for harming any investors," Reid said, a statement which conflicts with the official account in his 22-page report.

Uncertain repair plans

Meanwhile, the new name that Reid has given his company, Orpheum Property Inc., is not registered with the Louisiana secretary of state.

As proof of his intent to restore the Orpheum, Reid says he has hired Landrieu Construction to carry out a $10 million renovation of the theater, expand the stage and install the latest technology in a project that will begin in mid-February.

Renee Landrieu, owner of RLH, the parent company of Landrieu Construction, said her firm is ready for the job -- if it comes together. "We have a verbal agreement subject to them getting all the financing in place that we'll be the general contractor," she said.

Reid said Park 49, a New York private equity firm, is financing the project.

Mario Uribe, managing partner and founder of Park 49, said nothing is firm. "This is one scenario that we might be interested in. We are reviewing the opportunity at this point," Uribe said. "We still have to do our due diligence."

When Reid took over the project in the spring, he said he was talked into applying for Community Development Block Grant money to finance the renovation. While his application was pending, Reid said he was unable to do any work on the theater because he wouldn't have been reimbursed, but the process was taking so long, he abandoned it and found other financing.

"I got tired of waiting, so I'm moving forward with my alternate funding, and look to probably start construction in mid-February," said Reid.

'It just kind of happened'

Doing business as 129 University Place, Reid bought the theater earlier this year from entities controlled by Texas businessmen Richard Weyand and Peter Thiessen.

Weyand and Thiessen purchased the theater in 2006 for the bargain price of $675,000, took out mortgages on the property and transferred ownership between different corporate entities, but they failed to reopen the theater and left it mired in debt. In 2009, the Louisiana Landmarks Society placed the Orpheum on its list of most endangered sites in New Orleans.

Meanwhile, investors around the country have complained that they had put up millions to renovate the theater on the promise of earning handsome returns while helping New Orleans, but the distributions from Weyand and Thiessen stopped arriving. Investors have had little recourse in collecting because their names had never been placed on the deed to the theater.

Reid, a French Quarter resident who says his career was in the oil and gas business, has never been a theater buff, but got involved when the previous owners approached him. He agreed to assume a $2.7 million mortgage on the property and issue $3.47 million in stock to Weyand and Thiessen for total consideration of $6.2 million. "It just kind of happened," said Reid, who in the spring also became chief executive of a Houston energy exploration company that also trades as a bulletin board stock.

Reid's partner in the venture is Rod Solow, the founder of Live Magic, a New Orleans production company that Reid said he bought to help give the Orpheum a technological edge. Solow's company, Live Magic, was incorporated on July 1, according to the Louisiana secretary of state, two days after Reid's takeover of Pacific Land and Coffee was complete.

Their new venture, Orpheum Property Inc., is traded with the ticker symbol PLFF on the over-the-counter quote board, or OTCQB exchange, the middle tier of the largely unregulated bulletin board companies. Orpheum would trade on the lowest tier, the totally unregulated "pink sheet" exchange, but because it merged with a company that was already public, Pacific Land and Coffee, it automatically got bumped up a notch.

History of fraud

Micro-cap stocks, or companies with fewer than 500 investors and $10 million in assets like Orpheum Property, don't have to make filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. No filings have been made about the Orpheum merger or name change.

The SEC notes that many micro-cap stocks are legitimate businesses, "but the lack of reliable, readily available information about some microcap companies can open the door to fraud." Fraud perpetrators often pay promoters to tout their stock and issue news releases that are exaggerated or untrue, the SEC warns.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's database indicates that Reid is no stranger to securities fraud.

In 2002, while working for Williams Financial Group in Dallas, Reid took a $10,090.58 check from a customer and deposited it in his own account rather than forwarding it to the firm. When Reid failed to respond, the National Association of Securities Dealers barred him from association with any member firm.

In 2004, Reid was accused of unsuitable trading and investing, fraud, negligence and violating state and federal securities regulations that caused $6 million in damage to investors. After arbitration, the case was settled in 2006 for $35,000.

In 2003, Reid's employer, Corporate Securities Group, filed a complaint alleging "unsuitable investment" in municipal bonds that caused more than $100,000 of damage. Arbitration is pending.

In 2001, while working for First Allied Securities in San Diego, Reid was accused of having an unexplained debit balance of $60,321.09. The case was settled for $290.

In 2001, GMS Group of New Jersey accused Reid, who worked for the firm, of making "unsuitable recommendations, misrepresentations and breach of contract in connection with their investments in certain high yield corporate debt and other securities" resulting in damages of $200,000. The case was settled in arbitration for $106,275.

Rebecca Mowbray can be reached at rmowbray@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3417.
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Hey! I´ve got nothing against a hustler? Should see the penny stocks in Canada!
The $675,000 mortgage on a State Heritage site, which cleared a $2.5 million mortgage was a real good one. I always tell people, selling stock in gold mines in Bolivia, Peru and Belize, are good stock selling stuff. Selling stock is where the money is. If you can get hold of a public company, cheap for any reason, MAN O´ Man!, you got a money machine. There are a millions of people like a penny stock flyer and dismiss the money before they even buy the stock. Especially if you stay below the threshold for S.E.C reporting, on the unregulated market. Met a few characters made their living that way, over the years.