Quote:
Originally Posted by hshrimps
Wasn't Mastro Auction tried to be become a public company at one time??? Mastro and his team would have been in much longer jail time. They were "lucky" they didn't make it to a public company..  |
Yes that is true. Sometime in the late 1990s to early to mid 2000's ( I can't remember exactly ) Mastro announced in a special mailing to preferred customers that they were going public in the essence of selling shares in their company but it was never going to be a publicly "listed" company . The share purchase option and contract was offered by invitation only to"substantial clients " who spent a minimum amount of money in their auctions or to substantial consignors to their auctions. It was an "Exclusive Offering to preferred clients". The shares were going to be for the company in a private manner to allow Mastro to become bigger and actually purchase items to auction. As I recall shares were at least $1000 each and a minimum number of share purchases were required to begin and no dividends were paid and your shares had no voting rights and no reinvestment option and had a minimum hold period , that is they could not be bought or sold openly at any time , only when Mastro would offer a buy back or a purchase announcement .
Looking back I wonder if he was going to ponzi those investors, but the idea never gained momentum because the investor had all the risk but very little upside except to what Mastro would allow as far as appreciation of your shares and of course the initial purchase price.
If someone else remembers more about this or more correctly then please feel free to correct me.