BidBay (now known as AuctionCities) Founder George Tannous Loses Fraud Appeal

[mandy]

BidBay/AuctionDiner/Bidway/AuctionCities news:

What: IRS agent turned dot-com exec appeals jury verdict finding conspiracy to defraud and violations of federal securities laws.

When: Decided Feb. 17 by the United States Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit in Missouri.

Outcome: Jury verdict in civil lawsuit for $987,000 in damages upheld.

Tannous decided to cash in on the dot-com boom by buying rights to the Bidbay.com domain name in 1999 for $1,000. He planned to create a rival to eBay with a patent he had purchased that covered auctions through multi-level marketing.

To drum up investors for this dot-com business, Tannous turned to Wes Cooley, a disgraced ex-Oregon congressman who was convicted on charges of lying in a voters guide about serving in Korea, and Don Dayer, a felon previously convicted of tax fraud. Dayer in turn enlisted "John Montgomery," a felon whose real name was DeElroy Beeler and who had been convicted of bank fraud and was awaiting sentencing at the time. ...

...A postscript: Instead of buying Bidbay.com, eBay actually sued the site and forced it to change its name to Auctiondiner.com. It is now called Auctioncities.com.

full article:  http://news.com.com/Police+blotter+Dot-c...g=nefd.top

[regic]

To drum up investors for this dot-com business, Tannous turned to Wes Cooley, a disgraced ex-Oregon congressman who was convicted on charges of lying in a voters guide about serving in Korea, and Don Dayer, a felon previously convicted of tax fraud. Dayer in turn enlisted "John Montgomery," a felon whose real name was DeElroy Beeler and who had been convicted of bank fraud and was awaiting sentencing at the time. ...

:

[amy]

Way to go G.T.!

[sneakymagenta]

Memories  :twistedevil:

BidBay , GT announces enhancement fees ,  The logo eBay sued over,  AuctionDiner , BidWay

[Nat]

Bwah ha ha ha     

[bargainbloodhound]

[quote author=regic link=topic=2788.msg9998#msg9998 date=1140806901]

To drum up investors for this dot-com business, Tannous turned to Wes Cooley, a disgraced ex-Oregon congressman who was convicted on charges of lying in a voters guide about serving in Korea, and Don Dayer, a felon previously convicted of tax fraud. Dayer in turn enlisted "John Montgomery," a felon whose real name was DeElroy Beeler and who had been convicted of bank fraud and was awaiting sentencing at the time. ...

:
[/quote]

They sound like model citizens.  I don't understand how a jury could possibly think these upstanding individuals were trying to defraud BidBay's investors.  :twistedevil:

[dimucci]

Whatever happened to AskGT.com? I had forgotten they had a search engine until I saw it mentioned in the court decision.

[bargainbloodhound]

[quote author=dimucci link=topic=2788.msg10038#msg10038 date=1140887376]
Whatever happened to AskGT.com? I had forgotten they had a search engine until I saw it mentioned in the court decision.


[/quote]

It looks like askgt.com was sued in a separate stock scam lawsuit last year.  Cooley and Beeler were named in that suit but GT wasn't because BidBay had apparently sold askgt.com to Cooley. http://www.slfp.com/051505BIZp.htm

Here's the SEC filing for the askgt.com sale.  BidBay sold it to Cooley in 2002 for $2 million (to be paid in installment payments of $50,000 weekly.  : )

[sneakymagenta]

Did you notice how the address stays the same when GT sells a company? 

[dimucci]

$2 million?